The developer behind NetEase’s survival free-to-play horror, Once Human, says the feedback it’s received about the game’s second season has been “quite demoralising”.
In a statement posted to the team’s Discord server, the team said that it “value[s players’] opinions” and hopes to “fulfil all [player] requests in future updates” but stopped short of detailing what these may be.
The team did, however, address two immediate issues.
“Since the start of Season 2, we’ve received a lot of feedback,” the team admitted. “Some of it has been quite demoralising, but what’s important is that it’s made us aware of how your experience has been affected by the changes we’ve made. We want to discuss some of these issues today.
“We value your opinions and hope that we’ll be able to fulfil all of your requests in future updates. Our development team is making optimisations in response to two major issues that players have raised, which we’d like your feedback on as well!”
The two issues Starry Studio indentifies concern weapon builds and scenario tags, acknowledging that some players thought they were “designed poorly” whilst others complain that there weren’t enough high-difficulty tags in the first place.
To combat the former, the team is introducing a blueprint conversion system that essentially permits players to switch armour and weapon ratings, enabling them to better tailor their loadout to their playstyles.
The latter requires a little more thought, however, which is why Starry Studio is inviting players to complete yet another survey to help them better ascertain what players are after.
I gave Once Human a modest three out of five stars when I reviewed it last month for Eurogamer, saying it offers a deeply moreish open world scavenge-em-up, but weak action and generic clutter hold it back. Since launch, however, NetEase has ramped up its premium in-game offerings, including cosmetic loot crates.
“Not for one moment did I expect a F2P live service offering to be anything other than an unmitigated slog stuffed with the pitfalls and unforced errors of every other game I started and stopped playing, so wildly over-saturated is this genre. But here I am, late at night again, fashioning myself a Slippery When Wet sign to put beside my water tank.”
In related news, the Once Human team is set to begin testing its mobile port on 19th September. It’s unclear if the mobile version supports crossplay, but it seems unlikely given Once Human doesn’t even support controllers or Steam cloud yet.