Once Human, the post-apocalyptic survival game from Starry Studio, is bringing its first console Closed Beta to PlayStation 5, PS5 Pro, and Xbox Series X|S from March 26 to April 8. The beta arrives alongside the Version 2.3.26 "Deviant Update," which adds new encounter mechanics and Deviant threats to the existing game. Cross-platform play between PlayStation and Xbox will be active during the test, and while progress will be wiped afterward, participants earn an exclusive Closed Beta Pack tied to their linked account, redeemable when the full console version goes live or on other official platforms.
The survival loop in Once Human runs on a tension between necessity and contamination. Stardust, the substance that reshaped the world, hasn't just mutated living things. It's seeped into the soil and water, meaning the food you scavenge and the water you drink can erode your Sanity. As Sanity drops, so does your maximum health, turning every meal into a calculated risk. Combat feeds into this system too, with boss encounters yielding powerful items that help ease Stardust pollution, giving players a reason to push into dangerous territory beyond simple loot hunger. Weapons are built from roughly a hundred gun blueprints spread across seven categories, each customizable with parts, accessories, and perks that let you reshape a firearm's identity rather than just its stats. Territory building operates through a Territory Core that lets you construct anything from a cramped survival box to a full townhouse with a patio and garage, and the whole thing can be relocated at will. The Deviant Update's headline addition is a sound-based encounter system for the Devourer, where audio cues let you manipulate the creature's aggro, directing its attacks toward Elite enemies in the area or, if you're feeling reckless, toward your own squadmates.
That last detail says something about the kind of game Once Human wants to be. It's not just about surviving the apocalypse but about the friction between cooperation and self-interest that survival creates. The Stardust contamination system frames every resource as a compromise, every alliance as something that could tip toward betrayal when supplies run thin. Multiplayer isn't layered on top of the survival; it's woven into the stakes.
The world itself is shaped by Stardust's influence, a post-apocalyptic landscape where the strange has become ordinary. Monsters roam the wilderness, some of them creatures that were once human, and bosses from other dimensions lurk at the edges of what's known. Human settlements dot the map, each carrying stories of how different factions responded to the catastrophe. Some of those factions are violent and hostile. Others might help you. The mood sits in that uncertain space where you're never sure whether the next encounter will be a fight or a conversation, and the game leans into that ambiguity rather than resolving it for you.
You wake up with no context, dropped into the middle of nowhere with Stardust's mystery hanging over everything. The truth of what Stardust is, where it came from, and what it wants forms the narrative thread pulling you forward through the world. Several factions offer different perspectives on what happened, and the game frames your relationship with them as a genuine choice. You can explore their settlements, learn their histories, or ignore them entirely and carve your own path through the wilderness. The premise positions you as something more than a survivor. You were once merely human, but Stardust has changed that, granting you the power to remake the world rather than just endure it.
Players interested in the console beta can apply through a registration form in the official Once Human Discord community. Selected participants receive a "Console Pioneer" Discord role along with test codes and instructions. For a survival game built around the idea that every resource comes with a cost, the Deviant Update's sound-manipulation system fits neatly, giving players one more tool that's as likely to cause chaos as it is to save them.