Once Human is revealing the inner Sims player that even my loud FPS friends have inside them

Once Human - a player looks at a base built on top of a truck

(Image credit: Starry Studio)

I'm starting to think I made a mistake by missing the boat on playing Once Human. Because despite its shooter-focused facade, it sure seems like everyone is just spending all their time building houses in this free-to-play survival game. Dammit, I love building houses.

I wrongly assumed that Once Human was going to be more PvP shooter action in the vein of DayZ than crafting survival in the vein of Valheim, so when my group of friends picked it up I stayed on the sidelines. But now a month later my nightly group voice chat that's usually full of yelling about Rainbow Six Siege and Call of Duty has gotten suspiciously quiet—like when you realize you haven't heard your dog make a single sound for the past hour and that might be a bad thing.

"What's everyone doing?" One of them asked in the midst of this uncharacteristic lull.

"Just working on my house," replied another. And so they were—for hours.

They're all just working on their houses. Aside from some goofy car physics clips, most of the top posts on the Once Human subreddit since launch are of huge intricate base builds. And even one of my favorite cozy gaming influencers has taken to it, joking about what happens when a Sims player starts playing Once Human.

I fully expect this in most crafting survival games. I wasn't surprised to see massive builds in Palworld and Ark or even in Fallout 76. I just assumed that the PUBG-looking game wasn't going to inspire the same homemaking instincts. And yet, apparently it has.

"All I've been doing is grinding for furniture blueprints the last three days," one of my friends admitted after I warned them I was about to call them out.

It's reminded me that former Sims series lead Rod Humble told us last year that men would lie about what they spent their playtime doing in focus groups when in reality they'd just redecorated a bathroom. I'm glad that we've evolved as a gaming community now and we're more ready to admit that we're spending tons of time in a gritty shooter unlocking new blueprints for our houses. We're all Sims players on the inside.

In the spirit of celebrating, here are some cool things that Once Human players have built so far:

Took me way too long. I need to do the inside but I need more blueprints. from r/OnceHumanOfficial

18,000 gravel later, the Once Buoyant! I'm in awe of the scale this building system allows, despite frustrating snapping issues. from r/OnceHumanOfficial

This might be the coolest thing I have built in any game ever, unfortunately I hit the decor limit... from r/OnceHumanOfficial

@gamergirlgale
♬ Storytelling - Adriel

@happeexo
♬ Very cute melody by marimba tone(1452606) - Mitsu Sound

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.