Once Human is less than a year old and even younger on mobile platforms, but that isn't stopping NetEase Games from expanding the franchise. Starry Studios' mesh of dizzying sci-fi lore and satisfying gunplay can be a potent mix, evidently enough to inspire the creation of Once Human: Raid Zone. With a renewed focus on PVP battles, your chance to play it is approaching fast.
That's because Once Human: Raid Zone early access begins on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. A new statement from NetEase Games expresses that the new mobile game features a "brutally competitive survival experience defined by unrestricted freedom and intense strategic warfare across vast open-world battlegrounds." With so much versatility across all the Once Human builds, where does that leave the base-building aspects of the hit Steam Deck game?
Well, it looks like Once Human: Raid Zone is bringing this over, too. Players can fend off attacks from their enemies by "constructing defensive strongholds that range from basic wooden huts to impenetrable concrete fortresses," alongside the usage of bombastic weaponry like rocket launchers to send rivals packing. Other means of survival, such as automated traps and defense systems, can be useful if you want to get granular.
Raid Zone's open-world game approach seems to lean on the recent extraction shooter boom, as NetEase Games encourages players to trade items, team up, or "betray comrades in the ultimate test of human nature." Does it have the mettle to stand out in the genre, though? It may certainly be a decent alternative to Embark Studios' ARC Raiders, at least until the next ARC Raiders playtest arrives.
Once Human: Raid Zone launches on iPhone, Android, and PC on Steam and the Epic Games Store. For more of the latest mobile hardware and gaming news, follow us on Google News to stay in the loop.