Once Human's free expansion makes the sea hunt you

Once Human's Isles of Abyss, the largest free expansion in the game's history, is now out on XBOX Series X|S. The developers set out to make the ocean an active threat rather than an empty stretch of water between islands. They reworked the world design to bring the game's “New Weird” survival style into open water.

From a single image to an ocean

The expansion started with one unsettling image: a lighthouse standing where it had no right to be. The team drew inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and subverted a familiar symbol of safety. On land, a lighthouse guides travelers to harbor. In the distorted reality of Once Human, an anomalous light piercing the dark feels invasive and watchful.

That lighthouse became an eye, and the eye needed a body. The result is the sea itself, a colossal, living organism called The Sunken Lord. The developers built the whole atmosphere around the feeling of sinking into oblivion. Drifting ghost ships such as Sworn Never to Port and No Return Voyage act as displaced organs that have forgotten how to make landfall, while anomalous lighthouses serve as glaring eyes that track your every move.

Horror through inversion

The horror comes from turning familiar comforts upside down:

• Familiarity: Lighthouses mean safety on land, but here they are the ones watching. Ships mean voyage, but here they are tragic relics that lost their purpose.
• Loss: The five marine sectors do more than deal damage. They systematically strip away your vision, sanity, sense of direction, prized gear, or even stable ground. Each sector forces a radical change in how you survive.
• Scale: The expansion's climax has squads confront The Sunken Lord directly. Instead of bombarding a leviathan from afar, your squad breaches its outer perimeter, fights through writhing tentacles and alien visceral chambers, and plunges into the leviathan's heart.
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  Once Human: From A — ROG Xbox

Your ship is your base

To survive this ocean, your vessel is far more than transportation. It serves as a mobile sanctuary, workshop, diving platform, and primary artillery battery. The game's modular building system now works on the water, so you can design your boat however you like. Some players build stripped-down, lightning-fast skiffs to dodge whirlpools and outrun anomalies. Others build multi-deck floating fortresses with heavy naval cannons, crafting benches, and deep-sea diving rigs.

This ties into the expanded endgame loop, which asks players to master three connected layers: navigating treacherous open waters, exploring uncharted islands, and diving into the abyssal seabed for rare components and resources.

Key Features at a Glance

• Free expansion: Isles of Abyss is completely free to play, and the developers call it the largest free expansion in Once Human history, so new players and returning players can both dive in at no cost.
• Five marine sectors: Each sector strips away a different survival pillar, such as vision, sanity, direction, gear, or stable ground, so you have to change tactics in every zone.
• Modular naval building: The building system extends to ships, so you can make fast skiffs for dodging hazards or armored fortresses with naval cannons and diving rigs.
• Three-layer endgame: Open-water navigation, island exploration, and seabed diving for rare components tie together the expanded endgame.
• The Sunken Lord climax: Squads fight through tentacles and visceral chambers to reach the leviathan's heart, rather than attacking it from range.
• Ghost ship encounters: Ships like Sworn Never to Port and No Return Voyage serve as relics of what the ocean traps, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

Availability

Isles of Abyss is available now on XBOX Series X|S and XBOX on PC, and it is completely free to play. To mark the launch, XBOX Game Pass Ultimate members can claim the exclusive Once Human launch bundle through the Game Pass Perks gallery until November 18, 2026.

Once Human is available as a free-to-play game on Steam and through the official Once Human website. The official FAQ directs PC players to download it from the website or Steam, while the PlayStation Store lists a free-to-play PS5 version released on Aug. 25, 2026.