A house usually stays where you leave it in a survival game. This one can sail away with you. In the October 21 announcement, lead designer Vincent Tao describes ships that serve as workshops, bases and weapons platforms, with friends able to bring their vessels together into fleets.
That is the part we would look at first. Choosing where to build a permanent base can become a long argument. Having the workshop come along changes the question: what do you need to carry, and how much ship do you want to drag through the next fight?
The water is part of the problem
The expansion treats the ocean as a creature called the Sunken Lord. Its lighthouses and ghost ships belong to that larger threat. Fog, black tides and other regional dangers are meant to keep the journey from becoming a quiet trip between islands.
You start on an island, then choose the order in which to explore the other four regions. Materials found on land help develop the ship, while trips out to sea provide resources for equipment and progress on land. There is also underwater exploration, including sunken ruins.
Keeping those two sides useful will matter. If sailing only means crossing empty water to collect the next material, a bigger map is not much of a reward. A moving workshop, a dangerous route and a reason to dive could make the same journey more interesting. That is our hope from the described design, rather than something we have verified in a playthrough.
Before your crew sets off
Pick someone to steer, but let the rest of the group have a say in the ship. A vessel that looks wonderful in a screenshot still has to be useful when everyone needs something from it. We would try a modest shared build before spending an evening arguing over an enormous one.
The PS5 announcement also describes DualSense haptics and adaptive-trigger support. We have not tested the update, its performance or the feel of those effects. October 22 is the announced release date; check the game and PlayStation Store for the rollout in your region.
Once Human needs a download and an online connection. It is free to play, but it does not run inside the PlayFG browser-game player.