One Hour One Life

Review

One Hour One Life by Jason Rohrer is a multiplayer civilisation and parenting survival game, where a generation will start off with Eve. It’s Eve’s job to lay the foundations for future generations which will hopefully become more and more technologically advanced with each generation.

On the main menu screen, you’ll find Settings, your Steam ID and Key (both crossed out but click the View button to reveal them) Tutorial, Login, Friends, Family Tree and Quit. There’s also a small diagram of a mouse which shows you the actions within the game. There are only three buttons to use through the game, Left and Right mouse buttons for your actions, pickup, eat, crafting items, drop etc. The final button you’ll use is Enter, this used to communicate with other players.

Before you join a server, you’d be best to go through the tutorial; it doesn’t cover everything as there’s too much to learn but it will help you with some of the basics on staying alive and crafting. Towards the end of the tutorial area you may notice an enclosure with a few nasty looking snakes inside. In the game you want to stay away from these as you’ll die if bitten (unless your civilisation is advanced enough to deal with rattlesnake bites). However, the only way to exit the tutorial is to die from a snake bite, so get your botty in with those snakes.

To join a game, click on Login and it will take you to a random server, where you’ll either spawn as Eve or as a baby. If you spawn as Eve, you’ll have the weight of the world on your shoulders as you’re tasked with finding somewhere to start building your civilisation. If that’s not enough on your plate, then shortly after spawning you’ll start dropping dustbin lids which you’ll have to take care of, feeding them, keeping them close by and alive at least until they’re four years old. Once your kids are four, they’ll be able to fend for themselves, gather resources, and help build the foundations of your civilisation.

If you spawn as a baby, then with any luck you’ll have a doting mother who’ll love and take care of you. Although sometimes bad luck will strike; I’ve been in my mothers loving arms while she died of starvation. Another time I was born and instead of a warm and loving greeting into this world I was greeted with “I’m Sorry, I’m Stupid”, It’s then I realised that she’d been bitten by a rattlesnake. This isn’t too bad normally as you may get fed by another family member. In some communities you may find players who will babysit the kids, so there’s more players contributing to the community. It’s a different story if you’re a first born and Eve dies while you’re under the age of three, as there’s no way of surviving on your own.

Spawning as Eve you’ll need to settle down close to the resources that you’ll need in order to start building your village. You’ll need some food close-by, like berry bushes or banana trees, to sustain you and your growing family until you’re self-sufficient. You’ll also need things like wood for basic tools and to start fires, and soil so you’re able to start farming. Close-by to water is a must; water can be found in ponds with the bonus of having geese by the pond who’ll lay eggs which you can collect and cook. Clay for plates, bowls etc, tule reeds to make baskets and to use with clay so you can build kilns, stones and flints for cutting or to use as tools will all be required. You won’t have a lot of time to find somewhere suitable, as before you know it, you’ll have your first baby, then another and another and maybe another but keep them alive long enough and they’ll be able to help with getting the foundations built for your future generations.

Some people will prioritise making omelettes as one of the first things to do, as there may not be much food around and they will keep you going better than a few gooseberries. Although farming is a must it does take time collecting soil, water, seeds and then have them grow enough to be able to eat, so omelettes may just tide you over until more food is readily available. Cooking an omelette isn’t as simple as it may sound, as there’s a few things you must collect, build and make before tucking in to a nutritious scrummy omelette. You’ll need a sharp stone, small curved branch from a Lombardy Popular tree, a small shaft, some rope, a firebrand, a flat stone, clay, tule reeds, a stone, kindling and of course some eggs. With these resources you’ll have everything you’ll need to build a fire/hot coals, kiln and plates for your omelettes.

Next, you’ll maybe want to get started on farming, for this you’ll need a basket to collect soil, a clay bowl to split the soil into three piles, and a hoe to plough the soil. Some seeds: the most common to start with are gooseberry and carrots; you’ll need to collect the seeds from wild plants which can be found in the various biomes, but there are others which you could farm, too, like beans, squash, potatoes, cabbage and wheat. By now your community should be growing nicely and others helping you out, so you may want to turn your attention to other things.

If, however, you’re born as a baby in a well-developed community, you may be required to perform other tasks to help improve the thriving more modern community. You may decide that community life isn’t for you, and want to head off out in to the big bad world exploring. There are plenty of ways to die in the game, from yellow fever (Mosquito Swarm) and starvation, to animal attacks (Rattlesnake, Boar, Grizzly Bears, Wolves, Mean Pit Bull). Avoid mosquito swarms and dangerous animals; try to stay far away from them if it’s possible.  If you happen to land on the same space as each other, you’ll become injured and will die unless you can get treatment.

One minute in game is equal to one year and as time passes, there are five stages of maturity you’ll go through: Baby (Age 0 - 3 years old), Child (Age 4 - 13 years old), Young Adult (Age 14 - 24 years old), Adult (Age 25 - 39 years old) and Elderly (Age 40 - 60 years old). If you manage to survive in the game for sixty minutes then you’ll die aged 60 years old, and hopefully you will have spent those sixty years productively, giving those still living, as well as future generations, a legacy to follow.

Currently there are seven different biomes which make up the huge map on which you’ll play. These biomes consist of Grasslands, Prairies, Swamp, Badlands, Tundra, Desert and the newest addition, Jungle. The biomes can range in varying sizes from a couple blocks to much larger zones, and are intermingled around other biomes. Within each biome there are various resources which you’ll only find in a certain biome, like rabbits, wheat and wild carrots in prairies. In Swamps you’ll find tule reeds, goose ponds and clay, so finding the resources you need will require you to do a bit of searching.

You have hunger and temperature indicators you must keep an eye on. When you’re hunger starts becoming low, you’ll hear some little beeps which will become faster as your indicator reaches zero; if this happens, you’ll die. So, listen out for them and don’t start wondering what the noise is until it’s too late, like I’m always doing! The temperature meter indicates your current level of warmth. The midpoint between cold and hot is the ideal place, although being too hot or cold won’t cause you any danger.  However, either side of the midpoint will have an effect on how fast your hunger drains.

You can also play with your friends, spawning on the same server as babies to the same mother. You can join as twins, triplets and quadruplets should you wish to. However, I’ve seen mums runs off at the sight of twins, so joining as triplets or quadruplets you might want to pray, you’ll spawn to a loving mother or at least have other family members to take care of you and their already burdened existence.

To help you understand and learn more about the One Hour One Life world they do have a website where you can find information about everything within the game: crafting, biomes, animals etc. There is also a family tree which will keep track of each of your deaths, age, generation, died of and the generations of your family tree. (One Hour One Life website)

In the Settings you’ll find options for Borderless and Fullscreen, Music and Sound volume, Mouse Pointer (Native, Drawn or Both). It also tells you your Current Frame Rate, Target Frame Rate (Re-Detect), option for V-Sync and you can edit your account here. You can also select to use a Custom Server where you’ll enter the Address (IP) and Port number, with the option to copy and paste should you wish to pass on the details of any custom server you may have setup.

One Hour One life is a fantastic game, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It can be a bit frustrating if you spawn as Eve and are not exactly sure what you’re doing but keep trying and you’ll soon get your community up and running with a bit of practise.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!