Once Human includes a feature every post-apocalyptic survival game should have – a piano minigame

Post apocalyptic open-world survival game Once Human released on PC earlier this week, and it’s good to know that beyond the big monsters and mechanics to make your fight to survive feel even more tense, developer Starry Studio remembered to put some focus on where it really matters – a piano minigame. 

Look, the world may be falling apart around you in Once Human, and you may constantly be having to consider where you’re going to find non-polluted food and water, but that doesn’t mean that the joy of music shouldn’t exist. As demonstrated by Reddit user -StalkedByDeath-, you can build a working piano in your house, and it looks like it has all of the options you need to play whatever songs you want. In the clip, they perform a rendition of Careless Whisper – I’m sure that the foes lying in wait nearby were loving it.

Built a piano in my house. I’m teaching myself how to play! (Notes posted in comments) from r/OnceHumanOfficial

The options here are endless – you could honestly just give up on trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious alien substance Stardust and where it came from, and instead focus on your own in-game music career. While you can teach yourself tunes using the general freeplay option, one fan has produced a MIDI player program which can automatically play MIDI files of songs for you. That way, you can learn exactly what keys to press in order to play your favorites, as shown off in the video below of them using it to play Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts.

Frostipanda gives a disclaimer that “the in-game piano has its limits and very ‘busy’ songs will start to sound pretty bad real quick.” With that in mind, don’t be too surprised if the raw MIDI conversion of certain songs sound a little strange at first. The programmer suggests “using a MIDI editor to make songs less busy and cleaning up the MIDI to sound better in-game.” If you want to give it a go, the MIDI player can be found here (always be cautious when downloading unofficial files, though).

Regardless of how you choose to play, I’m sure we can all agree that a game can only be improved by a piano minigame, even if it’s in a seemingly ill-fitting world. Hey, if The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered can add a guitar mode, Once Human can definitely include a sweet piano minigame.

If you’ve just started Starry Studio’s new survival game, be sure to check out our guide on how to move your territory in Once Human.