Once Human Season 5: Dissonant Resonance Starts 18 November

Once Human's fifth season, Dissonant Resonance, launches globally on 18 November and is free to play. The developers detailed it on the PlayStation Blog on 12 November: it turns music into a weapon, with a giant pipe-organ Colossus in the sky that reacts to how you fight, and a four-player co-op raid against it.

The Sky Living-Machine Colossus

The season is built around the Sky Living-Machine Colossus, a titan inspired by a cathedral pipe organ and twisted into a cosmic, biomechanical monster in line with the game's New Weird style. The developers wanted the background music to stop being background: the Colossus is meant to feel like the music itself, watching and judging you.

Emotion Zones and musical gunplay

Four Emotion Zones now warp the open world: Joy, Anger, Sorrow and Fear. Inside them:

• defeated enemies scatter musical notes across the battlefield;
• shooting the notes plays pitch-tuned sounds, so you can improvise your own battle rhythm;
• collected notes purify corrupted scores, and once rearranged into harmonious melodies they grant your squad rewards;
• the Colossus above changes its expressions in real time as you play.

When the Colossus descends and stays long enough, a rift portal opens.

The four-player Colossus Raid

Stepping through the portal starts a four-player co-op Colossus Raid. The titan acts as a conductor, changing the battlefield's rhythm as the fight goes on. Your squad has to run to silence glowing, resonating pipes in a ruined cathedral and disrupt the melody before the track ends.

New Deviant: Silent Statue

The season also adds a new Deviant, Silent Statue. It starts as a shattered grey monument that absorbs the elemental chaos of your fights. Unlock its full potential and it mends and spreads golden wings, giving the whole squad a large elemental blessing.

Missed the last big update? Once Human's free Isles of Abyss expansion added buildable ships and a sea-sized boss.