Nier: Automata, original for the PS4 and PC, later ported to Xbox One, is a sequel to the original Nier. Developed by Platinum Games and published by Square Enix, Nier is an action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world. While this is a sequel to Nier (which itself was a spin-off from Drakengard), playing the previous games is not required. The game is set in the same world but apart from that, the story is standalone an can be picked up by newcomers really easily.
Knowing the game's genre, as well as what most screenshots and videos show, you would expect a third-person adventure hack n slash / combo game. Thus, when you start up the game and play through the prologue, you'll be in for a surprise at the frequent perspective changes. The camera will move around and you'll suddenly be playing a sidescroller, then top down and then into a shoot em up. The prologue, which takes around 45 minutes, culminates into an epic boss fight an is a fantastic start to the game.
The game takes place in the far future where aliens had invaded and almost eliminated all humanity. The remnants of humanity escaped to the moon and created androids to help their war to reclaim Earth. As the player, you control the android 2B, along with 9S and A2, to complete their missions on Earth. When you play your next mission after the prologue, you see a wide expansive world and you don't expect to be able to explore it. Yet that is where the game surprises you, you enter the building and travel to the bottom and that is when you realize that the scenery isn't just scenery, you can explore it in its entirety, including the rooftops.
The open world elements is impressive and being set in an abandoned city where the wildlife has started taking over, it sets the desolate atmosphere. Enemy mechs roam around and as well as various parts required for upgrading your equipment. You'll probably spend the first hour or two just exploring. The graphics in this game alternates from being impressive to sometimes being quite bland for whatever reason. It seems that some buildings have fewer textures while at other times, the effects such as the flowing sands from the desert look awesome.
One thing that the game excels at is its music and suits the tone extremely. This is music where you actually notice it, stop your character and just listen to it to make out the melody and appreciate it. Nier: Automata has one of the best soundtracks ever in a video game, nearly all the tracks are fantastic and a pleasure to listen to. The animation of the character models are entrancing, from the smooth combat moves to just even the characters running around the world.
The combat is based around combos. You have Light attacks and Heavy attacks, each supplied by a separate weapon. You can change weapons to another type to suit your play style. The combat is fast paced and initially takes a short while to get used to. You're joined by a Pod, which acts as a gun. In addition, you're able to evade, do counterattacks and jump around. Defeating enemies will give you experience and leveling up improves your stats. Beating normal enemies is fun enough but the boss battles are another experience entirely. Bosses are as varied as the gameplay, with you getting to fight some truly large scaled battles. Later bosses will integrate bullet hell segments which can get intense.
While you gain levels from defeating enemies, there is also a customization option whereby you install chips you find/buy to get passive bonuses. These have a large range of effects such as increased damage, faster movement speed and chance of reviving after death. Integrating the story elements into gameplay by playing on the fact that the playable characters are androids, when they die, their bodies are left on the battlefield. Their minds, however, are uploaded to a new body and going back to your corpse will allow you to regain certain equipment (similar to the Souls games).
If you have Network connections on, you can also recover other players' corpses for bonuses. However, this will cause the game to stutter from time to time as it loads in those corpses. Soon after the first big area you unlock, a bunch of sidequests are unlocked. More and more continually become available as your progress the story. They're interesting at first until you get to the point where you realize that they are all just fetch quests, requiring you to backtrack levels, whereby only once fast travel is unlocked are they worth completing. That being said, the rewards from these sidequests are decent, including big chunks of experience.
The story's premise is interesting and it slowly reveals its surprises to you. There are plenty of set pieces, and a few of them are designed to be big revelations, which are quite effective. 2B will eventually learn about the history of the aliens, and their creations, the machines that 2B has been destroying so far. There are elements where the game contemplates the meaning of the machines' lives, and whether destroying them is the right thing to do. On the flipside, there are more than a few moments where it is completely strange.
Similar to the original Nier, after you finish the story, you can reload your save to begin the game again. While the story is only around 12-15 hours long, the unique thing is that there are still so many questions left unanswered after the credits roll but via reloading the save, you unlock more story content and answers. For Nier: Automata, you play through the game three times to see the whole picture from different perspectives. Now, this may sound bad but each run is different enough compared to the last so it's not completely as if you are repeating the game like for like three times. The other thing is that because you already know where to go and what to do, you can make a beeline for the destinations cutting out a lot of time.
During your second run, the enemy levels are scaled up to be on par with yours, so the game remains a great difficulty (to be fair, on normal mode, that game is a bit easy). As you're more proficient with the combat system, you can also see your performance improving when you are fighting the bosses again, it's a great feeling. That being said, this run is definitely padding to the game and is a shame that a lot of players would give up before getting to the third run.
While the second run adds a few story cutscenes to clarify and expand upon the story, the third run is where all the new content lies. However, coming with it is a spike in difficulty. If you have just been rushing through the second route and not doing the sidequests, then you'll be at a lower level than the enemies in your next run. Normally, this isn't too bad but when this third playthrough has fast enemies swarming at you, or when they disable certain functions, it gets really tedious and annoying.
The very ending sections are where everything starts to outstay their welcome. From the waves and waves of enemies, to no save points, to the hacking minigame, they are overused and make the last bit of the game annoying. This is at a point where you just want to advance the story and see what happens to your favorite characters. It is also at these points that the poor checkpointing (aka redo the whole section again from the very beginning) taints what is otherwise an amazing game. By this point, the game feels different compared to earlier events, considering all that had happened up until now.
That being said, the true ending, the one that you see once you have completed all the routes, is quite philosophical. It has answers, but those answers might not be what you expect. It gives a deeper meaning to the plights of the characters and to you, as a player. While it also may make you feel a little bit empty as if you have wasted your time, it fits into the theme of the game so perfectly. Combined with the excellent credit song and Nier: Automata has a brilliant and meaningful conclusion to this 25-30 hour journey.
The game has multiple difficulties that you can adjust at any time. There is even a difficulty where you die in one hit. It might seem impossible but watch a few videos on Youtube and you come to appreciate at how balanced the game can be. Furthermore, not only is the combat fun to play but it is amazing to watch.
While the enemy designs are good for the most part, the design of the worm/snake type machines is extremely annoying. There is one section where you are forced to fight them in a sidescroller type fashion and since you can only attack one part to do damage while any contact will hurt you, it becomes a frustrating mess. After you finish the game proper, you unlock chapter select (which keeps the levels, abilities and items of your save) to complete any missed sidequests or if you wanted to check out a specific section of the story again. Furthermore, there is a debut mode for you to play around with.
Overall, Nier Automata is a unique game and so much fun to play. The combat system will take some getting used to, and some of the game design can be brutal and frustrating in this day and age. However, it is one of the most rewarding games in terms of story or gameplay and despite its flaws, everything gels together so well that it is definitely one of the best games in recent times.
--------------------------------------------------
For other game reviews, have a look at this page.