Nier: Automata
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
This is the first time I have played Nier: Automata, so I don’t really have any strong nostalgic feelings for this game.
I had never even heard of Nier until a friend of mine at work played it and said that it was really good. I looked the game up and saw that it had received generally favorable reviews, so I asked if she could loan it to me when I was done with a couple of other games I was playing. And that’s what happened.
Story:
There’s a lot to unpack here. I’m not sure I really understood everything that happened in this game, so I will give you a pretty basic recap of its events. Sue me if I don’t get everything 100% right.
It is the future, and Earth has been attacked by an alien race that uses machines as its form of attack. Humans have been driven from the planet and have been forced to take refuge on the moon. From the moon, they created a base in outer space known as the Bunker. They also created a fighting force of androids - the YoRHa - to take the planet back from the machines. The game begins in the middle of a massive battle. You control 2B, a YoRHa model launched from the Bunker. After winning the battle, 2B and her counterpart 9S head to the surface of the planet to work with the android resistance cells on the planet and investigate some strange happenings that have been taking place in the vicinity.
It is discovered that the machines that were once controlled by the aliens have started to gain their independence; building villages, having parades, running an amusement park, putting on plays, etc. A massive cave-in after another big battle reveals that the alien forces have been hiding underground while letting their machines do all the dirty work. Further investigation reveals that these aliens died off a long time ago, and the machines have been controlled by Adam and Eve, physical manifestations of the network. The main goal of the rest of the game becomes killing Adam and Eve and freeing the Earth from their oppressive control.
Before we continue, I should say that this game requires three separate playthroughs in order to get the full story. Remember in Resident Evil 2 when you play Leon and Claire A and B scenarios? It is sort of like that. The first playthrough of the game takes place from the perspective of 2B. The second playthrough shows events from the perspective of 9S. These playthroughs conclude with the destruction of Adam and Eve. A third playthrough reveals the aftermath of what happened after the first two playthroughs (which interweave to create one storyline) and gives a resolution to the conflict at the end. I don’t want to veer too much into spoiler territory here, but the third playthrough has two different endings. Unlock both of these endings and you get the “true” ending that wraps up the game once and for all.
That’s a lot to unpack, but it all makes sense in the end. As for the story itself… it veers into wild Kingdom Hearts-style nonsense from time to time, but for the most part I liked it. I wasn’t as drawn in as some people (who think the story is just AMAZING), but I still thought it was pretty decent. Being a fan of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Westworld, and other things that deal with the theme of sentient machines, however, I was not too blown away by it. Many of these themes I’ve seen dozens of times already.
Gameplay:
I have mixed feelings about Nier’s gameplay. I’ll start with the good.
The hack and slash fighting mechanics are pretty decent. Attacking, jumping, dodging, countering, attacking with your Pods – all this is very smooth and natural. As you make your way through this game’s three separate playthroughs, you will learn how to hack your enemies’ network and defeat them without having to lift a finger. The game often throws different styles of gameplay at you. The perspective might switch to a 2D perspective where all of a sudden it is like you are playing a platformer. More frequent are the bullet hell shooter segments of the game that play out like Asteroids or Galaga with a hint of Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon thrown into the mix. I thought these were quite fun.
So yeah, the action of the game is a lot of fun. The fighting, the hacking, the platforming, the shooting. I always had a good time when I was doing one of these things. Now we’ll get to the negative.
Much of Nier resembles open world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn. You’ve got a big, open map. There are points of interest on the map. Some things you have to check out, others are completely optional. Some things you’ll just happen along as you play. All this is fine and dandy, until I realized that this game does nothing, and I mean literally NOTHING better than those other games I mentioned. There’s a lot of fetch quests. A lot of “can you deliver this message for me?” A lot of backtracking. The game is exceptionally dry and devoid of personality at times, so the appeal of finding these points of interest and completing these quests rapidly diminished for me. And by rapidly, I mean RAPIDLY. At least the worlds of Red Dead and Horizon Zero Dawn were filled with fun, colorful characters and missions. Everything is just so drab and lifeless here. There’s no joy in exploring this map and meeting the NPCs. None.
I’m not a graphics snob (we’ll get to the game’s graphics soon), but the gray, lifeless look of the world is really a downer, and it translates to the gameplay experience for me. I was often disconnected from the game. I wasn’t interested in its world. I lost all desire to unlock 100% of this game’s map. This is easily the most joyless open world game I have played. Normally I want to see, do, and experience everything. In Nier, I just wanted to complete the main storyline and get the game over with.
That sounds a bit harsh, and makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy the game, but it is what it is. Like I said, I have mixed feelings about this title.
Graphics:
Nier: Automata easily looks like it could have been a PS3 game. Aside from some cool lighting/atmospheric effects, I was never too impressed by this game’s graphics. Everything is dull, lifeless, and gray. The city, the forest, the seaside, the underground caverns: it’s all so drab looking. The only visually exciting area in the whole game to me was the amusement park with the fireworks. Even that area, while cool, still isn’t too horribly impressive when compared with other games released in the last few years.
If I want to get really mean, I could even say that this looks like it could have been a PS2 game. Some areas of this game reminded me a lot of Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. Lots of grey, lots of dilapidated old buildings, lots of trees and vines. While Shadow of the Colossus had a cool, unique atmosphere to it, this game lacks even that. But still, things are a lot sharper and a lot more detailed here than they were in that game. So I won’t say that this looks as bad as a PS2 title. But it is close.
If I had to give props somewhere, it would be in the game’s epic battles. Some of the machines you fight are like Transformers times 1000. They’re huge! The scope of some of these battles are very grand, to say the least.
Also, although the characters that you play as look kind of dull and lifeless (like the game’s environment), I do have to give props to the makers of the game for giving the female androids such… interesting physiques. If I am going to be looking at someone’s backside the entire time I’m playing this game, at least they made the backsides nice to look at.
Sound:
I’d heard a lot about this game’s soundtrack coming into it. I must say that it is pretty good. Whether you’re digging around in an abandoned sector of the city, taking place in a massive scale battle, or exploring a machine village – all of the music fits the occasion perfectly. Expect to hear some nice orchestral tunes, some calming singing, some quiet and refrained melodies. The game does have a solid soundtrack, I’ll give it that. Is it spectacular, however? I don’t know.
The sound effects and voice acting are equally as good. The dialogue can be a bit corny at times, but being a Kingdom Hearts/FF7 fan, I’m used to it. I’ve seen MUCH worse. As far as sound effects go, everything sounds great. Explosions, weapons firing, giant machines crashing to the ground, it all sound exactly as it should. No complaints here.
As far as production values go, Nier’s music and sound effects are much more well designed than its graphics.
Overall:
This game is hard for me to grade because as much as I’ve complained about it in this review, there was always something about it that had me coming back for more. Mainly, I wanted to see what was going to happen with the game’s story. I had heard that there were some major twists, turns, and jaw-dropping moments in this game. While I wouldn’t really go that far, it kept me entertained and offered a new spin on the old sentient machine story trope.
Many of the gameplay elements were a lot of fun, mainly the combat and the shooter segments. The open world aspect of this game, however, did not live up to expectations. I found myself skipping side quests and not exploring the map, just because I wanted to advance the game’s main storyline. Playing through this thing three times to get the full ending is a daunting process, and I quickly learned that none of these side quests were worth it in the long run. I couldn’t help but feel fatigued and a sense of “been there done that” while exploring the game’s map. Combat, as much as I liked it, started to get pretty repetitive too. You can only slash and shoot and hack so many enemies before it starts to wear out its welcome. Play through this game three times like you are supposed to, and you will likely find yourself with battle fatigue like I did. Often I would resort to the game’s hacking mechanic in order to bypass the battles, but even those get repetitive after a while.
I’m torn on how to assess this game. It does so much good, but so much bad at the same time. I’m going to let the good and the bad balance each other out and give this game a score that’s smack dab in the middle of everything: a C. I didn’t hate this game, I didn’t love it. It does good things, it does bad things. It has interesting story elements, it has boring characters and environments. I have a feeling this is a very polarizing game for most people – you either love it or hate it. I, however, could go either way. Would I recommend this to someone who has never played it before? Personally I would not, but the game has such a strong following that I can’t really dissuade you from playing it either. Maybe you would like it. You just have to play it yourself and make your own decision. Am I ever going to play it again? No.
Final Score:
C
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