Howdy folks, it's hitting peak summer in this part of the world and yes I'm already tired of it. Not tired of good weather you understand but you can have too much of a good thing as it happens. So naturally I'm staying at arms length from the outside world whenever possible and playing more of those them there video games. In matter of fact I played Nier: Automata and boy do I have some thoughts on it. As with most games I play this came out a while back but nonetheless you get the mandatory warning for minimum spoilers below. Now lets get to the robots...
So yeah Nier: Automata, something of a critically acclaimed darling and sequel to Nier: Replicant which I played last year. Part action game, part RPG and a whole lot of artificial life forms battling it out over what remains of the Earth in the very distant future. There's impeccably over-styled hair, there's huge swords larger than the characters themselves and there is a whole lot of incomprehensible dialogue and plot development propelling it all forward. There is also a novel sense of the strange and the inhumane that one might associate with your more hard sci-fi, a sense that not only has humanity lost but the sense of what humanity was is long gone as well. As with Nier: Replicant I have mixed feelings on this one, it's far from bad but certainly falls somewhere short of great. There are some curious choices made here is what I'm saying. It's like the creative forces behind this game couldn't quite get out of their own way and the game frequently stumbles over itself as a result. So where to start here?
First of all the positive. Moment to moment the gameplay itself is pretty solid if not exactly the best work by it's developer Platinum Games. For my money Bayonetta, Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance all play better. The magic is still there though and that is very much the games main redeeming quality for me. Hack slash dodging my way to victory against improbable odds is the order of the day and it all plays in a very responsive and intuitive way. The game regularly mixes things up with intermittent sections based around twin stick shooters and bullet hell sensory overload as well. Whatever else I'm about to say about the game itself, the play itself is solid, interesting and varied. It's very much the secret sauce that kept me playing to the end because I'm not sure I would have otherwise.
A shout out also to to the general presentation of the game. There is a mood and tone to the whole game that speaks of far off desolation and distant tragedy in a disconnected way appropriate to the characters and setting. This is assuredly a post human setting and as with Replicant, it's on a much stronger standing when it leans into the strangeness and less so when it goes all quirky. The look, feel and sound of the game is spot-on for what its trying to do. Even though it's a desolate world it still feels like a world as opposed to the somewhat sparse level-template-like structure of Replicant. There's much to do, see and smash whilst on your trevails through the post-post-apocalypse and the game feels much the better for it.
Now as for the plot, broadly it's good. I say broadly because the general design and thrust of the story is strong but there are some caveats here. Now I didn't go for 100% completion here, I did maybe a third of all the side quests alongside the main plot and it's ever-shifting conclusion. As with Nier: Replicant, the side-quests are a little uninspired for my taste and don't really encourage anyone to play them aside from the hardcore gamer audience. As for the main story there are many times when it feels like it's pulling a rabbit out of a hat and unleashes something on you either with little setup or without any at all. Such events may have been setup by some of those optional quests earlier in his game but no effort is made otherwise to provide much if any context for whats happening on-screen and this does subtract from the experience in my view.
The story has a curious structure too. You will see the end credits repeatedly in this game, the first time you do so you get a message at the end imploring you to play again. I am not a fan of this method of encouraging the player along. It's almost as if Nier: Automata fancies itself to be episodic game but that's not quite the case. The first playthrough is over twice the length of the next two playthroughs recommended to get the games 'proper' ending. It's a good ending to be sure but I'm not convinced you need quite such a circuitous route to get to it. The second playthrough is an abbreviated re-do of the first one from a different perspective with much of the major new developments taking place in the third one. In fact I think the story here would have greatly benefited from a little trimming and cutting. It might have helped get the point across just a little better than it does.
There are no shortage of big ideas in this game. Why do we fight? Why do we kill? When driven entirely by one purpose what do we do when that purpose is pulled out from under us? The trouble is these ideas are relayed in a somewhat clumsy way. I don't know if that unwieldiness is there from the start or the result of something lost in translation but I repeatedly felt like the game was stumbling into moments of grave importance with some dramatic foreshadowing missed somewhere along the way. I like to think I pay attention to story and was picking up on most of the story beats but there is no denying that I felt like I was missing something important when major events transpired within the plot. I'll credit some of that to not completing the side-material but some of this shouldn't be relying on said completion to stick the landing if that is indeed what is happening here.
The adventures of 2B, 9S and the alphanumeric rangers leaves a little to be desired. There's no doubt that this game reflects much of the creative idiosyncrasies of its creator, one Yoko Taro. That however doesn't excuse at least some of the shortcomings of this game. Nier: Automata is certainly a standout game but I'm left with a similar feeling that I had upon completing Nier: Replicant. Namely that feeling of an interesting story told in an uninteresting way. There are narrative gaps here that do a disservice to everything the game does well and what it does well is a strong core of well-crafted gameplay mechanics that work well together as they tend to do in most efforts turned in by Platinum Games.
So in short, I enjoyed this game but I doubt I'll ever return to it. It's got some ideas and its got some things to say but it feels like the various creative processes behind it weren't all pulling in the same direction. There's a disconnect here between how well the game plays and how well it tells its story and in a game where the story looms pretty large over everything, it pulls the breaks on my enjoyment somewhat. A lot of people out there on the internet enjoyed this one and I'm not oblivious to why they enjoyed it but there are some pointed disclaimers here that need to come with any recommendation of this game.
In short short, it's a mild recommendation verging on the enthusiastic. Until next time!
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