Disclaimer: I am a PC gamer that don’t like using a controller, but it is almost required to play this game and as such I have used a controller. I am not good enough at using a controller to properly judge the nauences of the gameplay experience. I have played through the first part of the game on easy, without mods.
Nier Automata is an odd game in most aspects. It is a game you typically love or hate. Most of the time the game is a third person fighting game, and sometimes it is a twin-stick or arcade shooter. The narrative is the most important aspect of the game by far, and why you might love the game. The narrative relies on your ability to just exist in the world, and play the game without focusing on the narrative. You need to be fine with a slow pacing and a flawed gameplay loop. You need to be able to just go with the narrative and accept what the game does without thinking, and just observe what is going on. The narrative is philosophical in its nature, and if you have experience with philosophy the game does nothing for you. If you do not have experience with philosophy on the other hand, the game might leave with several “mind-blown” moments if you don’t mind the pacing and gameplay.
Nier Automata is all about its narrative. The narrative and story is a slow burn, and not always easy to follow. The game relies on the player being immersed and interested in the world. If you get immersed in the gameplay and the presentation, the narrative can be quite interesting. Nier Automata is very much a game that relies on people not focusing on the narrative in order to work. This narrative is the reason to play the game, but you can’t focus on it and enjoy the game. You need to experience the world and be interested in the world before the narrative becomes compelling, and this can take up to ten hours if not more.
In order to make you interested in the game and keep you from getting bored the game utilises a constant shift of game mechanics and different locations. The game will start out as a twin-stick and arcade shooter before it turns into a third person melee brawler. It shifts between these genres frequently and utilises background and camera work extensively to give a constant feeling of “fresh gameplay”. The gameplay itself is not very deep, and it is quite repetitive. The shifting of the genres is a very clever way to camouflage some of the weak gameplay, but it does not solve the fundamental gameplay issues.
Nier Automata has a fantastic soundtrack to accompany a lot of the sequences; the soundtrack is almost always high energy soundtracks. The game misses the low energy or ambient soundtracks that lets you relax and transverse the open world in a calm manner. You should listen to the game’s soundtrack in isolation without playing the game as I think it is a much better experience just listening to the soundtrack by itself without having the game to distract you from it.
Nier Automata is a Japanese game that is ported to the PC. The port is functional without major bugs. If you want to play this game you will want to use a controller. The keyboard (and optionally mouse) controls are functional, but they are not good. The game uses the mouse or arrows on the keyboard as a one joystick, and the wasd keys as the other joystick. This means that controls try to emulate a controller instead of properly using the mouse to control the camera as you would expect. The developers use a default camera view that points upwards (if this is for cinematic effect or for up-skirt angles I don’t know), which means that objects such as dirt, grass and any other debris will often be in front of the camera by default. Regardless of position the camera gets stuck behind stuff frequently. It feels very erratic and hard to manage. The game is locked at 60 FPS.
The graphics are notably aged, and the game often looks more like a game released in 2007 than in 2017. The pop-in in this game is atrocious; grass will frequently pop-in 5 meters in front of you. The textures are of low quality, which stands out heavily. The game often looks washed out, and not in the intentional and good way. Some of the art design is excellent at times though.
If you are going to enjoy the game depends on two questions:
- Are you willing or able overlook the following flaws and still enjoy the gameplay loop for what it is:
– Repetitive gameplay
– Shallow gameplay
– Poor graphical fidelity, and a dull grey world with a high degree of pop-in
– A bad camera
– Unable to use the keyboard and mouse and forced to use a controller (I don’t know if a mod can fix this) - Have you been exposed to any philosophy?
If you can overlook the flaws listed and have not been exposed to philosophy I think you are going to have a great time with the game. If you can overlook the flaws but have been exposed to some philosophy the game only exists to pass time. If you cannot overlook the flaws then you should not play the game. I am in the camp that cannot overlook the flaws and I did not enjoy the game.
If you decide to pick the game up, do yourself a favour and start the difficulty at easy to get through the tutorial without having to repeat it. The tutorial takes about 40 minutes, and if you fail at any part you need to do everything again. The tutorial is the hardest and most punishing part of the game.
| Playtime | 10 Hours to complete first act before I quit and watched the rest (30 hours is likely needed to complete the game) |
| Game release date | 23 Feburary 2017 |
| Review release date | 28 July 2024 |
| Light sensitivity | No issues |
| Sound sensitivity | No issues |
| Motion sickness | No issues |
| Steam | Metacritic – Metascore (91 PS5) |