Set in the same post-apocalyptic world as the original Nier (continuing from ending D), humans have left the earth for the moon in order to escape an alien invasion of the planet. Robots created by the alien invaders and androids created by the humans, fight each other in a proxy war on behalf of their creators. Strangely, many of the robots have started to become docile, and have even started to contemplate the meaning behind their creation and existence.
The world of NieR is one laden with deceit and folly. It is full of references to philosophers, philosophical concepts, and schools of thought that it explores and then subverts, either by deconstructing them or taking them to their logical conclusion within the sci-fi, post-apocalyptic setting. The game is a philosophical marvel that explores the meaning of existence and finding meaning in a meaningless world. It touches on the subjects of consciousness, free will, identity, and the structures that support an individual's core beliefs. The idea of robots as humans has been done before, but NieR presents it in a unique way that can only be done with video games as the medium.
My first playthrough left me feeling dissatisfied and confused. The ending felt incomplete and I was left with a myriad of unanswered questions, but being familiar with NieR's style, I knew this had to be by design... and it was. In total there are four endings (A,B,C & D), one true ending (E) and 26 joke endings. The game must be completed at least three times to get the full story and experience. Each playthrough uses a different protagonist and examines the same story from a different perspective. It is like a piece of a mosaic, gradually getting more complicated, until a complete image emerges. The problem was that I didn't enjoy the game as much as I would have liked. Did I want to play through it again?
My curiosity compelled me to give it another go, and I ended up enjoying the second playthrough far more than I did the first. Bits and pieces of new information were revealed; characters now had motive, the current state of the world was starting to make sense, and most importantly, I was finally picking up on the philosophical undertones. All three plays could have easily been combined into a single, cohesive narrative. Stretching the full experience across three full plays was definitely an unnecessary design decision. One that almost resulted in me selling the game short.
Automata's gameplay features a little bit of everything. Segments of hack-and-slash melee fighting are quickly swapped out for shmup style projectile combat. There are text adventures, mecha fights and roller coaster battles. The radically changing, fast paced gameplay uses a variety of light and heavy attacks that make for a thrilling experience. Weapons can be swapped on the fly, and upgradable plug-in chips help adjust your android's strengths, defenses, skills and abilities. The chips for "auto evade" and "auto fire" were especially useful during Automata's awful hacking segments, which almost made me quit the game. One hacking segment in route C was especially bad.
Automata retains a steadfast faithfulness to the music, visual style, and combat of the original NieR. In fact, almost everything that made the first game noteworthy has been expanded upon or improved, perhaps even a little too faithful sometimes; the shifting camera angles in particular really threw me off during during combat or exploration. It was nice to see a certain someone from the first NieR make an appearance, but he felt like fan service since his presence in Automata was never fully justified. I continue to enjoy Nier's quirkiness and loved the thought provoking narrative, heavy in philosophy and symbolism. If that also happens to be your cup of tea, then NieR: Automata is worth playing.
First posted to videogamegeek.com
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