Is it war this time?
(Played in Japanese on Steam Deck. 36 hours, 59 minutes and 24 seconds to get Ending E on Normal at level 61 with 95% Quest done.)
By the time I beat the closest thing NieR Automata has to a “final boss” (Game’s full end credit moving backwards and shooting at me), in April, 2024, I had put 36 seconds short of 37 hours into the game. The first 16 hours were spent with an almost always under-leveled lass known as 2B. Then next 13 hours or so were a mandatory New Game Plus with a fuckboy called 9S. Then last 8 hours can only be called wild.
On paper, several similarities can be drawn between NieR Automata and 1986’s Aliens. Both are sequels out 7 years after their respective “first ones” for starter. Aliens’ tagline “This time it’s war” fits Automata kinda sorta. The game’s director YOKO TARO all but admitted the 2017 game was indirectly inspired by Aliens when Halo, famous Aliens clone in interactive form, came up more than one time when he got “dragged” to Seoul to promote Stellar Blade.
This is not my first rodeo with Automata. I played up to Ending E back in October, 2017, let the save file back then to be deleted and had planned to play for keeps since. Then 2010s turned into 2020s, 2010’s NieR Replicant got a remake. 3 years after I played and reviewed that one, here I am playing Automata as a sequel. This is how someone with way more cynical and criticizing attitude thinks of this game.
The not quite forever war
Welcome to the year eleven thousand, nine hundred and forty-five, “11945” for short, Common Era. Earth is fouled up beyond any recognition after a long and devasting war against an alien invasion. But much like the famous year ten millenniums before it, war is about to end here and now. Androids 2B and 9S are on the case to end this eight millenniums long conflict, or so it seems. From how tired both sides are about the war to more than one kind of hidden agendas, this war is not going to end with a clear victor.
“NieR: Automata’s story actually is pretty much just a retelling of Evagelion” as YOKO himself said to IGN. Nice of him to admit it since Dr. Austin Walker did point at places in both and said “If you want a happy ending, stop right there.” during his Waypoint days. What neither man said is the patchwork feeling of those stories. Suppose it’s only fair that YOKO did not bring up Yoshiyoki Tomino and the old baldie’s road trip vibe of going somewhere, because Automata’s plot does not seem to go anywhere.
Compared to Replicant’s “know a guy to know another guy” flow of journey or quest, the tour of duty in Automata feels disjointed, at least for the first 29 hours or so. 2B and 9S are boots on the ground troopers waiting for orders to go places and kill things. There is just no segways between set-pieces. YOKO could not write a war story to save his own life.
The “2B, or [REDACATED]” twist at the end is obvious given the amount of dead deserters in her sub-quests, some are dead before she got to them and some are because she did. And in the “all about a man” way Evagelion is, this game wants you to root for the toxic as fuck lad 9S more than 2B. Just look at how many more times they made him sell his life dearly than 2B.
Guess it’s telling sign that the plot as a whole is bit meh, when a trio of ex-Giantbomb staff members only praised the sad tidbits of Automata way back when. In the 8 hours long home stretch, story finally has some resembles of Replicant: a lone killer turned village handy woman and a twat fought through 4 dungeons, but it feels bit too little too late.
A loop is a loop is a loop
Enough about the story, how does the game play? Well for a simplified action game that take its RPG element more seriously. Among “Aliens clones”, Automata is admirable for making the air-drop section playable, on-rail shooter style. The ground whack fest is the usual spectacle fighter affair, namely left face button for light whack and up for heavy. Right trigger for dodge as Platinum developed games usually do. Right bumper is for shooting both on the ground and in air.
As an action role-playing game, Automata takes the leveling aspect of RPG very serious. 10 levels higher means the enemies would die hard while able to one-shot player character. 2B, a favorite for many, usually fights under-leveled throughout her 2 chunks with a 13 hours long break in between.
During this break, player has to play as 9S. It’s very funny that the game instantly sinks into Easy Mode. Not only is he at higher level, he can also cheat: up face button with this lad is not heavy whack but ability to hack into the enemy robot in form of a top-down shooter. While this on-a-timer retro style shooter is tense on its own, at least one does not have to worry about being ganged on in the meat space.
The hacking mini game works very well with the Chip set for self-healing build. Just avoided the Skill Tree craze since 2018, Automata’s levels are just bigger numbers, but Chip setting is where loot and customization come in. In a way to mimic modern devices, the usual video game interface elements like life bar take up some of the chip space, then one can build something hack focused or fast movement focus. Yours truly chose a build to focus on hit points regeneration, one kicks in over time, one kicks in when I start attacking enemies and final one kicks in when I kill an enemy.
While the story feels underwhelming this second time again, Platinum’s gameplay loop proves to be additive. Just one thing feeding into another on the to-do list would keep me up until 2 in the morning. Guess the similarity between Automata and Phantom Pain goes beyond a trailer for their respective third acts: loop is another good one while a sense of emptiness by the end is a bad one.
Switched to Deck
NieR Automata is unmistakenly a late PS3 game. It runs on Switch with same murkiness and low framerate of Bioshock Infinite on Xbox 360. Well, this is an action game, so the high framerate of Deck helps. Being labeled as just Playable is bit unfair given how smooth this 2017 title can run on the thing and the fonts are easy on the eyes, but I guess pulling up a virtual keyboard just did not cut it back then.
Not exactly a model sequel
As a sequel, Automata feels neither bigger nor better than Replicant. The no “bigger” thing might be unfair since my comparison is 2021’s remake, but the more connected feeling of Automata’s locales somehow made the game feel smaller than Replicant’s segments. The beefed up Ver. 1 and all that took me about 50 hours to see most of it stories while Automata took me less than 40 hours. The no “better” thing is that anything Automata can boost about had been done somewhere else, Replicant included. Some old favorite just does not stand a second pass, and Automata just happens to be one with seam showing on a second rodeo.