Platinum

As I finish the last of the three main campaigns of Nier Automata and chapter-select my way to the other conclusions (there are about 26 endings to the game but only a handful of them are “proper” endings) I was left with so many thoughts and feelings. The true ending wraps things up perfectly and is sublime from a gameplay, narrative, and emotional standpoint. When I realised what was going on, and the implications of what was going on, I was left speechless. And it almost makes up for the varying quality of the gameplay.

Nier Automata is a truer follow-up to the 2010 game than we could have ever hoped for; the gameplay is tightened, the combat is slick, but it hasn’t been streamlined into a character action game and instead retains the RPG tenets of the original. You’ll do fetch quests, gather materials, go from A to B and quick-travel across several unique regions. More notably, you’ll level up through play and face enemies that are at a much higher level than you; enemies that will decimate your health bar in one hit if you try your luck. Through levelling and player customisation, the typical skill barrier associated with character action now has a number of RPG elements to support you. Take plug-in chips for instance – they offer various buffs and effects but take up a certain amount of “storage” depending on how good they are. Certain chips offer typical buffs like increased damage, better healing effects etc, but other chips can turn it into a completely new game – there’s one that grants health after every enemy kill (think rally in Bloodborne) and another that slows down time whilst retaining character speed after a successful dodge (hello Bayonetta). It’s one of Platinum’s most rewarding systems yet, and it means that a bit of levelling or chip tweaking can turn defeat into victory.

Nier Automata – split personality

Plug-in chips and levelling aren’t the only deviations from the character-action formula; Nier Automata has more of the classic shoot ‘em up action seen in the demo as well as a new gameplay feature introduced after the first playthrough that adds an interesting new dynamic to much of the rest of the game. (This isn’t the only time this happens as you go through the three campaigns, but I found that it was the biggest gameplay shift.) And even though the world and town may feel small-scale compared to other RPGs you play, there’s still enough going on to prevent you from feeling like you can’t progress. Enemy levels are displayed as you fight them (this may be optional based on interface plug-in chips; I’m not sure) and so you instantly know if you’re going into an area that will be too challenging, encouraging you to level up and do sidequests until you’re ready.

There’s also a lot of variety in the environments you’ll explore – the 2010 game had the likes of Façade, Seafront and the Aerie peppered around its central hub, and Automata has its own desert in addition to an amusement park, a forest and more abstract areas later on. Even though the shifts feel a bit disjointed as you speed from place to place, each one feels distinct in its culture and identity. And remember that a lot of time spent in the areas will involve a finely-tuned combat system that is satisfying in itself but transformative when plug-in chips are involved.

Nier Automata – rough moments

It is, however, a Nier game. Even with Platinum at the helm there’s always the risk of some dodgy moments when Nier is involved, and Automata isn’t without its problems. Some platforming can be fiddly, camera shifts can come at the worst possible time, you can end up underlevelled if you hurry through things, and the 3D map – as good as it is – can still be hard to wrap your head around at first. At the same time, just like in the original Nier, you’ll forgive these blemishes just to see where the story takes you, and the underlevelling only happens if you try and treat it like a straight character-action game rather than embracing the RPG roots of the series. (On a personal note I’d also recommend rotating your saves and/or backing up saves to the cloud, just in case you over-use the manual saves and wind up in an impossible situation. Ahem.)

There is a risk that with all the genre-bending Nier Automata shows you all of its tricks too soon, and that certainly begins to ring true in the third playthrough. That said, even when you think it’s running out of ideas the gameplay is so satisfying that you’ll want to keep going anyway. Finish the three main routes and a chapter select opens up, allowing you to see alternate conclusions for the third route and, ultimately, one of the most majestic ways a game has been wrapped up in some time. In that moment, it’s easy to gloss over the flaws you noticed along the way – it’s easy to let emotion drown out cold analysis. At the same time, don’t we spend evenings with videogames for moments just like the gameplay and narrative highs of Nier: Automata? So yes, this is a recommendation. If you enjoyed the original Nier, you shouldn’t let the Platinum logo put you off. If you want to see character action in a more fleshed-out world, this is worthy of your attention. And I can only hope that this gains enough attention to make up for the first game’s niche status.

Nier Automata is out now for PS4 and will be released on PC on March 17th

Nier Automata demo – slick moves and orb shooting

Let’s begin with the obvious point – as soon as you get your hands on the controls this feels like a Platinum game in terms of movement and combat; movement is fast and fluid, you have a dodge which goes far and in multiple directions, and you can cancel from attacks to dodges. Furthermore, the Nier Automata demo starts you off with an air-dodge and double jump, and attacks have light and heavy variants, as well as special enders. Meanwhile, your “pod” droid fires for as long as you hold down the trigger and its shots can be aimed in multiple directions. So far, so Platinum, but the Nier DNA makes itself known soon enough; waves of red orbs are shot from enemies and can be destroyed with shots or melee attacks. Additionally, enemies have lifebars and damage numbers fly off as they take hits, so the RPG roots are clear.

Nier Automata demo – a fresh perspective

What’s also clear is that Platinum liked the original game’s perspective shifts – the Nier Automata demo is constantly going between side-on, overhead and conventional 3D views; at times it almost feels like it beats the player over the head with these camera tricks, shouting “hey, remember? Remember when Nier did this?” but maybe the full game will relax things a little. There was one moment where the perspective shifts worked against the gameplay – enemies can spawn from small containers in one top-down sequence and it’s possible for 2B to enter one of these containers and be in a bad spot whilst the player can’t see what’s going on – but for the most part It was fine.

Nier Automata demo – promising combat and unproven questing

The Nier Automata demo is all about showing off the combat – it’s at its best when mobile enemies approach 2B at close-quarters whilst shots from wall-mounted cannons also head towards her, as it forces the player to manage the crowd and switch between melee and ranged attacks on the fly. In the previous game you generally had to deal with one threat or the other – removing the bullets of an enemy so that you could close in on that enemy and deliver melee damage. Later on, one phase of the Nier Automata demo’s boss showcases some similarly impressive bullet hell, where clusters and waves of projectiles are belched out and rockets rain from the sky. This is where the gameplay truly feels like Nier Deluxe – a more refined version of the original formula – and I would welcome more of it.

The one aspect of the game that’s never really shown off during the Nier Automata demo is the RPG and story side of the game – the character arcs, the settlements, the quests to pick up, the jaw-dropping twists. Just like Gestalt and Replicant felt like missed opportunities with their rough combat and platfoming, Automata could feel like a waste if it’s “just” another Platinum game with none of the hybrid gameplay of the original. However, it’s understandable that Taro might want the story and RPG elements to be kept under wraps if the narrative is anything like the original’s. From what I have played now, I feel confident that Platinum will do what Platinum does best, but I appreciate that we’re still in the dark about the bits that made the original Nier so special in the first place. If the slick combat is there but the questing and story are afterthoughts, we could find that Automata and Gestalt/Replicant are two halves of the one of the finest games ever made, neither one delivering on both gameplay and narrative.

Nier Automata will be released on PS4 in March 2017. A PC release has also been confirmed but not yet dated.

Nier Automata review (PS4)

Nier Automata – split personality

Nier Automata – rough moments

Nier Automata demo released this week

Nier Automata demo – slick moves and orb shooting

Nier Automata demo – a fresh perspective

Nier Automata demo – promising combat and unproven questing

Nier Automata – split personality

Nier Automata – rough moments

Nier Automata demo – slick moves and orb shooting

Nier Automata demo – a fresh perspective

Nier Automata demo – promising combat and unproven questing

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