NieR: Automata
2017
Audio: English, Japanese · Subtitles: English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Japanese
- role-playing (rpg)
- hack and slash/beat 'em up
- action
- fantasy
- science fiction
- drama
- open world
- single player
The story
NieR: Automata tells the story of androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their battle to reclaim the machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful machines.
What it’s like
Washed-out ruins under a pale, overcast sky, with long wide shots of crumbling cities swallowed by grass and rust, then sudden bursts of bright white and crimson when the fighting starts. The camera swings and tracks through combat in fluid, acrobatic arcs, and the action has a fast, almost dancing rhythm of slashes, dodges and floating drones. Between battles the game slows to quiet walks through empty landscapes, and the score shifts from pulsing electronic beats to mournful strings and piano, sometimes sung in a haunting, wordless choir. Cozy it is not: the mood is wistful and melancholy, with a steady undertow of unease, and the sudden shifts between frantic and still keep the tension lively. Violence is frequent and stylised, with lots of robots and machines blown apart in showers of sparks and oil; there is some blood and gore, though it reads more as glitchy spectacle than horror, and a few scenes are genuinely disturbing or grim. Expect mature, existential themes about memory, identity and what it means to be alive. Best for players who want stylish action with a melancholic, philosophical undercurrent and don't mind a fair amount of combat.
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