Remember when games were released in a finished state? No season-pass, no crazy pre-order bullsh.it, no micro transactions of any sort... While Nier: Automata had some minor release problems, the PC release is still the best version between the two on offer. The customization in the options menu is enough to satisfy people, with fully rebindable controller layouts, extensive camera adjustment, and if you have a rather good rig then you're ready to enjoy the game how it's meant 2B.

Let's look at the bad things first, which I think can be fixed later down the line. The game launched with a fullscreen bug that caused the game to render at a resolution lower than the one set while in true fullscreen mode, which was fixed with solutions from Borderless Gaming and a number of modders. Apart from that, texture/object pop-in is equivalent to the PS4 version, with grass and trees often appearing abruptly in the city area, though monsters aren’t affected. Oddly, the pre-rendered cutscenes are locked at 900p 30fps, a shame, but the story remains gripping nonetheless!

Now let's talk about some points that make this game my new favorite game ever. Nier: Automata's combat system is a perfect mix of Action RPG, Bullet Hell and Shmup as well as many other genres. The hack and slash combat feels just fluid thanks to every button press having an actual impact on what your character does as well as the well done combo system. The game seamlessly transitions between theses different genres and camera angles in a really interesting way.

The difficulty has some flaws but is overall well done. Normal feels too easy at some points and Hard basically two-shots you in every situation and requires you really get the dodge down. Other players corpses are a good indicator when something challenging is coming up, and they can even be revived to fight alongside you. Just like the souls-series, you drop a corpse at the point of death which can be retrieved to collect some xp as well as some of your skill chips. Die twice without collecting it and you can say goodbye to some of your skill chips. Other then leveling up through battle, you can equip passive skill chips that further enhance your gameplay. Regenerating health outside of battles, increased evade distance, or even a certain chance to reflect damage back at the attacker; there are many ways to individualize your playstyle.

In terms of graphics, the game is mighty fine but some could say it looks outdated while it is clearly not. The fantastic looking post-apocalyptic world design just adds to that fact that this game can be very pretty at some points. Enemies might look the same early on, but there’s quite a bit of diversity across the 60+ enemies you’ll find across your journey.

To talk about some positive technical aspects of the game, it runs well at a capped 60fps with a decent rig, with only minor drops for some in areas have large amounts of enemies. Performance can be improved substantially by lowering the Global Illumination samples with the help of a certain mod; a notable bump with almost zero visual difference. There are no loading times between the different areas of the game, only when using the fast travel system (no more than 5-10 seconds).

As well as the nicely done English voiceover, they also provide the option of using the original Japanese VO, something not every game coming to the west does and is very welcome. In my opinion, Japanese voice with English subtitles is the way to go for this one, as they manage to make the game feel much more impactful and emotional than English will ever be able to achieve.

And now for one of the best aspects, the magnificent soundtrack. The game often shifts dynamically between 7 different variations (instrumental, vocal, 8-bit, etc) of each song to suit different scenarios in a way that I’ve never experienced in a videogame, it's just beautiful. There are even special songs for every completed side-quest based on your choices; how cool is that?

The real meat of the game however, lies in the story. Put simply, planet Earth is overrun by machines that made the last of mankind flee to the moon. They then build androids to combat and ultimately rid the Earth of those machines and return home. Working for the project known as YoRHa, you play as the android 2B, who is supposed to be calm and composed, and fight alongside your companion 9S, a reconnaissance android with a much more emotional personality.

While I can't go into details at the risk of spoiling it, I urge you to try to experience all 26 endings (A-Z), or at least the first five (A-E). The game does a bad job of letting people know that there is much more beyond just the first playthrough. If you don't have any questions after your first run, then I really don’t know what you were doing... Each playthrough changes various aspects of the game and story, and you don’t even get to see 7 of the game’s 17 chapters unless you stick around till at least the third playthrough. A reasonable ask, as I genuinely don’t think you’ll be bored of it at that point, just don’t spend too much time on the crazy sidequests as you’ll get the chapter select after the third run to go back and do everything you forgot (plus achievement hunting).

While having some minor flaws, all of this combined makes this one of the greatest games ever made. It's easy to ignore this game if you don’t think you’ll be good at action rpgs, bullet hell, and shmups, or if you think it looks outdated, but there’s so much more to it than that... So just try to get over the little problems and play this masterpiece!

Nier: Automata is absolutely a must-play for anyone that considers themselves a “gamer”, there’s just so much here to enjoy.

I’ll end this with a fitting quote from Jim Sterling:

"Nier itself is important. It is, as far as I’m concerned, historically significant in terms of its design and the way in which it uses the framework of a videogame to tell an evolving story.

If history forgets this game, then fu.ck history."