Nier Automata is a third-person Action RPG set in a distant future, after Earth was attacked by a myesterious alien race that used an army of machines to spearhead the invasion resulting in massive destruction, forcing the few surviving humans to flee on the Moon. After these events, a counter-attack android force called YoRHa is formed to take back Earth and restore humanity. Players impersonate combat android 2B initially, then two other characters for a total of three distinct routes.

This game is widely regarded as a masterpiece, for very good reason I might say. The main strong suits of Automata are lore building and storyline, composing an extremely original and different take on futuristic post-apocalypse, while also narrating a layered, complex storyline that feature deep philosophical implications, allegories and references to all kinds of mythological and religious events. Only the most dedicated players will fully understand the complex narrative, requiring reading lore, side quests, and understanding implicit meanings. Secondly, this game detaches from the usual canons of ARPGs, steadily introducing unique mechanics even belonging to other genres, such as shooter sections, hacking mini-games, and an original progression system. Combat is also excellent, as it's extremely fluid, fast paced, skill based with great variety of weapons, abilities, enemies and hidden mechanics to discover as you play. Variety is the other main strong suit of this game, as it stays interesting from start to end thanks to perfect pacing and new mechanics.

The worst issues with Automata are of technical nature, as the vanilla game being a port doesn't hold up very well on PC and has issues with graphics and controls, luckily the community made several mods to fix most problems, which I tested and work just fine. Apart from this, aside from some side quests being excessively tedious and the fact a large part of the first route needs to be also repeated in the second one, I really can't find any other major design issue to note, proving again this game is of exceptional quality.

Overall Nier Automata is a unique take on the ARPG genre, offering an experience unlike any other for this genre, delivering outstanding art direction, soundtracks, progression and gameplay variety, all encompassed in a deep, rich storyline with tons of lore built around it. To complete the main game and most side quests, it took me around 40-45 hours without wasting any time, but for extreme completionists seeking all 23 endings, achievements, items and weapons, this time amount can be elevated to 60-65+ hours. Priced at 40€, but offering a great amount of content with exceptional quality, I can recommend buying this game full price.

Masterpiece

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https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1934028277


🔵 Pros
+ Outstanding narrative featuring a complex multi-layered story full of philosophy, iconography and pathos.
+ Excellent art direction, delivering beautiful characters, environments and enemies.
+ Incredible soundtrack composed by a plethora of beautiful instrumental and vocal pieces.
+ Solid combat system staying true to the ARPG tradition while cleverly introducing unique mechanics.
+ Huge amount of side quests, secrets, endings and hidden mechanics to discover.
+ Masochist-friendly difficulty on Very Hard, where any damage instantly kills the player.
+ Interesting progression system united with extended upgrade, skill and weapon variety.

🔴 Cons
- Technical issues due to being a Console Port on PC. Needs some community fixes to get the best experience.
- A few specific side quests are REALLY a chore to complete and honestly boring.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1932170015


🎮 Gameplay Analysis
The gameplay of Nier Automata divides into Exploration, Character Management, Minigames and Combat.

Exploration is done at first on foot, and while the speed of androids running is considerable, once players unlock the ability to ride animals, they prove the fastest means of transportation. At some point fast travel between Access Points (which act as fixed save terminals) is unlocked as well for convenience. Exploring the remnants of the old world is quite a poetic experience onto itself, as all environments are beautifully designed and really convey the feelings of desolation they should. While traversing, there are many hidden containers to find, some with unique items, while also lore documents in some cases. Side quests don't need to be discovered as most are marked on the global map at all times to be taken, but not all. The environments, enemies and conditions change as the story progresses, with something new even in previously visited areas often.

Character Management is performed via several menus where players can customize weapon loadouts with varied presets, upgrade chips which give various passive and even some active abilities, with more room cost in proportion to their power and limited space, so the game encourages making various chip presets to quickly switch based on the situation. Leveling up is done by killing enemies and completing quests, but it's simply an automatic stat upgrade. Weapons can be upgraded over four levels, the first three unlocking a weapon's first passive ability, while the last unlocks each weapon's unique trait, but requiring rare resources. Pod Programs are powerful active abilities with a set cooldown, ranging from bombs to personal shields to energy hammers, and become more powerful the more pods (3 total) players find in the world. Shops and merchants each with their own stock are all over the world as well for trading items and credits. Upgrade chips can be fused to get more powerful versions of them.

Minigames are various activities such as fishing (the main money-making activity), hacking enemy systems, or other quest specific things such as shooter sections using a flight unit, or platformer-like sections in certain levels. They are varied and a welcome addition to the regular mechanics.

Combat is extremely fast paced and revolves around perfect dodging enemy attacks just before they strike, while also understanding enemy patterns and using the right weapons and abilities for the task at hand. There are many combinations and play-styles players can build thanks to chips and pod abilities, making builds an important game mechanic. While apparently simple, combat has several hidden mechanics and quirks making it truly unique and satisfying. On Hard just a few enemy hits are enough to take down any player, enemies hurt a lot and are often in great numbers. Combos with weapons, even combining two specific weapon types to unlock unique combos are a mechanic as well, mastering them will give a critical advantage.

🔩 Technical Analysis
PC Specs: RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM DDR4
In its vanilla state the game runs without huge issues but there can be noticeable stuttering and control problems for Keyboard users. Also pop-in and resolution scaling are off in vanilla. Community mods fix almost all technical issues and can be found on internet, look for FAR Mod mainly. The game runs smoothly on this config once properly patched, without any issue to report.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1935266666

Nier Automata is definitely a unique game that blends top-shelf ARPG action with exceptional story and world design. It's a masterpiece everyone should experience, there's nothing quite like it around.

[h1]Overview[/h1] [b]Nier Automata[/b] is a third-person Action RPG set in a distant future, after Earth was attacked by a myesterious alien race that used an army of machines to spearhead the invasion resulting in massive destruction, forcing the few surviving humans to flee on the Moon. After these events, a counter-attack android force called YoRHa is formed to take back Earth and restore humanity. Players impersonate combat android 2B initially, then two other characters for a total of three distinct routes. This game is widely regarded as a masterpiece, for very good reason I might say. The main strong suits of Automata are lore building and storyline, composing an extremely original and different take on futuristic post-apocalypse, while also narrating a layered, complex storyline that feature deep philosophical implications, allegories and references to all kinds of mythological and religious events. Only the most dedicated players will fully understand the complex narrative, requiring reading lore, side quests, and understanding implicit meanings. Secondly, this game detaches from the usual canons of ARPGs, steadily introducing unique mechanics even belonging to other genres, such as shooter sections, hacking mini-games, and an original progression system. Combat is also excellent, as it's extremely fluid, fast paced, skill based with great variety of weapons, abilities, enemies and hidden mechanics to discover as you play. Variety is the other main strong suit of this game, as it stays interesting from start to end thanks to perfect pacing and new mechanics. The worst issues with Automata are of technical nature, as the vanilla game being a port doesn't hold up very well on PC and has issues with graphics and controls, luckily the community made several mods to fix most problems, which I tested and work just fine. Apart from this, aside from some side quests being excessively tedious and the fact a large part of the first route needs to be also repeated in the second one, I really can't find any other major design issue to note, proving again this game is of exceptional quality. [b]Overall Nier Automata is a unique take on the ARPG genre, offering an experience unlike any other for this genre, delivering outstanding art direction, soundtracks, progression and gameplay variety, all encompassed in a deep, rich storyline with tons of lore built around it. To complete the main game and most side quests, it took me around 40-45 hours without wasting any time, but for extreme completionists seeking all 23 endings, achievements, items and weapons, this time amount can be elevated to 60-65+ hours. Priced at 40€, but offering a great amount of content with exceptional quality, I can recommend buying this game full price.[/b] [h1]Rating:[/h1] [b]Masterpiece[/b] [quote]Liked this review, and want to see more of the same quality? Check out [url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/39323490]Tamaster's Review Archive[/url] to see all my Reviews in a single, convenient location.[/quote] https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1934028277 [h1]Pros & Cons[/h1] 🔵 [b]Pros[/b] + Outstanding narrative featuring a complex multi-layered story full of philosophy, iconography and pathos. + Excellent art direction, delivering beautiful characters, environments and enemies. + Incredible soundtrack composed by a plethora of beautiful instrumental and vocal pieces. + Solid combat system staying true to the ARPG tradition while cleverly introducing unique mechanics. + Huge amount of side quests, secrets, endings and hidden mechanics to discover. + Masochist-friendly difficulty on Very Hard, where any damage instantly kills the player. + Interesting progression system united with extended upgrade, skill and weapon variety. 🔴 [b]Cons[/b] - Technical issues due to being a Console Port on PC. Needs some community fixes to get the best experience. - A few specific side quests are REALLY a chore to complete and honestly boring. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1932170015 [h1]In-Depth Breakdown[/h1] 🎮 [b]Gameplay Analysis[/b] The gameplay of Nier Automata divides into Exploration, Character Management, Minigames and Combat. [b]Exploration[/b] is done at first on foot, and while the speed of androids running is considerable, once players unlock the ability to ride animals, they prove the fastest means of transportation. At some point fast travel between Access Points (which act as fixed save terminals) is unlocked as well for convenience. Exploring the remnants of the old world is quite a poetic experience onto itself, as all environments are beautifully designed and really convey the feelings of desolation they should. While traversing, there are many hidden containers to find, some with unique items, while also lore documents in some cases. Side quests don't need to be discovered as most are marked on the global map at all times to be taken, but not all. The environments, enemies and conditions change as the story progresses, with something new even in previously visited areas often. [b]Character Management[/b] is performed via several menus where players can customize weapon loadouts with varied presets, upgrade chips which give various passive and even some active abilities, with more room cost in proportion to their power and limited space, so the game encourages making various chip presets to quickly switch based on the situation. Leveling up is done by killing enemies and completing quests, but it's simply an automatic stat upgrade. Weapons can be upgraded over four levels, the first three unlocking a weapon's first passive ability, while the last unlocks each weapon's unique trait, but requiring rare resources. Pod Programs are powerful active abilities with a set cooldown, ranging from bombs to personal shields to energy hammers, and become more powerful the more pods (3 total) players find in the world. Shops and merchants each with their own stock are all over the world as well for trading items and credits. Upgrade chips can be fused to get more powerful versions of them. [b]Minigames[/b] are various activities such as fishing (the main money-making activity), hacking enemy systems, or other quest specific things such as shooter sections using a flight unit, or platformer-like sections in certain levels. They are varied and a welcome addition to the regular mechanics. [b]Combat[/b] is extremely fast paced and revolves around perfect dodging enemy attacks just before they strike, while also understanding enemy patterns and using the right weapons and abilities for the task at hand. There are many combinations and play-styles players can build thanks to chips and pod abilities, making builds an important game mechanic. While apparently simple, combat has several hidden mechanics and quirks making it truly unique and satisfying. On Hard just a few enemy hits are enough to take down any player, enemies hurt a lot and are often in great numbers. Combos with weapons, even combining two specific weapon types to unlock unique combos are a mechanic as well, mastering them will give a critical advantage. 🔩 [b]Technical Analysis[/b] [u]PC Specs: RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM DDR4[/u] In its vanilla state the game runs without huge issues but there can be noticeable stuttering and control problems for Keyboard users. Also pop-in and resolution scaling are off in vanilla. Community mods fix almost all technical issues and can be found on internet, look for FAR Mod mainly. The game runs smoothly on this config once properly patched, without any issue to report. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1935266666 [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Nier Automata is definitely a unique game that blends top-shelf ARPG action with exceptional story and world design. It's a masterpiece everyone should experience, there's nothing quite like it around.