Nier: Automata (for PC) - Review 2022

Nier: Automata is an action-RPG adult past Platinum Games, the studio behind the Bayonetta games, and directed by Yoko Taro, the creator of the Drakengard series and the original Nier. Platinum Games' previous works excel on the gameplay front, merely their stories are more often than not campy schlock. Taro's games, on the other hand, are brilliantly depressing stories tied together with weak gameplay. Nier: Automata is a spousal relationship of Platinum Games' intense action gainsay and Taro's wacky, yet somber storytelling, and is easily one of the better games released in 2022. Unfortunately, Nier: Automata is a PC game that suffers from technical problems. The lack of developer support only compounds this, then you demand to rely on fan-made patches to get the all-time operation out of the game.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The first Nier game developed a niche following, cheers to its tragic storytelling, interesting cast of characters, outstanding soundtrack, and unique gameplay quirks. Nier, the titular protagonist, was a grizzled erstwhile man out to salvage his daughter from monstrous manlike creatures chosen Shades. Despite his noble pursuit, the heart of Nier's story was misunderstanding, and how the breakdown of communication leads to tragedy and loss. The game utilized fairly generic activity combat in most scenarios, just also spiced things up with bullet-hell styled projectiles, perspective puzzles, and fifty-fifty the odd text take chances section. Nier's soundtrack, which featured a haunting blend of surreal vocals, mellow tunes, and catchy hooks, besides caught players by surprise. The combination of these elements resulted in a game that felt singled-out from other Japanese RPGs at the fourth dimension.

Nier: Automata shares many themes with its predecessor, including the music, storytelling, and gameplay. You lot play as 2B, an android tasked with defeating the robot threat, and assisting other androids living in Globe's wastelands. The Androids, 2B included, are biased against the robotic citizenry that take taken over the earth, and fight them indiscriminately. Y'all larn very quickly, even so, that robots are much more humane than their goofy cylindrical appearances would take you believe, and the androids aren't quite the heroes you are told they are. Much like the original game, misunderstanding and misinformation play primal roles in Automata's story. This only becomes more than poignant on subsequent replays, which have you lot play every bit alternate characters with unique perspectives and scenarios.

Difficult Android Activity

Automata shares core gameplay elements with Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, though it takes enough of inspiration from the original Nier and injects unique gameplay mechanics, too. In Automata, move is fast, satisfying, and fluid: You lot take a nuance button similar to Raiden's Ninja Run in Revengeance. Past holding this push button down you can blaze through areas or effectually enemies at loftier speed. If you tap the button instead of holding it, yous perform a contrivance. If y'all time your dodge to avoid an attack simply before it hits, you trigger a rewarding and useful perfect evade, which gives you extra invincibility frames and lets you perform a counterattack. This works similarly to Bayonetta's Witch Fourth dimension mechanic, though in Automata'due south case, time does not slow downward.

Y'all accept light and heavy attacks that concatenation together to slap effectually your robotic adversaries. All of your melee skills are bachelor from the start, so you don't unlock new skills to expand your arsenal as y'all do in Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Combos are likewise fairly simplistic, and then you can chain lite attacks into heavy attacks seamlessly, merely predictably. Like Bayonetta, Nier: Automata lets yous switch between alternate weapon sets, giving you more liberty to form combos on the fly.

While this may sound simplistic compared with other Platinum games, Automata has a few interesting wrinkles that make combat highly enjoyable. You have a robotic pod companion that serves as your long-range attack. Pod shooting also lets y'all cut through the tempest of bullets fired your way by enemies. Similar the original game, enemies fill the area with irksome moving ruby-red orbs that chew through your wellness if y'all're careless. Your pod'south fire can cutting through these orbs to create openings, making information technology a defensive and offensive tool.

Your pod can be equipped with ranged skills that mirror the magic spells in the original Nier. One skill, for example, surrounds you with whirling blades, complementing your melee assault. Another summons spears effectually you lot, temporarily impaling anything that gets hit. There are quite a few of these pod skills to purchase, and y'all tin also find a second and third pod to alternate between during gainsay. Each one can exist equipped with a unique skill, giving you 3 powerful attacks to cycle between, in addition to your melee combos.

Like the original Nier, Automata as well has tiptop-down shooting sections that are in the same vein every bit Ikaruga or Mars Matrix. During these sections, shooting is your main source of damage output, though your melee skills tin can clear away bullets if you demand some defensive options. These sections pop upwards from time to time throughout the story and are just challenging plenty to keep you engaged, without being overly frustrating or tiresome. I loved these sections, and appreciated the homage to the original Nier's quirky gameplay switches.

I thoroughly enjoyed Automata'southward combat. It feels simplified and streamlined, only non to the point where it is dumbed downwards. Automata is accessible enough that you lot tin jump in and play without feeling harrowed or overwhelmed. The lack of a ranking system too helps, since you don't need to worry almost the game hanging your poor functioning over your head after every fight: In Automata, you fight and improve because you want to.

My Android, My Way

As an RPG, Automata has a leveling arrangement and customization options, giving yous a chance to improve and expand your abilities. You lot earn experience from combat, which levels upwards your health and strength. If yous play through the game with some calorie-free side questing, y'all should be adequately leveled for virtually story scenarios. Yous can also better the force of weapons you discover by upgrading them at shops with items you lot scavenge in the world, which gives you a noticeable attack boon.

Automata lets you upgrade 2B via a unique chip system. You earn chips by completing quests, defeating enemies, or simply buying them from shops. Most chip abilities are passive, with effects ranging from bones attack boosts to improving your movement speed. Some of the later chip abilities are highly powerful, and tin noticeably alter how you play the game. One such ability, for example, slows down time whenever an errant bullet gets shut to you, giving y'all ample time to avoid the attack. In order to install a chip, you demand enough storage space to suit it. Advanced chips take higher capacity cost, so you demand to exist choosy nigh which ones you want to install on the character. You tin can aggrandize your capacity by purchasing storage upgrades, but even at max, you need to exist selective about what you lot equip.

A good fix of chips tin can requite yous a massive advantage in a fight. Yet, it is easy to get in over your head and fight a powerful enemy much too early, and die. Automata uses a corpse-run mechanic similar to the Souls games and older MMOs: if you die in Automata, you driblet all the chips yous had equipped at your grave. If you fail to retrieve your chips, or die trying to get them, those chips will be forfeit. Virtually chips, fifty-fifty the rare ones, tin be replaced late in the game, merely doing so is costly and tedious, so losing them is very frustrating. Fortunately, the game gives y'all a plethora of automobile-healing fries and healing items to use, so if you do happen to get in over your head, the chances are it was entirely your fault for jumping the gun in the first place. Death in Automata is the only real judge of your performance, and then the gamble attached to dying is the game's 1 incentive to get better at playing. This ties back to the streamlined, laid-dorsum style of play that the game utilizes, which I very much enjoy.

A Ruined World

Nier: Automata is ready inside an open environment, but it isn't expansive plenty, or content-rich enough to be considered a proper open-world game. Automata takes place inside a branching ruined cityscape, which serves as the main hub. You can undertake quests at several outposts, which usher you towards various areas in the city to complete them. The world is small enough that information technology makes expert utilize of the infinite that information technology has, so you'll accept seen all of what the city has to offer if you lot undertake most quests. At the same time, traveling from one indicate to another takes plenty of legwork, so the environments all feel sizeable and rewarding to explore. As the story progresses, the metropolis changes and opens up, giving you more than areas to explore and quests to take.

Automata's quests are particularly interesting, largely because of how rich yet utterly mundane they are. The game's quests, at their nearly basic, are simple fetch jobs or escort missions. The context for quests is what makes them memorable. One of my favorite quests involves two android lovers who have lost the volition to fight and take deserted the resistance. They are hounded past a hunter for deserting, and you are tasked with finding parts for them to repair themselves at multiple points in the game.

At the end of their quest line, the female android has tired of running, and asks that yous wipe both their memories and then that they may go back to the resistance and exist reinstated. The male person android volunteers to go first, but subsequently having his retention wiped, the female person android backs down. You lot learn that the female android has no intention of having her memory wiped, and only suggested information technology to better mold her male partner in the future, since his personality didn't suit her. It's a revolting revelation, and one that made this storyline stand out in my mind, but functionally it is a simple fetch quest. Many of Automata's quests undergo tragic twists upon their conclusion, or flesh out the earth and characters of the game, making them well worth undertaking despite how bland they seem on the surface.

In one case you finish Automata, y'all restart the game from the beginning, equally an alternate character. Your 2nd replay of Automata focuses on 9S, 2B's male android partner. 9S is a expert fighter, but lacks 2B's beefier melee prowess. To make up for this, 9S'southward heavy attack is a unique projectile that hacks the target's retentivity. Upon successfully connecting with the attack, you are immediately transported to a top-down shooting mini-game loonshit, where yous must shoot gray obstacles to reveal the automobile's retentiveness orb. Destroying this orb lets you destroy the machine outright or commandeer it if y'all hack it unawares. 9S's combat demands skilful utilise of both melee and hacking damage, making your replay noticeably different, even though yous are exploring many of the same areas.

You lot besides unlock a tertiary playthrough, which puts y'all in control of A2, an android antagonist that is at odds with both 2B's commander and the machines. A2 fights similarly to 2B, however her lite attacks are weaker, her heavy attacks are stronger, and she tin taunt enemies to boost her damage. She also gets unique story scenarios, much as 9S does. These scenarios greatly heighten Automata's story and longevity. Platinum Games' titles are generally designed around replays, and the unique experience these alternate playthroughs offer work perfectly with that design philosophy.

Performance Issues and Minimum Specs

Nier: Automata has tremendous strengths, so the electric current PC issues that plague the game are a great disappointment. At the time of this writing, there have been no major updates or patches to address the performance and resolution problems that Automata suffers from.

Automata has very noticeable texture pop-in issues, which no graphical setting tin can change. Adjusting the resolution beyond 1080p often forces the game into windowed fashion. Bumping the anti-ailiasing settings results in major performance drops with barely noticeable visual improvements. I suffered from all-encompassing crashing during my showtime few hours of the game, particularly within the desert expanse. The game is locked at 60 frames per second, which is perfectly acceptable, only I exercise become stuttering regularly. To make matters worse, Foursquare Enix recently released DLC for the game, just did nothing to address the performance bugs.

In that location is a solution to this poor port affair, though information technology comes from the community rather than Square Enix or Platinum Games. A fan-fabricated patch rectifies quite a few of the issues that Automata has on PC, and can be found at the meridian of the game's Steam forums. Installing this is highly recommended if y'all wish to become the game in the meantime.

The game's Steam folio recommends that your PC have at least an Intel Cadre i3 2100 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 GPU, 4GB of RAM, 50GB of bachelor storage, and the Windows 7 operating system. As a Steam game, Nier: Automata supports Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud Saves, and Steam Trading Cards.

A Sullied Gem

It is a shame that Nier: Automata has been so thoroughly snubbed on PC by the developer and publisher. Information technology is a truly excellent game on all fronts: it has a keen visual style, fantastic music, cracking gameplay, and a deeply touching story. By all accounts Automata should exist an Editors' Choice title, merely the negligence the game has suffered makes it hard to recommend and charge per unit highly. If you want to bite the bullet and grab Automata and install the community patch, yous'll be treated to a powerful and satisfying action game. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I sincerely hope that Square Enix and Platinum Games releases an official patch.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/games/16271/nier-automata-for-pc

Posted by: mcgillfornow.blogspot.com

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