Postby the wicked child » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:56 pm
So I've been mostly playing through Nier:Automata the past couple weeks, and I've finished the main story playthrough... still a decent bit to do if I choose in regards to quests and alternate endings (there are apparently 5 "main" endings and 21 "fake"/"bad" endings which occur if you make certain choices/mistakes during the game, or in one case, I chose to ignore an imminent threat for a side quest and got one of those endings).
From a gameplay perspective, although individual sections could get a touch repetitive at times, I certainly have to give this game some credit in the creativity department in the way it provides many different styles of combat/levels throughout the course of the game... one second you are in standard 3rd person 3d, next you are playing a sidescrolling platformer section... overhead... some space shooters... hacking mini games... there is plenty of variety along the way, even if some sections just devolve into smashing buttons to defeat the next wave of machines.
What ultimately makes this game different for me is the story... It would not do the game justice to say there are twists, but yes, there are twists. However, what I did not really anticipate, or maybe even grasp during my playthrough was that the game isn't just trying to swerve you... there is a sort of philosophical question at the root of everything that it is examining throughout.
I had to do some reading/watch some youtube videos after I finished the game because I was kinda scratching my head because I felt like I was missing something...
I guess the best comparison I could give without going into any spoilers is my freshman year of college, I took a General Writing class to fulfill a requirement... however, it turned out to be more of a philosophy class due to the way the professor approached the stories we were reading. In that manner, I was expecting one thing from this game and got something much different in the end.
I was not necessarily happy with how some parts of the story went... but that isn't necessarily indicative of whether something is good or not... I'm still unsure exactly how to feel about the entire experience, but I can say that it was unlike anything else I've played.
I do not regret playing it, but I have a hard time rating it thus far.