Since I've been really enjoying this game I figured the right thing to do would be spreading the word. So im posting my review here yo.: Also I made this with screenshots I took. It didn't turn out great but atleast I tried. Nier Automata is a superb action game with a very interesting story that manages to bring up a load of philosophical questions without being too vague in what it has to say. But still leaving a lot for the player to think about. The world building is really amazing and I think anyone who passes this game perhaps because they don't usually like Japanese games or RPGs is making a mistake. The game does not require you to play the previous Nier(2010) as the story is pretty much unrelated, however if you have played it you will find a chunk of references and stuff you will recognize from it. I think the game strikes a perfect balance with introducing elements, progressing the story and opening up the world for you. After an excellent introductory action packed section you're put in to the open world, if you're just interested in playing through the story and not do side quests or exploring running to the main objectives shouldn't take too long and you're never forced to do any tedious grinding of any kind unless you're thinking about 100% every item and side quest. If you're playing this DO NOT STOP PLAYING AFTER ENDING A. You're not even halfway through the story at that point. I think its a bit misleading to call them "endings" as it really is more like different chapters, and the only part you are gonna be "replaying" is done from a different perspective from the first time with additional story elements revealed. After that everything will be new. The fighting in this game is amazing, its incredibly intuitive when you're new and fun from the get go but also has a lot of depths as you discover combos or how equipping different weapons can affect how you attack, you can have two weapons equipped at a time and these weapons can change how you attack with both of them. For example equipping a heavy sword and spear you can do a cool move where you stick the spear in the ground and hold on to it then spin around it swinging the sword. Everything is really fast and fluid and since doing an action always cancels out whatever you're doing you always feel 100% in control. Movement and dodging (or dashing?) feels wonderful to be honest. Even just running around is fun and exploring any of the areas in the game is just a blast, whether parkouring around the buildings in the city or sliding down sand dunes in the desert. Also it compliments the combat beautifully. Beyond that you can equip different computer chips that can have varying affects. You get a certain amount of slots you can fill out, different chips take out different amount of slots. If you want to boost your damage you can fill out your slots with damage boosting chips and perhaps a couple to increase your chance of critical. If you value speed and dodging you can equip chips to boost movement and your dodging distance. Perhaps you like to go all in and go for a tanky hard headed approach, boost your damage and install a chip that will heal you X amount of what you deal out to your enemies. Combined with the different weapons you can really make something fun that you will enjoy. It's impressive how much variation you can get out of it. You also have your "pod" hovering above you which you can use to either shoot or unleash a special attack move or other function depending on what you put in it, different ones can be equipped and they all vary quite a bit with incredibly cool effects. Certain area's of the game switches up camera perspective and gamestyle. There are some parts that played with a side scrolling perspective and some where you're seeing things from a topdown perspective. These transitions are smooth as all heck and keeps the game interesting. Overall design is beautiful both visually and the game design. The bosses are creative and fun and the many different enemy types that really keeps things interesting. Some "bullet hell" sections are just incredibly intense and really gets your heart pumping. With that said there are some technical issues present on the pc version, however they should be fixable with mods if it hasn't been patched by the time you're reading this. Ive probably forgotten to say most things I wanted to say about this game. But Its amazing. I usually have to force myself to finish a game, but this one I really have to force myself to stop playing instead.
