NieR: Automata is a downloadable open-world, hack and slash/character action game from Platinum Games and was originally released on the 23rd February 2018 on the Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Platinum Games are the same team behind many great hack and slash titles, such as Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The game was a pseudo-sequel to the original Nier but doesn’t have many ties to the game’s previous story or characters in any real way.
How to Download Nier: Automata
To download your copy of Nier: Automata click on the Download link at the end of the review. You can download the game from Steam for Windows, from PlayStation Sotr for PS4 and form Microsoft Store if you want to play it on Xbox One. if you’re a fan o post-apocalyptic science fantasy, check out also our review of ELEX.
The Game Review
Nier: Automata from the moment you start to play it is very dependent on its story and that’s all due to how much effort went into it all. The story in the game revolves around 3 different androids named 2B, 9S, and A2, with each successful playthrough of the game causing you to play as the next character in the story.
In the world of Nier: Automata, aliens had invaded Earth and used a complex network of machines to overthrow the humans and force them off-world. To keep the human race from being completely decimated, they create humanoid androids that are designed for combat, leadership, and reconnaissance to help deal with the alien invasion as it proceeds to continue for years on end.
As you play through the story, you learn more and more about the world you’re in and the androids that you play as, each with their own take on the overall arching story.
A major part of the game is the combat, just like it should be with any good character action game. In Nier: Automata you have 2 different attacks, each one allowing for a different weapon to be equipped to it, allowing for a mix-up of light and heavy attacks. Along with these attacks, you can create a varied number of combos, some of which can be done in the air and others on the ground, all the while getting your little robot companion to shoot at them as you’re doing it.
Through combat, exploration, and questing, you can level up and while it doesn’t have you do anything else other than that, you become a little bit stronger and your overall stats go up.
Other than the combat, you can explore the robot infested world, taking on different quests from a number of different NPC’s, some of which are on a timer – so once you reach a certain point in the game, you can no longer do them.
Throughout the world, you can find different items, chipsets, and weapons. Items can be used to heal, increase certain stats for a brief period of time, and even can be used as resources for weapon upgrades. Chipsets act like equipment and help to increase certain aspects of your androids’ statistics for as long as they are installed, or they can provide secondary bonuses, such as healing while out of combat.
Weapons can be equipped and switched out on the fly in the form of sets and come in different weapon types, so you won’t be solely using swords for the entire game. By using some of the resources you’ve found out in the game world, you can use it to upgrade weapons all the way up to level 5, making them stronger along the way, and giving them some unique abilities as well in some cases.
In terms of comparisons, it’s quite similar to previous games in the genre, such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, where the gameplay has a high amount of flair and replay value to it because of its deeper complexity. Fans of previous Platinum Games titles are going to enjoy Nier: Automata, without a shadow of a doubt.
Anyone looking for a new hack and slash/character action game, along with a great story that’s going to take a fair amount of time to get everything you want out of it, then this is a great title to pick up.
