2/5 ★ – SpiderJ95's review of NieR:Automata™.

I desperately wanted to like this game. I think it has a lot of great things: the music in some spots is fun to listen to, the lore of the world is interesting, the intent of the end credits sequence is admirable, and once you get to a certain point the conflict between some of the characters is engrossing. But the game is also extremely repetitive in more ways than one, and frankly spends a majority of it’s time serving as a prologue to the story that actually wanted to be told. Combat is standard Platinum, but also lacking a lot of the depth/variety from some of their other titles (including The Legend of Korra game). The standard control layout has you constantly holding down a bumper to shoot enemies, a necessity in fights that eventually made my hand hurt. Enemies for the most part are all approached in the same way, no matter if they’re small grunts or towering golems. There is an upgrade system, but once I found a set I liked within the first playthrough there wasn’t much incentive to change. Which comes to my next issue with it: the game is divided into 3 acts/playthroughs, two of which are largely identical in terms of locations and enemies. The major difference between the two are your approach to combat: the first has you mash attack and hold the bumper to fire, the second has you undergo a hacking shooter minigame over and over and hold the bumper to fire. Both get old fairly quickly. There are some added cutscenes, but ultimately the emotional weight and heavy lifting is done in the third act/playthrough. There you switch between the two playstyles and while the environments become very samey, the narrative is treated as the main storyline compared to the other acts. There are side missions and an “open world” in the game, but they share many faults with games like Final Fantasy XV. Large empty landscapes with missions that typically involve more fighting and walking around the map. It’s a shame because Nier Automata is a unique game, an interesting game, an eventually emotionally impactful game. It’s just the road to get there is long and gets old far before you get there.