Nier Automata Review Lets Highlight This Epic Hack & Slash Adventure Game

Nier automata is a hack & slash adventure game with a few twists and an interesting narrative storyline, set in a world in the midst of a war between robots and androids battling over earth while the remnants of humanity are nowhere to be seen.

As a hack and slash game you want the combat to feel good and there definitely is a good feel to the combat with different combination attacks depending on which combination of weapons you have equiped along with a large number of weapons to find and upgrade all with their own move sets and feels, from various glove type weapons, through heavy and smaller swords and even axe and polearm weapons, all of which upgrade to have additional features and status effects on them.

The combat can be very intensive and depending on how you take on enemies it can be easy to be swarmed but more often than not as long as you’re not somewhere that severely outlevels your character you should be able to take down waves of enemies and feel powerful, though if you go off the beaten track early you will run into very powerful enemies who will make light work of you.

What is clever though is that the game is fairly balanced so that whether you’re speeding through the game or taking your time doing the sidequests enemies will level alongside you with a few exceptions, so that as you’ve levelled up enemies too will spawn at higher levels, and with those higher levels more evolved robots will begin to spawn which have newer and different body types, the game even goes so far as to explain that the robots learn through combat and evlove based on this and it is explained in the lore later which may also contain spoilers.

Bosses will be encountered through the game fairly regularly especially in each area you play through and the game does a very good job of varying the combat especially in each of these as often there is something very specific you have to do in each of these bosses besides just smash them til they’re dead whilst also revealing lore along the journey, and there is a lot of lore to be found besides just what you learn in the storyline there are many collectible documents which reveals a lot of information about the times before the war and what happened to the humans before they left the planet. (and even the weapons have their own lore to read should you choose to while upgrading them)

Alone that would be enough to make this a great game especially as there is a lot of storyline up to an intense conclusion, but what makes the game really special is that it doesn’t end there as it spoils that each playthrough is unique, and while I was picturing that other endings might be gathered through doing different things like enacting 11b’s attempt to leave yorha or removing my perception chip at some specific point or perhaps even choosing not to battle a2 (where 9s jumped in and hit here while she seemed to be holding back and I just wanted to talk) and it would have been clever to hide alternative paths in this manner but the game chose to hide secret new game + as other characters to show their side of the storyline, which was a full playthrough length in itself and adapting the playstyle with different ways of doing things and even new movesets along with unique sidequests which could be done along the way.

Without spoiling too much it’s how these extra playthroughs added to the story and the game and done in a very clever way all while creatively changing the gameplay and revealing even more of the story and secrets of what is really going on in this battle that really made this a truly special game worthy of an indelacio star, quite simply because while it was already a great game with a great combat feel and fun gameplay arc which keeps it challenging with ever evolving enemies which level up to match your level, it’s the storyline and just how well done the secrets of the continued new game + modes were done, along with all the hidden secrets and lore of the world you can choose to discover through sidequests and quite literally an a-z of endings that made this worthy of an indelacio star.

It took me over 40 hours to play through what I would consider a full playthrough which was all the way to a true end of the storyline in new game ++ but there’s far more to be found even at that as there are even more secret bosses to be descovered and found, and the game does make it convenient to gather the missed endings after one full completion as it lets you chapter select and even debug at this point to go hunt down the secrets you’ve missed, but it will still take skill and time to hunt down everything should you choose to, one thing I will say is that the dlc challenges to unlock different outfits can be very difficult, but you will find various cosmetic upgrades along the way maybe without realising it as often you will be collecting so much loot it’s hard to realise that some of the items you’re grabbing like flowers and cogs can be attached to your character for a little unique look.

I would highly recommend the game not only because the storyline is very compelling as you learn not only the fate of the world but also see the androids grow in emotions along the way all while learning the secrets of the robots which inhabit the earth now while they evolve into higher lifeforms along the way and how all of this ties together, but also because the combat and gameplay elements are so fun and well done, and they do a good job of varying things up as I said on other characters who do things differently and have their own unique skills. Well worth purchasing at the price as you will enjoy a great story along with many hours of great fun gameplay.