The setup

Thousands of years into the future, aliens invade the Earth. Humanity is crippled, retreating into hiding, and relying on androids to fight the war against the aliens for them. It seems like a stereotypical alien invasion story with a minor twist on it. It kind of is. But underneath that mask is a truly mesmerizing experience with an interesting world, solid game mechanics, and brilliant music.

A few notes...

As this is my first review post, I want to take moment to talk about spoilers. I won't include any unless I feel I need to in order to express my opinion of the game. As far as Nier: Automata goes, there won't be any major spoilers!

For the glory of mankind

An overgrown city, a sprawling desert, a luscious forest, and an... amusement park? These are, for the most part, the main environments of the game. You'll play as YoRHa Unit 2B, accompanied by another android, 9S, as you battle robots that the invading aliens created to fight, well, you. The environments are gorgeous, and I probably had way too much fun seeing how far I can slide from the top of a sand dune. Each of these fun environments has its own unique story, and they only begin to scratch the surface. The entire universe is, for lack of a better term, a clusterfuck. Not in a bad way, but there's so much lore from other games and various mediums for this universe that Yoko Taro has created, it's pretty impressive.

Photo from PlatinumGames

For example, and this is never mentioned in game, but the Nier games take place in a universe that stemmed from an alternate joke ending of a game called Drakengard. Yoko Taro is a weird dude. There's lots going on in this universe, and also a lot of content outside of the game as well, but that's typically best to consume after you've completed the game. It's all supplemental, but surprisingly good, especially if you enjoy the world of Nier. But we won't get ahead of ourselves, there's plenty of lore consuming to be done as you mercilessly beat robots and dodge bullets.

Hack & Slash? Check. RPG? Check. Bullet Hell..? Also check.

First and foremost, Nier: Automata is a hack 'n slash. A pretty good one at that, too. You have two main weapons, a weapon for your light attacks, and a weapon for your heavy attacks. These weapons can be mixed around, and they'll have a different moveset based on what slot they're in. Maybe you want your small katana to be your heavy attack, and your big katana be your light attack. Or you can have two spears be both light and heavy. Each pairing has a unique combo tied to it as well, which is nice touch to keep combat feeling fresh. You also get a little pod that follows you around and can shoot enemies with little oranges to add some supplemental damage, or to more efficiently clear out the massive wave of bullets coming at you. The bullets, my god, the bullets.

Photo from official Steam page

Most of the traditional bullet hell-esque gameplay takes place in a hacking minigame that frequently appears. However, lots of enemies like to shoot stuff at you, especially bosses, and the game starts to ebb and flow between bullet hell dodging and mashing your buttons until one of you dies. It's a fun combat loop overall, and is augmented by an interesting upgrade system.

2B is an android, so your upgrades come in the form of chips that you can shove in your head. Each chip uses up an amount of storage, and do lots of different things. What really caught my attention was the amount of choice you had in min-maxing these chips. For example, you can take out chips related to, say, your HUD, just to get a little extra space. It's quite intuitive and fun to tinker around with. So sit back in a camp, listen to the peaceful tunes, and make sure you don't rip out your operating system chip. Seriously.

The Weight of the World

Speaking of tunes, can I just fanboy for a minute? The music in Nier: Automata is phenomenal. Outstanding. Beautiful, haunting, engaging. Keiichi Okabe outdid himself with the music. Wretched Weaponry and Amusement Park just hit every dopamine center in my brain with full force. The music seamlessly reacts with combat and exploration phases, transitioning from a peaceful, perhaps melancholic version of a track, to a louder, more aggressive version when you enter combat. The vocals are sung in something called "chaos language", which, from my understanding, is simply mixing lots of different languages together to create a type of.. gibberish? Somehow, it just works.

Become as Gods

With all that said, the game does have some pretty heavy themes. It brings up some questions, such as purpose, and occasionally places differing philosophical views opposite of each other to clash head on. It's a wonderful game, set in a hauntingly beautiful world full of conflict. The beauty is accentuated by the amazing score that I continue to go back to listen to. Finally, the combat and accompanying mechanics are well refined, and more than enough to keep you entertained until the credits roll. And that's key to remember, the game doesn't end until you see credits. Nier: Automata is officially scratched off my backlog, and if it's still on yours, it is still absolutely worth giving it a shot.