Nier Automata

johnny_ultimate

I'm on a 970 and managing 60 FPS (albeit with the fix installed to stop some of the unavoidable frame pacing issues). You'll probably be fine, although frankly if you have a PS4 I'd almost be inclined to recommend that as there's a bit of messing around on PC.

Call Me Jimmy

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I'm on a 970 and managing 60 FPS (albeit with the fix installed to stop some of the unavoidable frame pacing issues). You'll probably be fine, although frankly if you have a PS4 I'd almost be inclined to recommend that as there's a bit of messing around on PC.

thanks for that, very interested in your opinion on it now from a gaming / story standpoint

Gingervitis

DLC announced for Colosseum style fighting where you can fight the CEOs of Square Enix and Platinum Games. Because of course you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOWWzmxYBGE

johnny_ultimate

Right, finally seen the end end credits so I can say this confidently: Nier Automata is a gruelling slog of a video game whose few high points do not justify the tedium.

It sums up, more succinctly than any other game I've played, the fundamental problems of marrying narrative with longform play. There are ideas of worth and effectiveness in NA, but they are frustratingly buried amid 30 hours of 'content'. This is a game with no sense of narrative flow, the story constantly interrupted by long stretches of mindless gameplay. It is a poor open world; the combat is far from Platinum's finest hour (a break from Nier for a few hours of the still magnificent Bayonetta highlighted that in no uncertain terms); the bullet hell sections have none of the chaotic majesty of a Cave shooter. It is several mediocre games blended into one, and on top of that the game repeatedly recycles or remixes a handful of core setpieces. I have heard at least one critic argue the game respected their time - I would say the complete opposite, including one entire playthrough that could have been easily condensed into something more manageable. I get the impression Yuko Taro dislikes many aspects of modern game design, which is baffling that he makes ones that make so little efforts to transcend the limits. Spec Ops The Line was a long time ago now: a few sarky winks about a game's inanity should no longer cut it. (The one design element worth praising is the customisable build options that allow you to break the game in various fun ways).

All too often the game's attempts at storytelling get diluted due to the game's structure - dozens too many hacking mini games destroying any forward momentum, and convoluted lore weighing down some of the game's few concepts of worth. Which is a shame, because here and there there are moments - fleeting in the context of a 30 hour game - where it does work. Recurring character

Pascal gets a strangely heartbreaking, dark arc in the game's final hours

. Some of the main characters too have moments where they travel off in interesting ways, if utterly constrained by the strictly anime-style melodramatic delivery (credit, at least, for a willingness to embrace grim endings). There are scattered sights & scenes that are memorably quirky, surreal and occasionally even poignant (although even the quirks feel mild in comparison to experimental works like the recent sensory and cerebral assault of Oikospiel). And a few sub quests have surprising outcomes - shame, though, 85% of them are mindless fetch quests.

But, above all else, the whole thing feels adolescent - a few (on-the-nose) allusions to philosophers and broad ruminations on what it means to be human are beyond what most games are capable of, but far less than what games should be (and occasionally are) capable of. When you see so much more impassioned, engaging and artful exploration of similar themes in recent films like Her or Under the Skin, do we have to settle for this mish-mash of half-baked ideas where the moments of genuine effectiveness - and there are some! - are spread so very, very thin? Even in-narrative attempts to address the game's cyclical structure frustrate as the internal logic collapse due to incompatibility with certain gameplay decisions (

the decision for inventory and XP to be shared across characters, for example

).

At the real, true, whatever ending to the game, you are invited to delete your save file in one of the game's few meaningful attempts to load a gameplay element with some sort of emotional weight and justification. And yet, after 30 hours of play, I wasn't sad to see all progress wiped slowly and definitively.

Instead, I was just glad to see the back of this maddening, deeply flawed game.

Retr0gamer

I still think the game is well worth playing but everything you say is pretty valid. While the game plays better than the first Nier I think in terms of bizarre gameplay twists and turns and narrative it's a weaker game.

Gingervitis

Well written review. While I disagree, can't argue with where you're coming from.

Having not played the same number of games, this came more as a breath of fresh air, having been burned out by the glut of Western games from last year. Even Watch Dogs 2, while being competently executed, felt very shallow in comparison to this.

Working through Bayonetta now, and the combat is a lot deeper and more challenging - almost frustratingly so. They're definitely different games though in what they're trying to do.
Nier: Automata subverts my expectations in many ways, which few if any games have done before, which is laudable in its own right. Being different in this day and age of triple A games (outside of the big names - P5, BOTW, H:ZD) should be encouraged.

Although 15 bucks for flimsy DLC (May 2nd) may result in a pass from me unless reviews can convince me otherwise.

johnny_ultimate

I agree that games should be different - lord knows I've given games an easier ride than they deserve in the past for that very reason. No doubt Taro is very much his own creator with a very specific vision. But that is a limited allowance: for me there's just not enough going on in Nier Automata to earn much credit just because it's not generic blockbuster #238 (although in gameplay terms, it kinda is for much of the running time).

Games are in an exciting place. Games like Breath of the Wild are thrillingly complex things in terms of design, managing to elicit new surprises and revelations after dozens of hours of play (and, as simplistic as the story in that game is, Nintendo have come up with novel ways to communicate its lore and backstory that suit the grand canvas they've created). Games like Inside and The Last Guardian achieve remarkable symbiosis between all elements to the point where the play and story are often one-and-the-same. And a dive into itch.io will reveal games thrillingly liberated from the shackles of commercial game design altogether. In that general environment, something like Nier exists in a sort of limbo for me: not articulate enough to play with the big boys, not radical enough to coexist with the indies. Good things can and will be done in that limbo - many of the PS2 eras best games came about because of it - but this game for me just doesn't realise the potential.

Retr0gamer

The lack of budget really shows as well. Platinum did a stellar job with what they had but it's always on the verge of being brilliant. It really needed the bigger canvas fir its ideas to be fully fleshed out.

I feel validated :pac:

I pushed on and finished the game after watching this review. Jim loves the game but he never actually says why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gd41YB9mAc

YouSavedMyLife

I want to buy it but the apparent problems with the PC version are putting me off. Anyone know if its possible to try it on steam then refund it and buy it cheaper on CDkeys? Assuming it runs well on my system.

YouSavedMyLife

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

I want to buy it but the apparent problems with the PC version are putting me off. Anyone know if its possible to try it on steam then refund it and buy it cheaper on CDkeys? Assuming it runs well on my system.

The unofficial patch sorts everything and its not finicky to install. I wouldn't hold back if it looks like your kinda thing.

Gingervitis

If you have a Radeon 480, you'll want to roll back your drivers to 16.1.5 (around autumn 2016) to avoid random white screen issues. Not ideal.

K.O.Kiki

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

I want to buy it but the apparent problems with the PC version are putting me off. Anyone know if its possible to try it on steam then refund it and buy it cheaper on CDkeys? Assuming it runs well on my system.

You can only refund games bought through Steam.

Adyx

Anyone know what the PC update yesterday was for? Doesn't seem to have solved any of the ongoing issues addressed by the unofficial fix.

Retr0gamer

Adyx wrote: »

Anyone know what the PC update yesterday was for? Doesn't seem to have solved any of the ongoing issues addressed by the unofficial fix.

Getting ready for the DLC apparently.

Sure selling you stuff is way more important than fixing your broken game.

lawlolawl

I was enjoying this game initially but I'm really struggling to find the will to keep playing.

The world is empty and awkward to get around, the sidequests are awful, the voice acting is cringe worthy and the story is predictable as fook.

EDIT: Finished the A storyline. Started the B one and quit after about 30 minutes. A deeply tedious game.

YouSavedMyLife

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

You can only refund games bought through Steam.

Yeah, but what i men't was is it possible for me to buy a game on steam to test it on my system, refund it, then buy a steam key on a site like CDkeys.

Retr0gamer

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

Yeah, but what i men't was is it possible for me to buy a game on steam to test it on my system, refund it, then buy a steam key on a site like CDkeys.

Yes it is.

Moist Bread

So I got this for the ps4 and I just can't get into it at all. I landed on earth and immediately got sent on 2 fetch quests. I'm having difficulty finding the items and great difficulty in caring at all. Sad, cause the demo made it seem like a lot of fun. I presume it gets a lot better? I've never had a game take the wind out of my sails as fast as this.

johnny_ultimate

Moist Bread wrote: »

So I got this for the ps4 and I just can't get into it at all. I landed on earth and immediately got sent on 2 fetch quests. I'm having difficulty finding the items and great difficulty in caring at all. Sad, cause the demo made it seem like a lot of fun. I presume it gets a lot better? I've never had a game take the wind out of my sails as fast as this.

It started slow for me and honestly never improved massively. Playing the game felt like a chore for huge chunks of the running time. The game probably peaks in the final stretch of the first playthrough and beginning of the second (where there's a honeymoon period where they introduce a key new gameplay system - sadly, I never wanted to see the bloody thing again by a few hours later), but even then I would stop well short of calling it exceptional.

K.O.Kiki

Moist Bread wrote: »

So I got this for the ps4 and I just can't get into it at all. I landed on earth and immediately got sent on 2 fetch quests. I'm having difficulty finding the items and great difficulty in caring at all. Sad, cause the demo made it seem like a lot of fun. I presume it gets a lot better? I've never had a game take the wind out of my sails as fast as this.

The fetch quests are easy.

Use marker, find enemies, pick up items after defeating them.

lawlolawl

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

The fetch quests are easy.

They are also incredibly boring and there are a whole bunch of them.

Evade

lawlolawl wrote: »

They are also incredibly boring and there are a whole bunch of them.

Most of them are sidequests, you can ignore them.

Retr0gamer

Well just finished it there. After the first two routes the story gets very good especially if you've played the first Nier as there's lots of nods to the original. The game really steps it up a gear or two in the crazy department.

It has its flaws but at the end of it, it was more than worth experiencing.

Potential-Monke

So i've about 20 hours put into this. Have to say, amazing game! I seriously hope it holds my interest, and i'm intrigued about the multiple play-throughs. I'm loving the jump between genres, and the fact that there's no loading when it happens.

megaten

Just finished the 5 main endings a lot and really enjoyed it. The fetch quests didn't bother me too much since I don't play a lot of open world games.

Potential-Monke

Hah, forgot i posted in here!

So, about 30 hours in and i gave up. Got bored during the second playthrough, tried to go back a couple of times, but between doing the same stuff again, and having an inferior character compared to the first playthrough, it killed the same for me. Traded it in. Shame, good idea but it just couldn't hold me!

Evade

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Hah, forgot i posted in here!

So, about 30 hours in and i gave up. Got bored during the second playthrough, tried to go back a couple of times, but between doing the same stuff again, and having an inferior character compared to the first playthrough, it killed the same for me. Traded it in. Shame, good idea but it just couldn't hold me!

If you're close to the end with 9S stick with it because mild

the story continues past the ending you get with 2B.

I found 9S a lot easier to use, just hack everything, but it isn't quite as much fun.

Sephiroth_dude

Hoping this will go on sale on ps4 soon.

Grahamer666

I wanted to pick it up as it's discounted on Steam at the moment but i heard it's a very bad port. Anyone play it on PC?