After playing the free demo when it became available it took me a few years and some convincing before I made myself play the game. Having very limited time for gaming makes picky, and Nier: Automata with its playtime and art-style required a certain leap of faith from me. The result - 70+ hours playthrough on Hard level, 100% completion and conversion to a strong advocate of the game.
STORY
If I'd have to pick what makes Nier: Automata stand out most, I would be very unoriginal and name the story. And it's not only about the potent and layered story the game delivers, but also how it does it. Nier: Automata eagerly acknowledges its medium and fully embraces it to deliver some unique storytelling. The game should be played through several times for the story to fully unfold. Upon the first completion the gamer is encouraged with a message from Square Enix to replay the game. And the ending of the first playthrough is deliberately cheesy and unconvincing, aimed to motivate the player to replaying. Further playthroughs unfold the story more and more and also affect the overall game mood in a very effective way. Also the game manages to explore existentialism topics along the story, which does not feel cheap, but very authentic.
PRESENTATION
The graphics are not something extraordinary. The game is solid for a 1080p 60fps title (that's the baseline on PS4), but nothing more. To give a perspective, it was released in 2017, first as a PS4 only title, that's a full 2 years after the amazing MGS5 release (which was a cross-gen game btw!). However the great art-style mostly makes up for that. Also the overall atmosphere, incredible music play together very well to build up a convincing world. I myself am not a fan of vast open world games where the points of interest are scarcely scattered through the game world and where the game world is more a technological achievement and does not contribute to a more satisfying gameplay. Nier is still an open world game, but more confined and hand crafted, with enclosed areas of different sizes connected to one another. Some areas are available from the beginning and some become available through the game story progression, meanwhile all of them are simply beautiful and have great variability. Whether it's a forest, desert, city ruins, all feel authentic with matching music tracks that complement the experience.
GAMEPLAY
Nier: Automata has basically 3 game modes - third-person action, mech piloting and hacking.
While mech piloting and hacking are less sophisticated, none of them really feels redundant and is fun to play. Hacking and mech piloting lack variety, but they are also not overused, so don't get boring.
The introduction sequence of the game does a great job of showing the game's strong gameplay design. The game starts as a top-down bullet-hell shooter, then smoothly transitions to isometric view, then to the view from back, then to a side view... These transitions also happen further in the game and are not a distraction, but complement the gameplay and bring additional variety, since the gameplay mechanics manage to stay consistent between the modes.
The same is true for the third-person action. For combat there is the classic formula - light attack, heavy attack, evade and jump, which make up all the combos. And there is also a companion POD with it's own ranged attacks.
Combat in Nier is very satisfying, on par with what one would expect from Platinum Games, especially on Hard difficulty, but it has some shortcomings.
First there's the redundancy of different weapons acquired during the playthrough. I never really felt the urge to use more than a few most powerful ones.
And then there's the POD. On easy modes you can even set it up to auto-aim, but even without that the POD is a great help (especially since it also can be upgraded). It helps to avoid engaging in unwanted melee combat, which in turn makes some boss fights in open spaces way too easy.
Another complaint would be from completionist players' perspective. The game has a great replay value, with very interesting and insightful side-quests. Though for a full progression some resources need to be farmed for weapon upgrades, which on its own is not a bad thing, but some particular resources can be farmed in particular locations with a low drop rate, meaning a routine work of reloading and playing the same unchallenging sequence over and over again.
The notorious Into sequence deserves a separate mentioning. The game itself is better to be played on Hard for a compelling challenge, but the intro sequence is unevenly harder. About half an hour sequence without a possibility to save intermediate progress is unforgiving to mistakes. It took me 8+ hours to complete the intro on Hard level, but for those who are not up for the challenge the difficulty can be changed mid-game, i.e. the Intro sequence can be played on Normal then switched to Hard for the rest of the game.
VERDICT
Nier: Automata is not perfect. It lacks the polish of the big budget AAA titles, but it has a bigger soul than many of those. The game has strong identity with it's unique storytelling, a harmonious union of art-style, sound and overall atmosphere and some convincing exploration of philosophical topics that leave a long lasting impression after finishing the game. It is a must play regardless of genre preferences.