So I picked up Nier: Automata on release day without any prior experience with the Drakengard series or Nier. I had paid it mild attention when I started seeing early footage and then it went largely forgotten, lost behind my growing backlog of games yet to be played. When I started seeing footage of pre-release reviews and very early first impressions I began seeing what was so intriguing again. Then I learned that this game was being made by Platinum Games - I had all but decided this was going to be next on my list.

I bought it and started the long trudge of a download on my slow rural DSL connection and very early in the morning morning around 1:30am I snapped awake and decided I should record a first impression video. I had to wait though because it still wasn't done, so I set up Audacity to record my mic and about 20 minutes later I was hitting the play button with anticipation.

Nier starts in a pretty strange fashion. All the footage I'd seen was third person, open world exploration and combat. But here I was in an arcade bullet hell shoot-em-up and already loving it. Admittedly those sections are better to play with a controller because aiming weapons would be much better with an analog stick. Regardless though, it was great and I was having a blast.

Once the isometric and side scroller arcade portions were finished I saw familiar territory in the 3rd person hack-n-slash mode that I was waiting for. In a typical Platinum Games way I was thrown to the wolves and started button mashing and learning little by little how to do so with some level of skill. I had a hard time with dodging though, the timing of evading attacks and getting your android ass kicked is a pretty fine line but I'm sure with some more practice I'll be able to hold my own. Anyway, soon after that first battle was the first mini-boss battle. Even if in this case "mini-boss" refers to a enormous, sentient robot bucket wheel excavator that blasted its way through the wall and started smashing me relentlessly. I also started noticing the incredible sound track here.

Once it was down I met the first of my allies, a little guy called 9S. He helps a lot in this first mission and becomes a companion later on. A little further down the road I lost control of the camera again with the game becoming a side scroller for a little bit. I admit I'm not a big fan of the camera changes. They fit the switching of the game mode at the time but I'm not sure why they change modes in the first place. It's not the worst thing by any means but it sort of breaks the flow when you're getting used to one style of play and it just moves to a whole different kind of game.

Still further up the road once I was all learn-ed in the many play styles available and had downed another mini-boss, the first actual boss fight began. By the way there are lot of cut-scenes in this game and for me at least, they tanked my frame rate while they played. Nier runs beautifully and the system requirements are relatively low spec so it confused me a bit when the cuts ran poorly. The major boss was an epic feeling fight with a few different phases but it also never felt very challenging. More like "do this one thing for a while and then something new will happen until you're done". Which I'm pretty sure is just part of the tutorial as a whole, a sort of look at what to expect. But not nearly on the same level as the first boss fight in another fantastic Platinum title called Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Play that if you never have, I guarantee you'll have a smile on your face. Anyway the boss went down in a pretty amazing fashion and I decided to end my first session there and go back to bed because it was nearing 4am after I had some editing done on the video.

Anyway I'm very happy that I picked this one up. After a little more time in the game I've noticed, through menus and talking to NPC's that Nier: Automata has a lot more depth to it than just bashing baddies. There are collectables and secrets to find, there's a huge world to explore, lots of questing to be had and I'm sure many more epic boss battles to come. There's even an option for fishing when you happen across water. Hopefully I'll make a few more videos as I play more so keep an eye on the TwinstiqLP YouTube channel if that kind of thing interests you. I'll try and be more awake during the commentary there as well. So far I can recommend playing Nier: Automata whole-heartedly, even at full price.

System Requirements for Nier: Automata are as follows