8 Fatal Flaws That Stop Nier Automata Being A Masterpiece
3. It's Not As Clever As It Thinks It Is
From its opening moments it's clear that Nier is focused on exploring the very essence of humanity, what it means to exist in a meaningless world, and all the juicy existential goodness that comes with being alive.
Whether the game is contemplating stories about suicidal robots or investigating the importance of family to a race of beings that weren't built to comprehend such a concept, the title makes it clear that it wants you to have philosophy and culture constantly in mind.
But the problem is that these themes and this material doesn't cover any new ground. In fact the game relies on classic musings that have been around since the dawn of sci-fi itself, and Automata doesn't really have anything new to add to the conversation. The developers were content to bring these ideas up, but fail to do more than scratch their surface.
Which, honestly, is fine. The way the game presents these themes by using the medium itself and its gameplay mechanics does allow it to stand above other releases that have attempted to tackle similar topics. But Nier acts as though it's the first piece of media to ever indulge in these themes, rather than striving to present these age-old ideas from a new perspective.