Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Life, Death, Sacrifice: The Beautiful Tragedies of 'Nier: Automata'

Scant things bother me more than when a video game wastes my time. It's why, at first, I was bothered by the notion that I needed to finish Nier: Automata multiple times to fully appreciate it. Such tactics are usually deployed as a cheap trick to pad a game's length. Nier avoids this problem, for the most part, and it's best to think of the endings as chapters. Forty hours later, I've now seen Nier's final conclusion—ending E—and I'm still thinking about it. It was devastating.

Nier's premise is simple: humans have retreated to the moon following an alien invasion, and use increasingly advanced machines to fight on their behalf, as they attempt to retake Earth. If you only complete the game's first ending—ending A—you're left with some sense of hope. 2B and 9S, the androids at the heart of the story, have dealt the alien forces a sizable blow. But the questions Nier has raised—what meaning and purpose should the machines' lives have in the absence of humanity's limitations?—continue to haunt.

It's only when you begin playing again, prompting the perspective to shift from 2B to 9S, that everything begins to unravel. 9S has the ability to hack into machines and objects around him, occasionally providing glimpses into the mental state of the machines the two are pulverizing.

Continue reading on Waypoint.



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