Many gamers feel when Square Enix merged with Squaresoft that the standard of their jPRGs dramatically lowered. To be honest I actually quite liked their previous efforts and today we are looking at a rather zany and offbeat outing which has taken some time for me to get to grips with – it really is a difficult game to review.
Nier … as is a common setting today, starts in a post apocalyptic environment and we see a father frantically trying to stop his daughter from being butchered by an unpleasant group of monsters. When you leap into the game I was immediately reminded of Drakengard 3 – an incredibly simple ‘hack n slash’ with stages of enemies just launching into mindless attacks, wave after wave.I think this lasted for over 30 minutes and I almost was beginning to assume that the code had broken and I was going to be here forever.
The developers then decided to move the game forward in time several centuries with an almost identical setting. The gamer is then immediately placed into a few mundane ‘find this and return’ missions which then shifts into a semi balanced mixture of combat and puzzle games with some side missions to flesh out the content.
Initially I was disappointed with the developers trying to fuse so many settings and ideas in such a short space of time but as the game developed I found myself enjoying a good portion of the missions. The enemies are certainly varied enough in design as you never quite know what to expect just around the corner.
The team behind the concept clearly had the outlook that ‘the more things you throw at the gamers, the more interesting it will be’ because by the time you are settling into the hack and slash intro elements you are whisked away into an almost entirely different game. It is almost enough to make you feel the development team were battling internally over the ideas they liked the most.
The game plays mainly as a third person action romp but when dungeon crawling it then changes into an isometric top down view – all working reasonably well and again helps to keep attention deficit kids interested.
A portion of the gameplay involves puzzle solving and these range from being well thought out brain teasers to simple mechanics, such as pushing a wall block into a hole to unlock a door for instance. My main gripe involved two of the side missions which had my character running back and forward in full ‘errand boy’ mode. This is sometimes compounded by the fact that the game mechanic will often not reward you - which I am positive will irritate many.
Sadly the core of the game is lacking in a few key areas. The combat mechanics for instance can be shifted to various buttons and trigger settings but many of the skills are a waste of time, blocking for one just doesn’t often work so more aggressive styles are rewarded. The majority of the melee combat revolves around pressing a single button so I was often trying to cast magic attacks to keep the experience as enjoyable as I could – even if it might not have been the ideal time for magic.
Your character will quickly move up the ranks with little on screen acknowledgment of your progression to the next level. A more interactive system would have worked wonders for the overall impact of gaining new powers and abilities – you just have to go to the menu screen system to find out what has been added. Not very exciting.
It ends up as almost a paradox, just as you begin to shout at the game “man that idea sucks!” then they present you with a lovely touch and you can almost forgive them for the previous annoying idea. I say almost, because by the time I had 8 hours of gameplay under my belt I was getting frustrated with the ‘ups and downs’ associated with moving from location to location. You are never allowed to really settle and get a rewarding flow – its just a bewildering mix of annoyances flowed by moments of almost genius.
An interesting design idea is the implement of ‘buffs’ which can be mixed to enhance defensive and attacking skill sets. You can also tailor poison effects to inflict further damage.
The production quality can at times be very high – the voice acting of Liam O’Brien for instance is fantastic and it sounds as if he is really having a ball, insulting everyone whenever he gets a chance. Graphically, the game is acceptable with some nice lighting touches in locations however it really isn’t that memorable as an overall design. Both Playstation and Xbox versions are almost identical with the Playstation 3 having a slightly more vibrant colour palette. The level of texture detail is a little underwhelming on both systems and I think they could have achieved more with the hardware on offer. The frame rate is maintained well on both consoles and only a handful of times I noticed a little judder – nothing really worth mentioning.
The audio however is a different kettle of fish with a wide haunting score reminiscent of some of the finest fantastic sci-fi films over recent years. Acoustic guitar can be heard when moving through some cities and when the dungeons are entered the whole dynamic shifts to a mixture of Black Sabbath and techno rave – it works well throughout the game to enhance the tension.
Nier is a bit of a mixed bag, it has clearly suffered from some overall lack of direction but when it gets things right, it does them very well. Unfortunately there are some rather tedious design decisions which mar the overall enjoyment.
