NieR: Automata

Nier: Automata is a crazy, beautiful, and highly entertaining journey full of nutty ideas and awesome gameplay. It may not include the most sensical story or compelling characters, but its frenzied combat -- coupled with beautiful visuals and a stunning soundtrack – make it too much fun to pass up.

The sequel to Yoko Taro's cult hit is a beautifully frenetic hack-and-slasher with an engrossing and layered story.

Yoko Taro's eccentric action RPG gets a follow-up that's every bit as surprising as its predecessor with a little help from Platinum Games.

A beautiful, melancholy action RPG that’s effortlessly stylish and utterly unpredictable.

If that's my biggest problem with it after clearing each of the game's five core endings, that should say everything. Nier: Automata is a game that's more than willing to make players feel small, both physically and conceptually. It wants to swallow them whole, and it succeeds. Nier demands patience with its antics — not to mention its definition of "ending" — but it's patience was rewarded.

While it's certainly not perfect, Nier: Automata is nonetheless a breath of fresh air that will challenge your thumbs as well as your thinking - a game with hydrocarbon heart and silicon soul that will stay with you long after you've set the controller down.

While the story has many cool and interesting moments, the repetition and lack of depth make them hard to fully appreciate

During one sublime moment, after the visuals on the screen began degrading before my eyes, I really felt as though I didn't know what the game might throw at me. At that moment, I wondered if it might be right to call "Nier; Automata" an experimental action game. In any case, I can't wait to see what Yoko Taro does next.

It's rare to see such ambitious storytelling and open world roleplaying tied to such a stylish combat system, not to mention the (optional) Souls-like multiplayer elements, shooter tangents, mini-games that punctuate rather than interrupting, and that big ol' world to explore. You don't need to have played any of Yoko Taro's previous games to appreciate Automata, even though it has links to both Drakengard and (of course) the original Nier, but it'll probably make you keen to seek them out. Me? I'm hoping Platinum get a chance to work with these worlds and words again.

NieR: Automata is nearly as good of an RPG as it is an action game, which is a mighty tall order. It's tough to really strike that balance as many action-RPGs tend to favor one element over the other, but Platinum Games, with the help of Square Enix, has tapped into its innate ability to captivate us with combat while keeping the rest of the journey engaging.