Nier Review (PS3, XBOX360)
Nier certainly isn’t the most descriptive title for a videogame. Then again, this latest effort from Drakengard developer Cavia (and published by Square Enix) kind of defies description. Sure, it might start off like your typical, hack-and-slash RPG, but Nier’s identity constantly fluctuates as the game co-opts mechanics from bullet-hell shooters, 2D platformers, Diablo-style, isometric dungeon crawlers, and more — even morphing into a full-on text adventure at certain points.
I’m not talking about subtle homages, either. There are sections in Nier where the gameplay, camera angles, and control methods all change drastically. One minute you’re chopping away at hordes of Shades (the game’s chief enemy type) from a third-person, behind-the-back perspective, the next moment you could be staring at a top-down, swords-and-sorcery version of Geometry Wars — twin-stick shooting and all. Or maybe you stumble upon a seemingly deserted manor (a near brick-for-brick recreation of the mansion from Resident Evil), at which point the normally player-controlled camera shifts to a static position for each room and the color palette drops to just black and white.
These little diversions happen often enough to spice up Nier’s simple and repetitive combat, but none of them really compare to the games they attempt to emulate. And as clever and well-written as the Choose Your Own Adventure-inspired segments are, I’m not entirely sure that half-hour chunks of pure text are appropriate for a videogame released in the year 2010. They certainly don’t do Nier’s pacing issues any favors.
Speaking of distractions, the side quests in Nier are about as numerous as they are totally mindless. Seems like every townsperson has a delivery to make or a shopping list for you to fill, which might have worked for World of Warcraft circa 2005, but doesn’t quite do it for me when I’m playing an offline action game. Assuming you avoid these pointless time-sinks, you’re still looking at a five- or six-hour commitment before Nier’s story finally starts to pick up. And it’s a shame that the moment-to-moment gameplay is so mediocre, because anyone who sees it through will discover a plot that takes some fascinating and truly original turns.
Nier opens during the summer of 2049 in the middle of a ruined, snow-covered metropolis. The only survivors appear to be a sick child, her desperate father, and a sentient book that might hold the key to their salvation. Fast-forward 1,312 years and mankind seems to have reverted back to medieval-era technology. From there you take control of a man whose daughter also suffers from an incurable illness, and it’s up to you to both save her life and figure out why the world is being overrun by swarms of ghostly shades.
Yeah, the main character comes off a little one-dimensional. It’s a good thing, then, that he’s surrounded by a supporting cast of genuinely interesting folks. There’s Grimoire Weiss, a talking book that sounds a lot like Alan Rickman with a God complex. And if that’s not strange enough, you also get to pal around with Kainé, a possessed, lingerie-wearing exile whose arsenal includes a pair of jagged blades, frequent f-bombs, and both male and female genitalia. She’s about as unique as they come, and I’m positive she’d single-handedly justify Nier’s M-rating if it weren’t already propped up by the gallons of blood that spray from your opponents during combat.
Multiple playthroughs reveal more sides of the story, but, as I mentioned earlier, the actual “game” parts of Nier wind up sabotaging the plot’s potential. It looks downright primitive, first of all, and no amount of creative character design makes up for the comparatively generic environments. Even worse, the game requires you to return to the same handful of dungeons at least two or three times, making it seem like a 10-hour game that’s been massaged to fill 20 or 30.
As a manga or anime, I think a lot of people would dig Nier. I’m just not convinced that this grab bag of half-baked ideas and gratuitous filler makes for a great videogame. And I learned something about myself, as well: It takes a lot more than sassy books and hermaphrodites to keep my interest these days.
