Overall: D | Reviewed on: July 3, 2026
As a reviewer, I have never discounted the possibility that the problem lies with me. While not uncommon that I disagree with other reviews in various ways, it is uncommon for my opinions to differ so wildly from popular consensus. To put it bluntly: I did not like Neir: Automata. I found the title to be unsuccessful in nearly (neir-ly?) every regard which combined to make the game a tedious slog. The developer, PlatinumGames, is a studio whose work I have greatly admired. And yet, a studio known for wonderfully tight, expressive action, crafted a game which is too bland and repetitive for the 35+ hour run time.
Since I have come out of the gate swinging, let’s take some time to unpack that opening paragraph. Firstly, I feel it is important to say that I did spend over 30 hours playing this game and achieved the final, true ending of the game. While I always finish anything which I review, in this case it is especially important to note since the game is structured in three loops, each one rolling credits. To this end, I imagine some people have only played through once or that will be a refute of this review. Fear not hypothetical reader, I did, in-fact, finish the game.
And I was extremely ready to be done. Starting with the simplest problems, let’s begin with the game play. As previously mentioned, PlatinumGames has a pedigree of high-octane action games with tight controls and expressive combat. People will often joke that your playthrough of a PlatinumGames’ title starts on the second run. You might be able to skate by with C-ranks, but to get the top marks, you need to really understand the mechanics and play both flashy and aggressive. I guess they took the jokes to heart and now completing the main story requires at least 2.5 playthroughs. While certainly an odd design choice, I have no real problem with this structure. It does, however, highlight a huge problem: repetition.
Everything in this game is repeated far beyond the point of tedium. There is an anemic enemy variety. For most of the game, you will be fighting slightly different versions of the game three enemy types. Their moves and abilities hardly change throughout the 30-odd hours of gameplay, so it loses its luster quickly. Furthermore, while there are different weapon types, none of them change the feel of combat enough to feel unique beyond aesthetics. Once you have seen the combo animation, you are free to just choose the weapons with the best numbers. Granted, this may be another victim of poor enemy diversity but who can say.
The lack of variety is heightened by the ease of combat. While some robots can be huge damage sponges, your basic dodge ability is so comically lenient that just spamming it, makes you nearly (nier-ly?) invincible. And since this is an action RPG, there are levels which do matter. If you are fighting a foe whose level is much greater than yours, it doesn’t pose a greater challenge, just drags the fight out. Beating is as simple as spending several minutes whittling down a health bar.
At any time where you are playing as 9S, the combat becomes even easier, if even more tedious. He has the ability to hack into enemies, and, on a successful hack, the robot explodes often killing it in one go and damaging anyone caught in the blast. The hacking takes the form of a short twin-stick shooter. While hacking, the game effectively pauses until the minigame is over, at which time everything starts up again and 9S can void another robot’s warranty. Like with much of this game, it is too strong for how easy hacking is to complete. The only downside to hacking every robot is requiring the patience to play the same few minigames over and over and over again.
Everything just felt like it was wasting your time. The game has an open world but there isn’t much in it nor much reward for exploring. Some quests, a few crafting materials, a consumable or two, maybe a weapon if you’re really lucky, but for the most part, it is barren. The general desaturation of the world of Neir makes it visually boring so the exploration lacks the joys of a good hike. More often than not, I wondered why the game was open-world if the structure only served to add some additional time running to the next objective.
For the most part, those objectives are lack-luster as well. Neir-ly (okay, I’ll stop) all of the side-quests are simple, bottom-of-the-barrel MMO fare: ‘Collect X number of Y thing,’ ‘Kill X number of Y robot,’ ‘Go to [area] and kill the enemies.’ It’s just so tedious. And because the quests are structured this way, it combines all the previous issues mentioned about repetition and combat.
So, if I disliked the combat, and structure of the game, what about the story? It isn’t good. Firstly, the game’s characters are all bland. The characterization of the leads, 2B and 9S, vary wildly moment-to-moment. They constantly flip back and forth between “kill all robots for they are soulless monsters who only know violence” and “robots are nuanced beings with their own inner worlds and motives.” No matter how many times they speak to kind-hearted robots, a single bad thing happens and their first instinct is “well, time to genocide all the robots.” It is like watching conservatives enjoy Mexican food, then calling ICE on the chef… and then doing that again three more times.
The game wants desperately to be taken seriously so it name-drops famous Smart People™ like Niche then simply doesn’t engage with the philosophy. The writing also constantly forgets that we are dealing with androids which can be programmed. Every android is programmed with emotions yet told not to feel when they simply could have been programmed as emotionless to begin with. Furthermore, a big twist in the game centers around a noble lie to get the androids to fall in line. But who is the lie for? Again, these are androids; if you didn’t want them to do anything other than follow orders, you could have simply designed them that way.
I realize this is to contrast the robots which have been programmed to be emotionless, yet develop emotions and society anyway through their ability to grow and evolve. Yes, I get they are the true successors of humanity through their ability to evolve—having two robots literally named ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ really drives that point home with the subtlety of a brick.
It all just comes off as fairly quaint. I have played a number of games and read a number of books (I know, brag). Maybe it is because I have been reviewing every piece of media I have finished for nearly 6 years now. But I am not particularly smart, nor am I particularly well-read. The game’s writing doesn’t impress me as it wants to be “smart” without the writing muscle to engage with its ideas in very interesting ways. I truly disliked this game. No aspect spoke to me and I only felt relief for finishing it. They want to have a conversation about the nature of life but didn’t write any characters who do any living.
