100 PCWorld DECEMBER 2020FEATURE BEST GAMES OF THIS GENERATION
is a bit overblown. It doesn’t. It has one
proper ending, broken up into five acts. That
said, the misconception is understandable
because the second act is almost a carbon
copy of the first (but from a different
character’s perspective) and it’s a drag.
Push through, though. Persevere,
because Nier: Automata still has a lot to say.
To some extent, Nier: Automata is the
same old “What does it mean to be human?”
story about robots. It’s well-trod territory, both
in games (i.e. Detroit: Become Human [go.
pcworld.com/bchm]) and in other mediums.
But Nier: Automata’s take is fresh and weird,
from the way it uses perspective to
manipulate the player, to the way it transitions
between action-brawler and shoot-em-up
and a half-dozen other different genres, to its
discussions of Nietzsche and Pascal and other
philosophers.
It looks like a sad anime game and it is a
sad anime game, one wherein blindfoldedandroids work to rid the world of machines.
Over-the-top doesn’t begin to describe it.
There’s a truth to Nier: Automata as well
though, an emotional weight. Flashy fighting
is just a vehicle for tragedy, for a treatise on
cycles of violence and those who participate
in them, knowingly or unknowingly. And
then...hope, when events are at their darkest.
Love.
As I said, Nier: Automata takes a while to
get going, and as someone who reviews
games, I know that’s a cop-out. It’s tough to
hear a game “gets better” at the 15-hour
mark. Nier: Automata wouldn’t work without
that slow burn though, because what’s
actually happening is it’s conditioning you to
accept the world as it is, all while preparing to
rip the blindfold from your eyes.- WHAT REMAINS
OF EDITH FINCH
Three years on, I still struggle to put words to
What Remains of
Edith Finch (go.
pcworld.com/
what), our favorite
game of 2017 (go.
pcworld.com/
gm17). Broken up
into vignettes, Edith
Finch is about the
ill-fated Finch family.
There’s a rather - fanciful conceit, in