NieR: Automata. This game was definitely not something that I would normally pick up but it kept showing up on “must-play” lists so I figured I would give it a shot when it was marked down like 70%. The initial impression from the intro/tutorial was pretty underwhelming due in large part to the confusing change in gameplay from top down shooter to side-view to normal 3rd person but once I got through that I found the setting and presentation of the game really compelling. I was even reading about the lead developer and searching for other projects to potentially pick up once I finished this one. That lasted for about 10 hours or so…spoiler ahead but I figured out how to hide the text if you haven’t played this and are considering it.

spoiler

Once I got to the Friendly Robot village there was a subtle change and that kinda snowballed into something far weirder. The talking robots with their bizarre personalities (child robots, WTF?!) and all of the strange requests felt like such a break in the general tone that I just found myself less and less interested in finding out “what happens next”. The difficulty curve was pretty good and there are a ton of areas to explore but I suddenly realized that I just didn’t care anymore…

Obviously this is a bit of an unpopular opinion based on the super high scores it gets and others stuck it out for multiple replays to see the “good” endings but I just couldn’t convince myself to even finish it the first time. YMMV.