Gaming With God: A NieR Truth
Today we continue a final series of Throwback Thursday posts to run through the end of 2020 and celebrating our 10th anniversary! Samuru returns to his Gaming and God column temporarily to discuss one of the most popular games of recent years, NieR: Automata. Enjoy, and continue to stay tuned as other current and former writers revisit their own past columns in the coming weeks.
Welcome back to the Gaming With God column! I’m happy to add another post about the games that I have been playing through and how I feel God has shown me truths from His word (the Bible) while I game. Yes, that sounds a little out there, but when you see life through God’s perspective, He can be found everywhere—even in videogames! Let me tell you about a recent game that has me intrigued, confused, and having a blast—NieR: Automata.
I purchased this interesting and mysterious title by PlatinumGames and created by Takahisa Taura and Isao Negishi quite a while back, but have only beaten it once. I’m on my second playthrough as of this writing, and it has me hooked!
You play as 9S and 2B, androids that were sent by the last remaining humans who have left Earth. They are fighting against robots who have taken over the planet and wiped out humanity. The robots were created by aliens who landed on Earth, but little else is known about them. You are given orders to fight these dangerous androids and take back what was rightfully ours, but the question lingers: Is there more to this?
The gameplay, music, graphics, and voiceovers are excellent. I can’t find much wrong with this game, except that it doesn’t guide you very much when you are on a mission. It often takes me a little longer than I would like to find where I am going next, but that’s OK; it thus provides me more time to explore and enjoy the experience that NieR gives the player. The music in the game is so ethereal that I really feel like I’m in another world as I play.
There aren’t that many characters, so you get to know 9S and 2B well. 2B, the main heroine, is cold, strictly follows orders, and does not hold emotional attachment to anyone or anything. Her role is to destroy robots, and she does it well. 9S is a more thoughtful and relaxed partner, always looking for the bright side in a situation or just trying to understand why the robots act how they do. As you continue on in the game, the world is revealed as more than it initially seems and there are other forces behind the scenes that you aren’t aware of at first. I am not going to give away spoilers, and honestly, I’m still figuring everything out myself as I have not completed the game enough; supposedly, I need to beat it three times to understand the whole plot! I know this game is fun, but doing the same thing three times is a little frustrating.
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