HomeReviewsNier Replicant ver.1.22474487139
Review: NieR Replicant Ver.1.22474487139 is a brilliant slog I’ll never play againIs it worth the time investment?
Is it worth the time investment?
I’m elated I’ve finished action-RPGNieR Replicant Ver.1.22474487139, but also a bit miserable. I’m not sure how else to sum up this upgraded predecessor toNieR Automata, other than to say that it was utterly brilliant, and yet I never want to touch it ever again.
The PC Gaming Weekspot: Nier Replicant! CD Projekt Red! Monster Hunter Rise! Other Stuff!Watch on YouTube
The PC Gaming Weekspot: Nier Replicant! CD Projekt Red! Monster Hunter Rise! Other Stuff!
There’s Emil, a curious boy you find locked inside a haunted mansion, who will be familiar to Automata fans; Kaine, a tough-talking fighter clad in lingerie (?!); and Grimoire Weiss, the aformentioned magical, upstanding book. They all generate good banter and gutwrenching backstories, but Weiss stands out the most. Not only does he grant you magical powers to sling at opponents, he’s also just very funny, and this comes in handy as you play.
Most of the time you’ll fight “shades”, these wiry creatures that come in many different forms, from little scamps that’ll scratch at your ankles, to balls that’ll spew more balls at you. Sometimes they’ll take on a colossal form, and these boss fights are ace. I particularly enjoyed an early one where you face off against this honking great lizard with horrid pustules that swung underneath its neck. It was a multi-stage affair which had me whacking its hands, then doing a bit of 2D-esque platforming, and rounding things off with a traditional dodge-oncoming-walls-of-more-balls.
Drifting on a boar deserves a spinoff game.
Then you go again - playthrough two. NieR Replicant sheds a layer unpredictability, as this time you know exactly where to go and what to do, but in exchange it surprises with extra cutscenes or snippets of dialogue which proved revelatory. Suddenly, my eyes were opened, and I approached each encounter from a different angle. Even if what I did remained exactly the same, playthrough two puts a different sheen on it; a darker, greyer one.
One of many camera switch-ups which kept things fresh.
The same goes for the side quests. First time around, they’re simple fetch quests that morph into fun, interesting mini-stories. I particularly enjoyed one which involved a bickering couple and an apple. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to decipher which are of importance for the game. There’s one which grants you access to a garden where you can harvest vegetables, and one that lets you ride boar to close gaps much faster than being on-foot. Both of these I’d class as essential to help you progress, yet there’s no knowing nudge from the game to tip you off to this.
I reckon this was my favourite place in the entire game. Just a lovely place to hang about.
But none of this is any good if you can’t run NieR Replicant well on PC is it? On my system, playing at 1080p with an RTX 2070, I experienced no frame rate issues at a locked 60 fps and at the highest graphics settings. From start to finish, I experienced barely any frame drops during intense moments. Perhaps the odd dip into 55 fps, but it was very rare. I was, however, disappointed to discover that there was no way to unlock the game’s fps through the in-game settings.
You’re stuck with 60 fps, whether you like it or not, which is a real shame if you’ve got a rig that’s capable of churning out a lot more. I’ve alsoseen some reportsof users being locked to frame rates of 30 or lower, and other players who’ve managed to unlock the frame rate seeing the game’s animations speed up with it.
I found the keyboard and mouse controls perfectly fine, and nicely customisable too. My mouse cursor also had a habit of popping up randomly in the middle of cutscenes, even when playing with a controller. I opted to play with an Xbox One controller - button prompts for PS4 controllers weren’t a thing - and the only issue I encountered were huge frame rate drops when plugging in or unplugging my controller. It would chug for around ten seconds before everything caught up.
Classic NieR this.
This NieR Replicant port also contains a new story episode. Of course, I won’t get into specifics, but it’s about a little girl and a shipwreck. I thought it was brilliant, and perhaps one of the only bits that holds up through each successive playthrough. There’s also an unlockable dungeon-crawling mini-game which was alright, I suppose. Great for farming resources, and for new costumes, but it was largely forgettable. The music, though.Sheesh. And that goes for all the tunes in NieR Replicant. Each time you enter a new area it just bathes you in glorious piano plinks and harmonious “Aahhhs”, all immediately hummable and simply delightful.
After sifting NieR Replicant for golden nuggets of story for nearly 30 hours, the fifth and final playthrough is the big payoff. A glimmering chunk that’s worth all that pain. The game becomes unpredictable again, as if you only had a second of time to celebrate your find before crashing through a sinkole into a throng of earth and cables. It was brief, but stirring stuff.
That is, if you’re into NieR’s story. If you’re not, then I highly doubt you’ll have the patience to complete this game five times. There is no other way to describe it other than a big commitment. Almost all aspects of this game wore thin over time, until at one point the only thing that kept me going was sheer force of will. I’m very glad I hung on in there, but I do wonder how many people will bother.
