NieR: Automata Become as Gods Edition

NieR: Automata Become as Gods Edition brought to Xbox One a cult action RPG that combined PlatinumGames' combat craftsmanship with unusual storytelling and extraordinary music. Humanity has been driven from Earth by alien machines, and androids fight the war in its place. The player takes control of combat unit 2B and her recon companion 9S, who descend to the ravaged planet and gradually discover that the hostile machines are behaving more and more like thinking beings. The game asks questions about consciousness, purpose and death without ever ceasing to be brisk, enjoyable action.

The combat system is fast, fluid and supported by a Pod that fires shots and offers special abilities. What's most striking, though, is the game's willingness to shift genre: the camera cuts without warning to a side view, a top-down view, a classic shoot-'em-up, or a text passage, and everything works as part of a single whole. Upgrading is done through chips slotted into limited memory, so the player trades away interface elements, for instance, in exchange for combat advantages. Crucially, a single playthrough doesn't end the game; further runs offer a different perspective and different abilities, gradually completing the full picture, with an ending that ranks among the most discussed in video games.

On Xbox One the game shipped in an edition containing downloadable content and runs at a solid pace, though visually it leans on atmosphere rather than technical horsepower; abandoned cities overgrown with greenery carry a peculiar melancholic calm. Keiichi Okabe's music is one of the most frequently praised soundtracks of the last decade, and the vocal tracks became a hallmark of the series. Reception was extraordinary, and the game built a strong fanbase far beyond Japan. Today it remains one of the most original big-budget games of its generation, and an example of form itself carrying part of the message.