Nier Automata is the most overrated game of 2017 *SPOILERS*

Having played through Route A, B, and C, I feel like I can safely say this now. That being said, "overrated" does not mean by, but I think it's far from the GOAT game that so many people hype it up as being.

At it's core, it's a bog standard Platinum Games beat em up just like Transformers Devastation or Legend of Kora. I would not put it up there with the likes of Bayonetta, Mad World, Vanquish, or Metal Gear Rising speaking purely from a gameplay standpoint.

I thought the game was amazing during the intro mission, but when I got to the open world, it took a nose dive. This has to be the most boring, tiny, ugly, and pointless open world I've ever seen in a game. The shift from 2D to 3D can also make it somewhat confusing to navigate at least in the short term until you unlock fast travel.

The side quests are mostly of the fetch quest variety. I didn't find them worth doing for the most part after the first playthrough.

The most egregious issue I have with the game is the fact that it virtually makes you play through the same 8 or so hours twice in order to unlock the conclusion of the game. There's just no need for this. It's useless padding. You do learn some relevant plot points in Route B, but overall the two routes don't diverge enough to make the opening hours worth replaying a second time.

I don't really have a lot of complaints about Route C other than the fact that nothing is explained. I mean, my understanding that of course the humans died long before the aliens arrived. Data regarding the human genome exists on the moon.

The virus that affects the Androids and the Machines is from the Machine consciousness who essentially resets the playing field every time the Androids get close to wiping out the machines. Both are affected because Androids are made from recycled machine cores. The tower is not actually a weapon but an ark aimed at space to transfer machine data off the planet.

Who built the bunker in space? Do the new androids keep finding it each time like the the Citadel in Mass Effect 3? Who created the machine consciousness? How did it become what it was? Why was the ark firing data into space? Who are Adam and Eve?

It honestly just feels like a bunch of random stuff thrown together designed to get people to speculate endlessly about things that really have no answer.