Robots in the NieR: Automata. Eight Enemies We Were Sorry to Kill

May 24, 2020

Eight Enemies We Were Sorry to Kill.

Robots in the NieR: Automata

Take a look. Aren't they cute? They may have done their share of bad deeds, but let's face it: let the one who has never led a massacre of the entire planet's population be the first to throw a stone.

When it comes to games with philosophical overtones, the theme of Nier: Automata comes up in discussion sooner rather than later. The work of director Yoko Taro and PlatinumGames developers tackles artificial divisions, conflicts, creating a new order in a world without gods and individual choices – so it's hard to stick to the rigid boundaries between the crystal-clear player and bloodthirsty enemies. Especially since it is the latter who play a key role throughout history.

In Automata, Earth became a battleground between alien-created robots and human-designed androids. The former have already managed to drive the remnants of our kind away from the Blue Planet, and it is up to the player to retrieve it. This, of course, means that during the hours-long playthrough players will eliminate a whole host of robots, which may look comforting rather than menacing, but can pose a serious threat to the protagonists.

As we travel from one machine massacre to the next we begin to encounter scenes that show that our opponents are not just technologically advanced murderers. Like the previous inhabitants of Earth, they begin to care for their "children", create art, have sex, and exhibit genuine empathy or pacifist views. They also perform cruel acts, eat their kin, or cults – in a word, they become as human (or inhuman) as humans themselves. After seeing their version of Disneyland, it's really hard to go back to mindlessly murdering anyone who gets in our way.

After all, most robots have been designed in a grotesque, completely non-threatening way: they look like machines that could easily replace Wall-E in Pixar's next film. Charming, funny in their attempts to imitate humans, and at times simply likable – enemies in Automata perfectly fulfill the premise of the game: to show us how artificial our divisions are, and to question the reasons why we are willing to kill.

Just in case, if the sight of cute robots performing their own version of Romeo and Juliet failed to extinguish the killing frenzy in you, the developers decided to add a part in the game in which players themselves assume the role of one of the machines that have overrun the Earth. The first task in the new metal body is to save our little brother, who can only be helped by a generous dose of oil. It's very easy to sense the attachment the robots feel to their kin, which basically ensures that next time we think three times before deciding to send at least one of them to the scrapyard.