When comparing The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit vs NieR: Automata, the Slant community recommends NieR: Automata for most people. In the question“What are the best story rich games on PC?” NieR: Automata is ranked 38th while The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is ranked 64th. The most important reason people chose NieR: Automata is:
The combat in NieR: Automata is fantastic. It has a hack-and-slash feel to it, with an emphasis on agility and showy acrobatics. With the fluid and responsive controls, you can switch seamlessly from using swift attacks with your weapon to devastatingly strong attacks as you combo them together. You also use customizable ranged missile attacks from your personal robot pod, such as powerful laser beams or a giant hammer attack. It can be difficult to win battles sometimes, especially on the harder gameplay settings, but it's worthwhile to keep at it and watch yourself progress and improve.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Expressive character models
Character models are much higher quality than previous Life is Strange titles, with detailed mouth to voice syncing and better overall animations.
Pro Strong central character dynamic
The central character dynamic is Chris's relationship to his father Charles, and how they're both coping after the death of Chris's mother. Chris often loses himself in childish superhero fantasies, but tries his best to still help his father with household chores. Meanwhile, Charles is having trouble getting over the death of his wife and has turned to alcohol and hangs on to old memories of his sporting days to cope. The interactions between the two are often impactful and emotional, with his father often quick to anger, and Chris retreating into his fantasy world.
Pro Charming viewpoint
The adventure revolves around nine year old Chris and his superhero fantasies, which he uses to escape reality, as he goes around the house playing with his toys, getting into mischief, and doing chores for his drunk father. For example, when the hot water heater is out and he is tasked to turn it back on, Chris pretends it's an evil monster in a fantasy world. His dad's truck is a spaceship used to visit far off planets. He acts out mini-adventures with his toys who become evil villains. The garbage pile out back is his maze with a hidden treasure. Almost every otherwise mundane situation is shown from the viewpoint of an innocent and creative child, whose superhero dreams manifest in everyday interactions.
Pro Imaginative interactions
When interacting with objects, Chris sometimes has the option to use his "superpowers" on it. When throwing a log on the fire, he pretends that he is starting the fire with his mind. When turning on the TV, he intently stares and focuses as it turns on, but then the camera pans to show he is holding the remote control in his hand. These "superpowers" can be used on many different objects throughout the house, and gives what would be otherwise boring interactions a level of charm and humor.
Pro Several optional and rewarding puzzles
For example, at one point Chris wants to break into a storage locker he finds in the garage. If you do, there are additional story elements, but it is not required to complete the game. Only by paying attention to the environment and the objects you examine will you piece together the combination for the lock. There are several puzzles like this that reward you for being observant of the game world.
Pro Exceptional graphics
Utilizing the Unreal 4 engine, it looks fantastic and is a definite step up from previous entries in the series. Environments are highly detailed with a level of polish that really helps draw you in. Especially notable is a sequence during which Chris "visits" an alien world to face his nemesis - the backdrop and scenery are absolutely incredible and beautiful.
Pro Can be played in one sitting
This game is only about 2 hours long and can be easily played in one sitting. The entirety of the adventure takes place on a single snowy Saturday morning, shortly after the death of Chris's mother.
Pro Fast-paced, action-packed combat
The combat in NieR: Automata is fantastic. It has a hack-and-slash feel to it, with an emphasis on agility and showy acrobatics. With the fluid and responsive controls, you can switch seamlessly from using swift attacks with your weapon to devastatingly strong attacks as you combo them together. You also use customizable ranged missile attacks from your personal robot pod, such as powerful laser beams or a giant hammer attack. It can be difficult to win battles sometimes, especially on the harder gameplay settings, but it's worthwhile to keep at it and watch yourself progress and improve.
Pro Unique storytelling with a real emotional impact
NieR: Automata's outlook on storytelling is incredibly special. To get the full experience, you have to run multiple playthroughs of the game, each of which offers a new experience and perspective. Your world view of the story events and characters expands drastically as you complete each playthrough, playing on your expectations to help you develop a deeper emotional bond with the protagonists and become invested in their plight.
Things take a real turn on your third playthrough, putting you on an emotional roller coaster all the way to the true ending. The plot twists and knocks on the fourth wall elevate the story to a truly unique place. Getting all the way to the very end can be a religious experience from how much heart and meaning you discover in the symbolism.
Pro It's got a hauntingly beautiful environment
NieR: Automata is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape after Earth has been overrun by hostile machines, and the artists really nailed what that would feel like. Abandoned and overgrown cities litter the landscape along with old refineries, graveyards, and eerie forests. When you add the beautiful soundtrack to the experience, it fills you with a bittersweet mix of loneliness and hope.
Pro Varied genre-spanning gameplay elements
NieR: Automata has different types of gameplay to keep things interesting. From the very start, you're on an on-rails bullet hell section, and then you switch over to the more traditional action RPG style of fast-paced combat. Things change up again not long after with some side-scrolling platforming from a 2D view. Later on in the story, there's a hacking mini-game where you navigate a tiny ship through a short puzzle, with the music changing to a charming retro sound to fit the theme and mood. This is a game that doesn't stay boxed in a single genre.
Pro An incredible amount of content
Outside of the main story, there's plenty of optional content to dive into. The side quests are the best way to get to know the characters and lore of the world, with some of them giving clever and subtle foreshadowing of the game's most critical events. There are also weapons to collect and upgrade, each of which offer nice little tidbits of lore after you get them to max level. And after reaching a certain point in the story, you get access to Chapter Select that lets you go back and replay whatever you want. You can easily spend 60+ hours exploring the world and still have much more to do.
Pro Gorgeous, ethereal soundtrack with amazing vocals
NieR: Automata's music is out of this world. It's so stunning and elegant in a way that nothing else can really live up to. The soundtrack manages to emotionalize the game through music, from the action-packed tracks with hard-hitting wind instruments and percussion, to the softer, somber songs that encapsulate the hauntingly beautiful environments and story moments you encounter. Vocals in the lore's indescribable language makes the music even more memorable, adding to the ethereal quality of the sound. This soundtrack is definitely one that you can go back to again and again without getting sick of it.
Cons
Con Not enough meaningful choices
There is a noticeable absence of story related choices. While there are dialogue choices peppered throughout the game, none really have any long term effect or change anything. There is only one major choice you have to make near the end of the adventure, and it doesn't influence the way the story unfolds nor the ending.
Con Lots of needless and drawn-out animations
Interacting with certain objects starts a long, drawn out animation. For example, when interacting with the front door to walk outside, Chris puts on his coat and boots very slowly, and this animation is repeated every time you want to venture outside. Similar repeated animations are used throughout the game on various objects and quickly become annoying.
Con Slow walking
Chris walks painfully slow, which makes traversing the small map a chore. Even the "run" key doesn't noticeably increase his speed whatsoever.
Con Pacing isn't the best
Actual story scenes that push the plot forward are few and far between, with most of the gameplay consisting of long stretches of examining objects and walking around the house/yard. As a result, the pacing of the story can feel very off.
Con References to child abuse may upset some people
While there is no scene where Charles is shown physically abusing Chris, it is heavily implied. These situations may upset some people, so it's something to be aware of before playing.
Con Comes bundled with controversial anti-piracy software
Even though it's a completely free game, it comes bundled with anti-piracy software. This controversial software, Denuvo, is known to slow down systems and causes the game to run very sluggish for many.
Con Limited open world
Even though NieR: Automata is technically an open world game, it doesn't always feel like it. It's more that there's a big open space in the center of the ruined city you explore, with branches that lead off to vastly different environments, like a desert, a village, and a few other places. These locations aren't that spacious, either, and it's a bit of a stretch to even imagine all of these places being so close together in the first place. It's not too much of an issue as long as you find the story and combat engaging enough.
Con Second playthrough can get repetitive
Once you get to Route B, your second playthrough, you may find that too much is the same. There are some big differences, such as the new way you get to see things play out, but a lot of it rehashes Route A, your first playthrough. There's a ton of hacking you have to do as well, which gets pretty boring after repeating it over and over again. But if you stick with it, Route C and onward are absolutely worth the time spent getting to that point.
Con Some boring fetch quests
The pacing gets messed up when you're forced to run certain fetch quests near the start of the game. This is somewhat forgivable after the fun and action-packed introductory level, but the quests themselves are still a drag to play through. Some of the side quests can also boil down to the same thing. Even though these quests give a lot of useful information about the world, they're not all that fulfilling, and you may dread having to repeat them when playing through the game again.
Con Buggy on PC
Some players complain about the game crashing, freezing, their save files mysteriously disappearing, and more. As of June 2018, over a year after the game's initial release, there is still no patch to fix these problems. Not everyone on PC will have these bugs, but it's still quite prevalent. If you continually run into issues, your best bet is to find a mod or play the console versions instead of waiting on an official patch that may never happen.