When comparing Hyper Light Drifter vs NieR: Automata, the Slant community recommends Hyper Light Drifter for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” Hyper Light Drifter is ranked 42nd while NieR: Automata is ranked 43rd. The most important reason people chose Hyper Light Drifter is:
The combat in the game is action based in real time. Each enemy has a different attack pattern that can be learned meaning that with time the player knows when and where to hit an enemy. While the combat can be tough at time when multiple enemies are on screen, the challenge can be worth it for the enjoyment of accomplishment.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Good combat
The combat in the game is action based in real time. Each enemy has a different attack pattern that can be learned meaning that with time the player knows when and where to hit an enemy. While the combat can be tough at time when multiple enemies are on screen, the challenge can be worth it for the enjoyment of accomplishment.
Pro Level design full of choices
Much like older Zelda games, there are different paths that can be taken in each level, there are hidden areas as well. This allows for a good bit of exploration in the game, giving a sense that you are the one exploring and discovering this world.
Pro Tells the story through pictures
With no dialog in the game (including text), the game is told through the use of pictures. When talking to an NPC, they will tell their story through a series of pictures. This goes for all interaction in the game. Which is an interesting way to go about telling a story and is pretty unique. Luckily the game tells its story successfully through this method, making for an enjoyable story overall.
Pro Fantastic pixel graphics
While pixel graphics have seen a revival of late being that they are cheap to make, which lends itself well to the indie scene, Hyper Light Drifter is a step above any of the best offered in this style before. Everything is hand drawn and beautifully detailed. The color pallets used stand out on just their own, as the backgrounds are all quite detailed, with different color choices being used in order to differentiate each area. All the animations in the game are pretty detailed too, even for pixel graphics. T
Pro Great sound
The game actually has no dialog, meaning that the music and sound effects emote what the player should be feeling. Luckily they do their job and then some, the music is easy to listen to and works with the game well, same with the sound effects. Everything feels as though it belongs, which is quite an accomplishments due to how stylized the game is.
Pro Dynamic dungeons
The layout of each dungeon will change dynamically as you kill enemies contained within. So walls will move or disappear, making for a new path, depending on who you have killed. This makes for an enthralling experience that constantly asks the player to shift their strategy, making for gameplay that does not get stale.
Pro Many collectibles
There are many collectibles and secrets for those who like to find everything.
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 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 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 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 Gameplay can be tough
The game can get difficult, causing a good deal of frustration due to the difficulty of enemies in the game. While no impossible, many may feel it is too tough in the later portion of the game.
Con Can be difficult to figure out what to do
With no dialog it can be difficult to figure out what to do and where to go. There is no hand holding here, which is a bit of a throwback to games back in the 90s, but still can be frustrating when stuck and having no idea what to do next. This can be exacerbated by the fact that certain basses need you to be equipped with a certain upgrade in order to defeat them. Since there is no explanation of what this upgrade is, it can easily be missed leaving the player dying over and over again at the hands of certain bosses.
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.