Not my screenshot btw but I hunted it down after playing through this part. I've been playing it for a bit now (I'm on path C) and it's still not 100% obvious to me that it's an explicitly pro-leftist, though there are some hints. For example, there are also 2 robots named Marx and Engels, where Marx dies early and you talk to Engels as a side quest. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this game if you've played it before.

  • hypercracker [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    The philosophical excerpts definitely helped with the vibe of the game but I would not say they were the core of its philosophical content. Some of the dialogues with Milton were fun, although they mostly amount to personality tests. I mainly connected with the idea of embodying an evolved consciousness formed after strange eons by accident in a dead world, in some tenuous sense a continuation of the last of humanity. The Alexandra Drennan character emotionally resonated as she struggled to finish the simulation with her coworkers progressively succumbing to the virus. Overall I think the game developed a very strong setting of marginal existence in a world of existential horror. This was punctuated by islands of respite with the peaceful messenger worlds, where you feel like you can suspend knowledge of existence and rest for a moment.

    the gameplay is fantastic fun

    The gameplay was the weakest part and was a one-note spectacle slasher.

    the world is beautiful for what it is

    The world looks like complete shit with a grey haze covering everything and monotonous desert/city/forest biomes. PS3 game in the PS4 era.

    • Infamousblt [any]
      ·
      1 month ago

      I'm sure we didn't play the same game. You just be thinking of the original Nier

      • hypercracker [he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        Nah I've never played the original. The one I played had the space androids in year 12000 battling the earth robots in an endless cycle.