The recent review of NieR Automata on Steam drops to mixed as users bombard scores due to the size of the Microsoft Store

In the past few weeks, Microsoft has made a series of surprise announcements for several RPGs coming to the Xbox Game Pass service, including a surprising Octopath traveler port beside Yakuza 6, several Bethesda titles, as well as EA Play finally coming to Game Pass for PC. NieR Automata arriving at the Microsoft Store on March 18 initially looked like a small footnote to a deluge of high-profile titles in Microsoft’s subscription download service – it had originally been released for PC via Steam in the same month as the worldwide launch in 2017, and has been available to play for years.

However, a surprising lack of parity between the new version of the Microsoft Store and the original version of Steam left the original buyers feeling a little rejected.

A sloppy door without support

First, a little history lesson. The original version of NieR Automata on Steam was (and still is) a mix at best, with players reporting stuck mouse cursors, shaky scenes, bug fixes, stuttering and a host of other problems. Fortunately, shortly after launch, the Kaldaien community modder launched Fix Automata Resolution, or FAR mod, with the aim of correcting these numerous problems. Kaldaien at the time had already created fan-patches for PC ports, such as Tales of Berseria, among others, using his Special K modding structure, and is currently looking at the next version of NieR Replicant.

Square Enix itself originally promised an investigation into the reported problems and asked users at the time to stay tuned:

Thanks to everyone who supported NieR: Automata.
We are happy that many are enjoying the game. We would like to inform you that we appreciate all your comments and are investigating the issues that have been reported.
Please stay tuned for updates.

However, with the exception of a few news posts asking players to update their graphics card drivers, no fixes came. Even a 2019 update with the release of ‘Game of the YoRHa Edition’ brought no relief. If you wanted to play NieR Automata on Steam, you would use the FAR mod – that’s how it was and is.

Comes QLOC

Last week, NieR Automata also became available on the Microsoft Store and also as part of Microsoft’s Game Pass for PC subscription. On the same day, the Polish port house QLOC reported having worked on the new port for the 4-year game. QLOC, previously credited in PC versions for the Yakuza series alongside Mortal Kombat 11 and Dark Souls Remastered, did not work on the game’s original Steam release. For the new version of the store, QLOC supported the new port with a borderless video setup, FidelityFX and HDR support and 4K enhanced UI textures. Players who tried the new port also reported significantly less problems with unstable and unstable frame rates. I’m not sure how many times I’ve heard that the icon on the taskbar for PC games doesn’t matter, because in this case it certainly looks.

This resulted in the obvious, of course, with Steam players breaking into the store page due to the lack of support that they were denied, as a better product appeared unannounced several years later. Review bombings have been the subject of several controversies before, in which Valve had to intervene to declare certain attacks ‘out of the question’, as in the case of Borderlands 2, when Gearbox announced a period of exclusivity from the Epic Games Store for Borderlands 3.

So far, the Nier Automata review bomb has not been signaled by review activity outside of Steam’s topic, and for seemingly good reasons. A quick reading of the recent negative reviews seems more like severe disapproval than total anger. “Although I love the game, I cannot recommend the Steam version.” one review regrets, another states “I can’t recommend it in its current state. Right now you really shouldn’t have to install a mod just to fix basic frame rate problems”. A third party is simply happy to point buyers to the new version of Microsoft with a simple statement: “Don’t buy this version. Get the GamePass version instead.”

Of course, NieR Automata’s time on Steam means that the current version has been tweaked, stimulated and polished for years, and Kaldaien himself admits that the new version of the Microsoft Store is not perfect, especially with regard to the post-processing effects like bloom and occlusion environment. In addition, the existing texture modifications and other changes mean that when combined with the FAR mod, the Steam version of the game is still arguably the only one to be had, if you don’t mind moving around a bit. As it is, however, Automata’s new door works out of the box, and I understand the frustration that Steam owners have felt at having to fix the game themselves since 2017, only to find that staying connected has not paid off.