NieR:Automata™
Worth it · RPG · 2017
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $15.99.
- Length
- 21.3h
- Value
- $0.75/hr
- Reviews
- 87% positive
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Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 VRAM 2GB or AMD Radeon R9 270X VRAM 2GB, 50 GB of storage. Windows only.
NieR: Automata tells the story of androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their battle to reclaim the machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful machines.
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
The lowest price on record is $13.99, set in August 2025. 40 discounts in the 10 years on record. They run about 60 percent off, roughly 10 weeks apart. Today's $15.99 at 60 percent off still sits 14 percent above the floor, so a deeper cut exists in its history.
Take the discount away and it is a 60. With it, 73.
Value puts it in the top 3 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 97 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 90 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen ($29.99, scores 76) beats it on value, while it beats Horizon Forbidden West™ Complete Edition ($59.99, scores 70).
Of the 800 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 12 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written February 2026 to September 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 50 percent of the 6,646 reviews written there were positive, against 87 percent overall, and those are 6 percent of everything written about it. It sells extras on top of the sticker price (cosmetic); the score docks it lightly for that.
Finishing takes 21.3 hours; clearing it takes 61, which is 2.9 times the campaign.
It came out 9 years ago and 690 were still playing it at the last check.
The drop-off
81% start to 6% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
690 players at peak in the last day.
The chart appears once this game has been counted more than once.Player counts via SteamSpy.
What players say
Great unique game, but narratively overhyped. 7/10 NieR Automata is an open world post-apocalyptic RPG featuring one of the best soundtracks in gaming history. The game covers themes such as existentialism and grief. Story: Your mission is to secure Earth and rid it of alien machine lifeforms that invaded long ago. There are subtle mentions to the events that happened in the previous game, but you don't have to play...
there are no words that will describe this amazing journey I took with 2B and 9S, you will be always in my heart <3 amazing game, touching story, existential decisions, and music that you will never leave your head. 10/10
it can be somewhat irritating progressing the same story from 2 different characters, but vibe-wise its worth it. lore is not fully explained, you will likely need to do couple reads on the fan-made wikis (or either play the other Nier games) for the people seeking an alternative view when it comes to the future we are heading towards to (ai and all that) and beautiful music, should be an appealing experience. 10/10...
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
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NieR:Automata™ scores 73/100 on the BANG Score (worth it). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/524220/nier-automataThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 12, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.