The recent review of NieR Automata on Steam drops to mixed as users bomb score due to Microsoft Store port

In recent weeks, Microsoft has made a slew of surprising announcements of various RPGs coming to the Xbox Game Pass service, including a surprising Octopath Traveler harbor, next to Yakuza 6, several Bethesda titles, and EA Play is finally coming to Game Pass for PC. NieR machines arriving on the Microsoft Store on March 18 initially seemed like a small footnote in a deluge of high-profile titles on Microsoft’s subscription download service – it was originally released on PC via Steam in the same month as its worldwide release in 2017, and has been available for years to come. to play.

However, a surprising disparity between the new Microsoft Store version and the original Steam port has the original buyers a little bit dismissed.

A failed port without support

First a little history lesson. The original NieR Automata port on Steam was (and still is) a mixed bag at best, with players reporting stuck mouse cursors, choppy cutscenes, bugged resolutions, stuttering, and a slew of other issues. Fortunately, community modder Kaldaien released the Fix Automata Resolution or FAR mod shortly after its release, aimed at solving these numerous issues. At the time, Kaldaien had previously made fan patches for PC ports such as Tales of Berseria among others with his Special K. modding framework, and is currently looking forward to the upcoming port of NieR Replicant.

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

Thanks to everyone who supported NieR: Automata.
We are happy that so many people are enjoying the game. We wanted to let you know that we appreciate all your feedback and are investigating the reported issues.
Stay tuned for updates.

Aside from a few news reports urging players to upgrade their graphics card drivers, no fixes were ever forthcoming. Even a refresh in 2019 with the release of the ‘Game of the YoRHa Edition’ offered no relief. If you wanted to play NieR Automata on Steam, you used the FAR mod – it was and is.

Comes within QLOC

Last week, NieR Automata also became available on the Microsoft Store, as well as as part of Microsoft’s Game Pass for PC subscription. On the same day, the Polish port company QLOC reported that it had been working on the new port for the 4-year game. QLOC, previously credited on PC ports 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 retail version, QLOC supported the new port with a borderless video setup, FidelityFX and HDR support, and UI textures scaled up to 4K. Players who tried the new port also reported significantly fewer problems with stuttering and choppy frame rates. I’m not sure how many times I’ve heard that the taskbar icon for PC games doesn’t matter because in this case it sure seems.

This of course resulted in the obvious, with Steam players blocking the store page due to the lack of support, they were denied because a better product appeared unannounced several years later. Review bombings have previously been the subject of several controversies, with Valve having to step in to declare certain raids ‘off-topic’, such as the case for Borderlands 2 when Gearbox announced a period of Epic Games Store exclusivity for Borderlands 3.

So far, Nier Automaten’s review bomb hasn’t been flagged by Steam’s off-topic review activity, and for seemingly good reason. A quick perusal of the recent negative reviews was more of severe disapproval than outright anger. “While I love the game, I cannot recommend the Steam version.” one review regrets, another says, “I can’t recommend it as it stands. Right now you really shouldn’t need to install a mod to fix the basic frame rate issues”. A third likes to point buyers to the new Microsoft version with a simple statement: “Don’t buy this version. Buy the GamePass version instead.”

Of course, NieR Automata’s time on Steam means the current port has been poked and poked and polished for years, and Kaldaien herself admits that the new Microsoft Store version isn’t perfect, especially with regard to post-processing effects like bloom and ambient. occlusion. Additionally, existing texture changes and other changes mean that in conjunction with the FAR mod, the Steam version of the game is still the best you can get if you don’t mind tinkering a bit. As it stands now, Automata’s new port works right out of the box, and I understand the frustration Steam owners have felt having to patch the game themselves since 2017, only to find out that it continues to pay off to get on the stay informed.