Disaster Follows Disaster: Catastrophe as Inevitability in NieR: Automata (2017)

Abstract This article examines the digital game NieR: Automata (2017) and its scenario of a postapocalyptic environment. It focuses on how the game characterises utter destruction as a reoccurring inevitability, situating both its characters as well as the player within a cycle of endings and new beginnings. Considering NieR: Automata ’s narrative, mediation between the game and the player, as well as structural and ludic features, it is shown how this imagination of catastrophe is conveyed through the gameplay experience. Although the game at first seems to offer safe, heroic participation in a fight against an apocalyptic threat, it nevertheless progressively pushes players to recognise their own alienated position and participation in the perpetuation of similar devastation. Throughout its play, the game provides several opportunities for players to concede and disengage from this increased tension. Yet, in its final moments, NieR: Automata offers players the option to participate in a global collective, sacrificing their saved data, and transforming their individual ends into a collective continuity. The game thus imagines catastrophe not as local occurrence but a constant global experience. Furthermore, the android protagonists and the digital game as a medium are used to highlight vulnerabilities of digital identities within online spaces.