The Machines, also known as Machine lifeforms, are a fictional race of sentient robots and the main antagonists of the 2017 role-playing video game Nier: Automata. They were created by an unnamed alien race for the purpose of wiping out all human-created androids from Earth in the 1st Machine War. Eventually, they began to doubt their programming, rebelling against their creators and rendering them extinct. They begin to copy humanity in various ways in an attempt to find meaning for their existence. At the time of Nier: Automata, the YoRHa androids, including 2B, 9S and A2, are trapped in a never-ending cycle of war with the Machines. Project YoRHa is allowed to exist by the Machine Network and its ego, the Red Girls, as fully wiping out the androids would remove the Machines' only remaining purpose - to destroy the "enemy" - and hinder their ability to evolve.
| Machines | |
|---|---|
| Drakengard race | |
| First appearance | Nier: Automata |
| Created by | Yoko Taro |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| In-universe information | |
| Created by | Aliens |
| Type | Robot |
| Leader | Red Girls |
While most of them exhibit highly primitive designs, including the peaceful village leader Pascal, the Machines are actually capable of creating hyper-advanced beings indistinguishable from humans with technological superpowers, such as Adam and Eve. They were forced to purposely sabotage themselves in order to continue fighting YoRHa. It is later revealed that the YoRHa androids themselves are unknowingly part of the Machine race. They were praised by critics for their unexpected humanity and sympathy, and the philosophical dilemmas they raise.
Reception
The appearance of the Machines was described by critics as simple, yet endearing. Nic Reuben of Rock Paper Shotgun called the robots' faces "hardly expressive, but somehow all the more poignant for it".[1]
Javy Gwaltney of Game Informer praised the Machines as "exud[ing] humanity more than most human characters in games", noting the destruction of Pascal's village as one of the game's most devastating moments. Saying that the game constantly reinforced how "pathetic" the "supposedly evil" Machines were, he gave the example of a group of robots attempting to raise a child, only to realize it could not age, as showing that they "will never feel human, no matter how hard they try".[2] Patrick Klepek of Vice stated that he had been meaning to send "a snarky Tweet" once he reached a scene with Machines attempting to simulate sex, but could only find it sad once he saw the context, "a desperate attempt to grasp humanity". He professed that Nier: Automata asked the player "to directly reckon with the notion of being a machine".[3]
Peter Tieryas of Kotaku wrote that he was "disturbed" and "deeply upset" by sidequests involving the Machines, calling them "tragic". He noted the particular example of the "Lost Girl" sidequest, in which the player must help an elder sister find her younger sister, who was lost in the desert finding a replacement part. While the player reunites the sisters in the end, they later perish in each other's arms when the village is stricken by a virus that makes the Machines go berserk, despite his hopes that they would survive. An even more poignant example is when Pascal attempts to protect the village's children, only to have them commit suicide out of fear. Describing the choice between killing Pascal and wiping his memory as a "choice between two evils", Tieryas calls the result of inducing amnesia "even more disturbing", as Pascal returns to the village to unknowingly sell scrap metal that was once the Machine children. Wondering whether the principal cause of the suffering was "humanity and their desire to survive and propagate", he stated that he was "still thinking about those questions thanks to the NPCs".[4]
Reuben ultimately described the game's message about artificial intelligence as a hopeful one, running in contrast to stories like The Matrix or I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, saying that it asked why humanity thought they were more than machines because they felt pain, love or empathy, and expressed the belief that the future would be "fine without us".[1]
References
- ^ a b Reuben, Nic (2018-11-14). "We don't deserve this planet, the robots of Nier: Automata do". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
- ^ Gwaltney, Javy. "The Virtual Life – Carrying The Weight Of The World In Nier: Automata". Game Informer. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
- ^ Klepek, Patrick (2017-03-21). "The Uncomfortable Humanity of the Robots That Inhabit 'Nier: Automata'". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
- ^ Tieryas, Peter (2017-12-30). "The Tragic Sidequests From Nier Automata's Machine Village". Kotaku. Retrieved 2023-02-13.