Replaced from development studio Sad Cat Studios and publisher Thunderful Publishing is a cyberpunk dripping atmospheric 2.5D game that looks extremely appealing on paper.
Does the game live up to its vibes and aesthetic though? And is it worth playing?
A Mysterious Cyberpunk Story
Players in Replaced will take on the role of “Warren”. Why is that “Warren” and not just Warren you might be asking yourself? Well the answer to this gets a little bit complicated.
The game starts off with Warren working at his computer terminal in a very futuristic facility in Phoenix City. He’s typing away on his keyboard while wearing a cybernetic headset and conversing with his A.I creation, R.E.A.C.H. However, R.E.A.C.H notices that Warren is aggravated and becoming increasingly mentally unstable with an elevated heart rate.
R.E.A.C.H warns Warren to stop working and rest but Warren ignores this and gets progressively angrier until he completely loses his temper and bashes his keyboard multiple times while telling R.E.A.C.H that he’s perfectly fine.
R.E.A.C.H should comply but suddenly, an explosion gets triggered and Warren is flung from his desk. When he awakens, it’s revealed to the player that R.E.A.C.H has taken control of Warren’s body and this is where the game really kicks off.
Atmosphere And World Building
The facility starts crumbling around you and you have to quickly escape it. However, on the way out, you encounter some security forces and this is where the situation really escalates since they are hostile.
Fast forward a little bit and without spoiling too much, R.E.A.C.H controlled Warren finds themselves out in the wilderness, lost and confused but with the core function of survival taking precedence.
Gameplay in Replaced focuses on traversing 2.5D absolutely breathtaking environments while piecing together the story of the game. This is done by scanning certain objects in the game world and reading lore entries on your portable device which resembles some sort of retro-futuristic Walkman-esque media player.
Learning about the game world is an absolute treat since the game draws you in by drip feeding you tiny tidbits of information as you progress through its world. R.E.A.C.H speaks to Warren as he tries to get back to Phoenix City and this fleshes out the story even further.
Why did the security forces attack you? Where are you? What exactly is going on and why is an A.I controlling a human body? It’s all super fascinating cyberpunk themed storytelling and Replaced has seemingly mastered this.
In fact, once I started playing this game, I honestly could not pull myself away from it because of how good it was at onboarding me into its world and story.
Combat And Gameplay Mechanics
While the gameplay involves platforming your way through areas, you’ll often encounter some segments where you will face off against enemies and have to defend yourself.
The combat in Replaced is very visceral with your playable character being able to physically attack enemies using a security baton.
You can counter enemy attacks if they are telegraphed to you with a yellow indicator or can choose to dodge instead if they are marked red. Enemies will attack you in groups and you need to play strategically to take them down.
Timing your attacks and learning how to counter and dodge is essential to survival but overall the game is quite straightforward and not too difficult.
I had more problems with some platforming or stealth segments than I ever did with the boss fights and enemy encounters.
Players can recover using “Med-stims” but learning how to dodge and counter is the way forward here.
Stunning Pixel Art Visuals
The environments in Replaced are all so beautiful. The game has a 2.5D aesthetic similar to what we’ve seen from multiple games over the years now such as Octopath Traveller and Live A Live but oozing a cyberpunk dystopian theme.
Every single thing in this game looks great thanks to the pixel art style and the attention to detail is really quite something.
Players won’t be able to interact with a lot of the environment though so this can be seen as negative but when the story and gameplay is so gripping, this can be overlooked.
Soundtrack And Audio
The soundtrack in Replaced is filled with electronic music that fits perfectly with the genre. So if you’re expecting synth music associated with cyberpunk, you’re definitely going to find it here.
It sets the tone perfectly too and when story revelations happen, the music really elevates everything to the next level.
Unfortunately there isn’t any voice acting here but the game’s OST and sound effects are great.
Pacing Issues Hold It Back
Replaced is great but the game does suffer from a few drawbacks.
The biggest issue is the game’s pacing once you reach the halfway mark. The fast pace of the earlier chapters gets bogged down somewhat with some quests that can seem to slow things down a bit too much.
There’s also a lack of enemy variation in the game and it would have been nice to see this expanded upon a bit more.
Replaced comes in at around 12-15 hours long and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
The game is best played in chapters as intended and this helps fight off the fatigue that sets in later on from fighting the same types of enemies over and over in between some truly dastardly platforming segments that can seem frustrating because you’ll have to redo them repeatedly until you finally progress.
Final Verdict
Overall Replaced is a good 2.5D atmospheric puzzle platformer with combat segments that could have been fleshed out a lot more than what we currently have.
The game is extremely gorgeous and the storytelling is great if not a little bit cliché but tastes will vary in this regard.
Personally I enjoyed it but just wished that the game would have incorporated some more variation into its formula or spiced things up a tiny bit more while tweaking some of the more frustrating platforming sections.
Give this game a go though. It’s well worth checking out and absolutely nails the cyberpunk dystopian world vibe.
Just be warned that it might feel a bit slow and frustrating at times, much like some other greats in the 2.5D side-scrolling puzzle/platform action adventure genre.
Replaced Official Launch Trailer
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The product was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
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