Replaced

Do you guys remember when E3 was still a thing? Those were good times. A ceremony for all the big game companies out there to show off what their developers are working on. Not saying E3 magically dispelled every problem occurring in the industry. Some of which we’re still witnessing today, but it’s nice to be reminded there is hope to be held. E3 was awesome, and then it was killed. In 2020, the whole world was struck by the Covid-19 pandemic. Numerous businesses struggled as people were forced to lock themselves at home, which then led to financial issues. What we once knew crumbled apart and one such thing we knew was E3. The last ceremony was held in 2021, and not much was shown compared to what E3 2019 had in store. Companies like Nintendo and Sony wanted to put more effort into putting out their own presentations rather than pay for E3 booths. A consequence for the increasing advancement of technology. Why stand on a stage when you can simply stream a recording? A heavily edited, choreographed, and well planned recording. Whereas going on a stage added risks of stuff acting up during demonstration. 

My mind can distinctly remember how E3 2021 played out. Okay at best with the lowest amount of hype for new games that E3 had ever seen. Skill Up summarized it best back in their E3 2021 impression, “You get nothing exciting.” E3 is dead now, but there was one game during that last ceremony I stayed hopeful for years for. That being Replaced by Sad Cat Studios. It was shown at the Xbox presentation between the big trailers for games like Psychonauts 2 and Halo Infinite. Shouting to the audience it was more than just a mere indie game, and instead a future landmark of what indie games could be. A combination of pixel artwork and 3D environments. Advanced lighting and colors so many games have today, and top quality cinematography and audio. This was a game that managed to show a lot from just its reveal trailers, and it’s stayed on my radar for years. The original plan was for Replaced to release in 2022, but development went on as the team felt unsatisfied with what they initially wanted Replaced to be. Shifting between ideas, the main inspirations, and what the ultimate goal ended up being. It became the longest indie game to spend time in development in my mind aside from Hollow Knight: Silksong.

So time went on, and during time a lot of things happened. The indie scene learned, and what was once ahead of its time started to become outclassed by the games around it. There are now a handful of games that combine 2D pixel art with 3D environments. Indie games with cinematic framing and storytelling that rival the big leads in the industry. I know a ton of people debated if last year’s Expedition 33 was indie or Double A, but let’s just admit it was astounding what such a small studio was able to achieve without being overfunded. Replaced was stuck in a hole the devs wanted to crawl out of, but eventually the game did come out. Finally releasing earlier this year and the results were…. Kind of mixed. Majority of outlets gave Replaced middling scores, and while they praised the visuals they critiqued how Replaced failed to innovate on anything & in some areas go backwards. Not all is doom and gloom as outside of major outlets, most people loved it. The game sits with a very positive score on Steam, and the developers are still kicking so I’ll assume they made their bank back or are in the progress of achieving it. Even then it’s a damn shame Replaced didn't blow up the way Sad Cat Studio were hoping for with how much they betted it would blow up. It also came out during a bad time amid the reviewer controversy for Mouse: P.I for Hire and Mixtape. A whole other aneurysm I don't want to talk about.

Replaced struggled to stay afloat in a day and age where cool games are constantly coming out, but you know what? I think it was a miracle that Replaced ended up existing. In this day and age we’re seeing studios get shut down, workers be laid off in large numbers, AI take jobs from others, or corporate hands abuse those below them. If a small team can manage to get their game out then I see that as an achievement. They had a plan and still managed to fulfill their goal even in spite of everything going on. Replaced is a game I’m excited to talk about with you all. It has its fair share of problems. Combat while fun leaves much to be desired. The controls are clunky, and some people might not like how it’s designed and structured like a modern action adventure game like God of War or A Plague Tale. However, I had a lot of fun playing this and it contains one of my favorite cyberpunk narratives in a video game. As a matter of fact this is my favorite cyberpunk game ever now. Today let’s talk about Replaced and why it deserves your attention.

Story

A vast majority of cyberpunk universes take place in the faroff future, but Replaced is one of few cyberpunk games to make it take place in the past. Set in an alternate version of the 1980s where the United States went to war and are now suffering the overuse of nuclear weapons. Earth hasn’t been destroyed, but some sectors of the USA are uninhabitable and the government is trying its damn best to cover up. Sections that do contain resources have been designated, labeled, and put under heavy watch of government eyes. What was once the land of the free became ruled by an iron fist. Where police are armed to the death with equipment soldiers use. Corporations and millionaires rule the world, and anyone who opposes them are deemed traitors. Abandoned and misused by the higher class. Basically, the world of this game is real life except there are flying cars and laser guns. One such thing this corrupt society does is repurpose tools designed by great minds for control, and the biggest one is R.E.A.C.H. Research Engine for Altering & Composing Humans. Originally designed by intelligent scientist Warren Marsh to assist in medical practices. Locate individuals who contain organs and parts needed to treat unwell patients.

Warren had good intentions. He wanted to help as many people as he could, but upon making a deal with the government it was repurposed. Made to enhance policemen into soldiers, perform operations on only those who can afford it, and turned into a watching eye of the whole city. A system has been put in place where organs would be extracted from ex-criminals, handicapped, or who were labeled outsiders to societal standards. The rich get what they want and so some of those implants are taken by force. Donors were labeled Disposals, and any who attempted to escape the facilities who owned them would be punished or killed with brutal force. This leads us back to Warren. One night Warren was attempting to sort through patients and work past his goals. He’s always been busy, and again he puts the greater good over others. Even if it means turning a blind eye to evil. Warren attempts to perform an operation on a patient, but R.E.A.C.H who was helping him at the time states that prolonged work had led to the system destabilizing. R.E.A.C.H attempts to stop Warren, but the angered man forces the operation to go through. The whole system overloads, bugs out, and causes the entire lab to break apart instantly.

R.E.A.C.H awakens after enduring a painful process, but finds himself somewhere he should not be. The room is cold, his lungs take in what air is left, and the artificial intelligence realizes he’s no longer a machine. Instead being implanted into the body of Warren Marsh. The facility is then overrun by policemen who shoot anybody on sight. R.E.A.C.H chooses to run and escape into a world beyond the walls for which he was born. The sun beams down, wind causes grass to flow elegantly, and he’s in search of someone who can help. Assist in possibly transferring back into the vast database he controlled, and return Warren to his body. Eventually he runs into Tempest, a man who fights and protects a small community of Disposals who managed to escape. The now referred to Reach recognizes Tempest was the subject they tried looking up. Deducing the best course of action would now be to follow Tempest as he might have a good understanding of what to do. Well maybe not, because Reach will learn of not only the suffering he’s caused but what it truly means to feel for the people and world around you. To let go the heart of void.

Gameplay

It’s a 2D action adventure game that’s constantly switching up what kind of game it wants to be. Sometimes it wants to be a platformer and other times it wants to be a combat game. Sometimes it has puzzles, and other times it was to sorta be a walking sim where you talk to characters & read up on some lore documents. Whatever the case, I think Replaced handles all aspects pretty well. I know people are getting tired of these kinds of games. They can be hand-holdy or restrict how much fun a player can have by worming them into situations. The recent Wolverine has got a lot of people riled up over these specific kinds of action games; linear, restrictive, and trying to do a ton of things but not one thing greatly. To that I say, “Well Wolverine just looks bad and fails to understand what it means to be a video game.” Replaced does this stuff, but at least it does it well. I can’t imagine it being just combat, or just platforming because it would either get boring or frustrating. The platforming is less focused on fluidity and more on physics and weight. If you played games like Planet of Lana, American Arcadia, Inside, or the original Prince of Persia for which the developers took inspiration from then you should feel right at home. You can’t change directions when jumping, you get only so much air time, and you often have to climb versus using a double jump or a fancy move platforming heroes have. While Reach’s abilities are quite limiting, the levels find interesting ways to challenge players or use unique mechanics. Such as a cavern where you have a torch and you slowly walk through a dark pool of water while ninja raiders try to get up in your face.

Speaking of combat this is the one thing that separates Replaced from a lot of realistic physics platformers out there. Enemies will surround Reach and you gotta fight them off. Learn how to multi-task several dudes at once, deflect at the right time, and whip out the right attacks so you can get the edge. Yellow indicators need to be blocked and red needs to be dodged. Over time the game gives you the tools to counter or deal with different enemies. Such as the pickaxe to tear up shields or armor, because if not your attacks deflect right off. Your biggest tool being your gun that you can quickly switch to as your staff is a multi-tool. Bashing enemies and deflecting hits fill up a charge, and this charge can be spent to shoot an enemy. Dealing heavy damage or more often than not kills them instantly. You’re encouraged to use it often to break crowds up quickly. At some point you unlock a rage mode similar to God of War where you can start blasting, but this only works if you fight well enough to fill up the rage meter. The combat feels a lot like Batman: Arkham to be honest. Paying attention to enemy attacks is better than button mashing, and you’re rewarded for inputting good combos or command strings. (Well that’s an interesting way of telling people I code.) Kill enemies, try not to die, and progress further.

Outside of combat and platforming you got some occasional puzzles. Some of them are simple like pushing a box so you can climb higher like in Uncharted. Others are full of puzzles where you have to read documents, pay attention to detail, and use the info you learned. Replaced is a linear game, but straying away from the main story does reward you sometimes. Running down the right hallway gives you shinies, and when interacted with you either get lore documents or a character upgrade. Such as increasing your max health, having more medkits to use in fights, and faster charge rate for the gun. Exploring levels isn’t the only way you get these upgrades as there are times you go back to the Disposal encampment. A place where you can chat with NPCs and handle side quests. Some of which go down incredibly sad directions, so get ready to see what it is like to exist in a world where pain lies around every corner. Outside of that there’s not much else to say about Replaced. It’s basic in what it attempts to do, but that’s okay. I did not expect Replaced to reinvent the wheel. Just be a solid enough experience with an engaging story, and it managed to achieve this. Don’t let the thoughts overwhelm, and reunite once more.

Thoughts on the Game

(Note: I’m splitting my thoughts section in two categories now depending on the title I’m critiquing. This was feedback a friend provided me, and I’m gonna try and take it.)

For a game that’s been in the works since 2018 and serves as the debut title for Sad Cat Studio, it’s really good in my opinion. I do think it's understandable why mainstream reviewers weren’t impressed with Replaced. As it’s following a cookie cutter formula people have seen dozens of times, and there have been a ton of indies since the initial reveal that did something Replaced did but better. One of Sad Cat Studios’ goals was for Replaced to be a technical showcase. Yes, it’s running on Unity but showed how you could combine pixel artwork with 3D modeling. Replaced is a high end compared to most indie games. It wants to produce visuals people haven’t seen in the past, but the thing is though I’ve seen games do the pixel combination look Replaced is doing. Octopath Traveler is the big one for me, and while it isn’t an indie game it was an earlier attempt to combine the two styles. Paper Mario has 2D characters running in a 3D world and the same applies for successors like Bug Fables and Escape From Ever After. The collectathon 3D platformers Tinykin and Ruffy & The Riverside do the exact same. All of the games I mentioned were released before Replaced, and some of which took less time to develop. It took eight years to make Replaced, and some are gonna wonder why the wait was so long for a small game. 

Not to talk down on Replaced and its art direction, because it’s top notch. I would go as far as to say this is the best usage of a HD-2D that I’ve seen right behind Octopath Traveler. We have a 2D platformer where you go from scene to scene, but the presentation is what makes the universe of Replaced feel large in scope. The game makes great use of perspective. Zooming the camera out, placing it at different angles to create height and length, and at times you traverse different layers to progress. Adding to the sense that you’re venturing through spaces rather than just a horizontal grid. You should all know I’m not a PC gamer and most games I review are covered on consoles. My time with Replaced was spent on my small Precision 5680 laptop, and it ran like a dream. Never did I experience framerate drops, crashes, or failing to load textures or playspace. At the time of writing this is one beautiful, well optimized game. The only complaint I have for the presentation is that I hate the black bars on screen. If you watch movies, more specifically any Christopher Nolan film, you know these bars are added to produce a more cinematic effect. For you to really focus what’s going on, and personally I think that statement is bullsh*t. As the game is already doing a great job to present itself. If anything the black bars remove how much is being presented on screen, so great job movie enjoyers. :(

We should probably talk about how Replaced is as a video game, and yeah there is a lot to say. Most of it is amazing, but I hold this sentiment as someone who is really flexible when it comes to appreciating stuff at different levels. Compared to most action games this is not a very smooth one to play. The biggest issue I hold with Replaced is that it’s clunky. It’s not badly designed and a lot of the ideas are handled thoughtfully, but how it feels to play is something. Attacks aren’t smooth and the same applies to dodging. There’s a bit of delay when trying to attack enemies, so you have to adjust to swing time and how quickly you can react. Jumping while purposefully designed to be weighty doesn’t feel good. Less so than other realistic physics platformers like the Planet of Lana games and American Arcadia. Climbing, which there is a lot of, feels janky too. I saw a few moments where it felt like I shouldn’t be able to grab a ledge and hoist my way up. Then I did, or there was something I should be able to grab onto, but could not. I love how beautiful this game is, but once in a while it’s difficult to tell what a climbable surface is. Even if the surface is painted bright yellow like every single modern video game these days. 

Controls are certainly the weakest aspect of Replaced, and I couldn’t tell if it was my own fault or the game. However, clunky controls never stopped me from enjoying a video game, and when you do finally get on board it’s very fun. Platforming is decently challenging as you precisely jump and try to accommodate distance both vertically & horizontally. Levels roll out mechanics overtime to change up how you traverse, or get you to think. The same can be applied with the combat and how it evolves. Combat personally was thrillingly elevated by the cinematography. You can clearly see the Batman: Arkham influences here, and it honestly is the best game to try and understand what made Arkham good. There isn’t any combo meter, but you have the gun and how you gotta charge it up. Encouraging players to fight aggressively, and even though I argued about the clunky controls it does make you put thought into how you chain attacks. I remember back then I complained about Arkham Asylum being sluggish, but then friends told me you’re not supposed to be fast. You’re supposed to think about attacks similar to a Dark Souls game. You can fire it from a distance, but you can also do it up close. Allowing you to perform a finishing move on smaller enemies similar to how glory kills worked in Doom 4. You get a few seconds of invincibility, and during that time you can then quickly calculate what to target next.

Ultimately I’d say the combat is great, but there’s not a lot of enemy variety especially near the end. Thank god the game is only nine hours long, because if not it would be a bigger problem. If the gun doesn’t have any ammo and I accidentally click the button to do a blast I wish Reach just doesn’t stand and react in awkwardness. LIke how using an empty Estus Flask in Dark Souls has my dude stand like an idiot in a busy fight. There is audio cue that lets you know when the gun is ready, but it’s easy for the screen to get visually cluttered and you start messing up. Again, jank can get in the way of fun. There were times Warren wouldn’t attack or block despite me clearly pressing the controller button to do so. Leading to me getting hit by an attack I could easily have blocked or dodged. These little problems shouldn’t get in the way for what is otherwise stellar combat. Any other criticisms I have aren’t much. It’s simply just following the linear path & fighting every now and then. Sure that’s a tad bit too simple, but I don’t mind simplicity. At least the game respects by having a nine hour runtime. I have a lot of respect for what Replaced tries to do versus Wolverine. The budget is unknown for this game, but at least it was above a hundred million, and treats you like you’re dumb. This game respects your intelligence, and I love it.

Thoughts on The Story

The gameplay may have its rough moments, but even if you aren’t engaged by it, Replaced has a wonderfully written narrative. Might just be one of the best written narratives of the year aside from Cairn and Esoteric Ebb. The story of Replaced is so fascinating to me not because of what it’s doing is original. Rebel factions, evil corporations, and artificial intelligence going too far have all been done by the godfathers of the cyberpunk genre. Those being Ghost in A Shell and of course Bladerunner. Maybe you follow someone enhanced by cybertech and begin to wonder if they’re more machine than man. The reboot Deus Ex series for anyone who plays these kinds of games. How about creating a machine who can think and act like a human. The game starts up with Warren instructing Reach to perform a task despite being hooked up to a brain machine and several warning signals. For a second I thought they would pull the, “Oh the AI is in your brain and talks to you. It being a valuable asset means you’re being hunted down.” I did not expect it to take a right f*cking turn and have Reach inhabit a human body. This adds a lot of depth to a character who should be a blank. Reach is a machine designed to perform tasks without question. Not only has he been given the ability to think and act on his own, but no longer has access to the mass database utilized in performing tasks. His brilliant mind reduced to a human level, so now he struggles to come up with thoughts.

In a lot of games you’d see protagonists comment on what they’re doing. Relying on tell rather than show,  but when Reach talks about how to solve a problem I didn’t mind it. He’s a computer designed to find solutions, so he’s acting like he did before. Deduce the problem, and solve it. He tries to think like a high intelligence once. Reflect and recollect what he at least knows, but you can tell he’s confused. He hopes to reupload his mind as soon as possible to the network. Bring Warren, the creator, back into his body. Then he gets sidetracked and learns of the world he had contributed to. What became of those who opposed the government, and how they were beaten and manipulated. I love it when games explore humanity, existentialism, and human concepts. In the case of Replaced it explores what it means to witness the mortality and anxiety humans go on a daily basis. Knowing that you’re weak and unable to stop the chaos around you. Yet, he tries to do that. Growing close to people who would’ve just seen as numbers. Going against his focus on efficiency and instead learning to feel. It’s in small doses, but you do see that come out in Reach it hits. So much of the story is helping the Disposals and trying to return to the lab.

I don’t want to spoil too much, because much of the game’s magic is driving through the story. What I will say is the plot twist is wild, but compared to most plot twists it doesn’t sabotage what the story wants to say. Instead further building on the themes of humanity, weakness, and what it means to be your own person. Reach realizes he no longer wants to contribute to a corrupt and flawed system. Turn a blind eye and walk away as if it’s nothing. The ending is satisfying in that it closes out the protagonist’s journey well, but leaves room for what happens next. Enough in a way where you can let your mind fill in the gaps. My overall opinion is that this is a great game. One which we may have failed as people either by not seeing the limitations this studio faced. The fact that it’s their first game and we should honestly be offering words on how to improve rather than be angry for it not being up to standard. That and I’ll remind you it came out during the Mixtape and Mouse: P.I for Hire controversy. As the internet transformed discussion to rage, and that’s why I have more fun talking to people directly versus being in a giant echo chamber. 

If you were to fix the clunky controls then I’d say Replaced is a cyberpunk masterpiece. With one of the best narratives the genre has to offer, beautiful art direction, well executed simplistic gameplay, and surprisingly affordable. Indie games are moving towards being 25 to 40 dollars, but this game managed to be twenty. Not the most replayable game, but you get a good amount of bang for your buck. Gets a strong recommendation in my book and I pray more folks give it a chance. In the end I give Replaced a 9.5/10 for being superb. 

9.5/10, Superb