Replaced

I have been looking forward to this game since the first time I saw the trailer. When I played the demo during Steam’s Next Fest, I really enjoyed the small slice of the game they showed. What I played was an excellent example of how a demo can create excitement and hype for a game and a strong argument for more developers to release them, even when taking into account the work it entails to create it. I played the game on PC Game Pass and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it added to the list of upcoming games. It is available on Steam, GOG and Epic on PC as well as the Xbox store for PC and the Series X/S.

While playing the demo. I was amazed at how a side scroller managed to pull me in. Generally sidescrollers don’t keep my interest for very long, they tend to become repetitive and I find it hard to engage with the single or at best dual planes that they tend to work on. Replaced’s play area focuses on a single depth plane that you move across, sometimes you move up or down a little into the foreground or background in specific situations, but on the whole your movement is from left to right or vice versa and is focused in the middle of the screen. But it is the level of detail they have added to this game that sets it apart. While in the city, for instance, the NPCs walking around all look different, they walk around at different speeds as well as in front and behind each other and each of them have unique motion. Birds scatter as you walk near them, open doors swing in the wind and vines on the brickwork sway from side to side. These little things add a sense of life and lived in feeling. Now sure if you look closely and pay attention, some of these things are on repeat and just play on a loop, but if you immerse yourself in the world it draws you in. While looking at something on your Wingman 2 (the device that acts as your journal to record all scans and information as well as your to-do list more on this later), people pass by in the background slightly out of focus. The depth of field is more  natural in this game when compared to many other games, rather than being a filter that is inserted over the screen to give a sense of focus, it is more gradual as it moves away from the point of focus in the scene. This is not always the case as sometimes it does look as if a piece of glass covered in Vaseline has been placed between you and the background, but this is few and far between and when it happens it stands out starkly as it is not the norm. The environments are full of little things that increase the sense of depth in front and behind your character. Instead of a foreground middle ground and background, they have created multiple layers that add a sense of 3D in a 2.5D environment. The area is littered with little items and vegetation that make the world feel full and well rounded. 

The graphics in this game are incredible. Although it is pixel art style graphics, the sprites are clean, sharp and high definition. When they move they are smooth and don’t judder like many other pixel art games due to them having multiple frames of animation. The lighting is perfectly suited to the area, with light and shadow areas having multiple illumination levels. Shadows created by items in the world move and flicker in response to their perspective to the light. 

But I am getting ahead of myself. Replaced is developed by Sad Cat Studios and published by Thunderful. The basic story of the game is that your character is a scientist or programer that was tasked with creating an AI called R.E.A.C.H., the reason for which is unclear at the beginning. Through a mishap the AI is inserted into you and as the player you are unsure whether your character is dead or alive.You play as the AI controlling the person. The AI is childlike and is not wise to the world or has any understanding of its role within it and it has a simple, childlike impression of the work it was created to do. For instance, the AI is constantly speaking to you, telling you what it has noted about the world and your situation, as well as what it thinks needs to be done and what it is doing even though it never receives a reply from the human protagonist. This is an unsettling one way conversation. You are chased out of the lab and outside the city walls by the police and R.E.A.C.H. is unsure why. You, as the AI, realise you need to return to the city and the lab in order to try undo what has been done, a task you know to be near impossible. You make your way towards the city again and come across a group of people that turn out to be hostile.

This is where combat comes in. You have 2 distinct phases in the game, exploration and combat. The exploration phase includes traversing the environment and solving simple traversal puzzles including jumping, climbing and moving items around. These get more involved as the game goes on with new mechanics and skills being introduced. Combat involves either single powerful enemies or bosses with multiple attacks and attack phases, or, more commonly,  being attacked by multiple different enemies at once. Again this becomes more intricate as the game progresses, with enemies initially just doing 2 attacks (heavy and light) but later you encounter enemies with armor for instance, that require you to use a tool and heavy attack to remove the armour. Most times you are fighting multiple enemies all with different attack styles and requirements in order to kill them. You have a healing stim that starts off with two charges which increases as you go further through the game via collectables. When you leave the city a policeman dies near you and you are left with his gun that, even though it is locked to him through biogenetics, is broken which allows you to use it. It can transform into a police baton allowing you to have a melee attack. You initially have a basic attack and a counter attack.  When the enemy does a light attack, highlighted by blue and yellow lightning bolts above the enemies head, you can perform a counter attack with multiple animations. You also have a dodge in order to evade the enemy's heavy attack which is indicated by red lightning bolts. Later you enable the ability to use the gun which has a battery that needs to be charged via melee attacks. When the gun is charged up you can shoot one shot and you use the gun to perform executions on the enemies. Combat is basic but effective, especially in the beginning and when you do it well it resembles a dance with the enemies, with you darting from left to right, countering their attacks and performing finishing moves. Combat is fun and when you pull it off feels very satisfying. The controls on PC are straight forward, with the same keys being used in both the combat and exploration. For instance the space bar is jump while running around exploring but changes to dodge while in combat. The distinction between the two phases is clear cut as combat plays out in an arena where the enemies are in the background and then move forward in groups to engage you. 

The enemy design is your usual cyberpunk/fallout aesthetic, but there is a decent amount of variety to the enemies you face. I really liked the design of the bosses I encountered and a lot of thought was put into the mechanics that the enemies utilise as well as the mechanics needed to defeat them. 

The game is set in an alternative 1980s America, after a nuclear catastrophe. The history of the world is laid out in articles of interest lying around the world. You snap a picture of various environmental items with your Wingman 2, a very retro styled device with a monochrome screen and tactile mechanical controls on it reminiscent of a Game Boy style device with a BlackBerry functionality. Important items are usually highlighted by a shiny twinkle in the environment. On the side of the device is a scroll wheel that your hand scrolls as you move through the records and journal entries, a nice little mechanical touch that adds immersion. All the computers and electronic devices in the world have that retro monochrome screened artstyle all the way through. The art style sits somewhere between the shiny, neon high colour of Cyberpunk and the gritty, run down rusted environment of a game like Fallout. As I said the pixel art is of such high quality, with hi-res sprites that move smoothly through their animations. If you watch the idle animations of different characters, they move through the usual sequence of idle frames but the transition between the movements is so smooth and natural. 

The characters you meet along the way are all believable and distinct, but their personalities are not over the top. The first person you meet who is not trying to kill you and saves your life, is angry and frustrated but it doesn’t leave him incapable of thought though when compared to a character like Ryuji from Person 5 even though they are similar in temperament. The story centric characters all have backstories and their own motivations. There are also many side characters who are in need of help, that make up the side quests along the way. Their quests vary from fetch quests to more intricate requests that take more effort (such as a little girl who you help to repair her arcade cabinets that then requires you then to beat her top score on said machine). 

I do have gripes but they are minor and some are personal as well as things that, although I understand why, would just be nice and add a lot to the game. An example of this is voice acting. I understand the expense that would be necessary in order to have a fully voiced game, but it would be so nice to be able to watch the screen and hear what is being said rather than having to follow the subtitles at the bottom. Adding this would be the cherry on top. I am hopeful they take a page out of the Disco Elysium team's book and add this later because, as in the case of Disco Elysium, it would just add so much to the game. 

I would love a skip cutscene or dialog option. I found out while playing that you can hit escape and in the menu screen there is a skip cutscene option but a more accessible or easily usable option would be appreciated. While fighting one of the bosses I died a few times and having to go into the menu (or having to rewatch the cutscene over and over again) was a little jarring and a pain, especially as that boss had 2 phases and multiple cutscenes. 

I wish you moved a little quicker at times. Pushing Shift to run when the area is clear or you are running from one side of the city to the other would be appreciated. Although it is nice to take in the view as you saunter past, after a few times of moving through an area a quick run to get to where you are going wouldn’t go amiss. The controls could be a little tighter especially when you need to enter multiple button pushes in a row. The number of times I rolled to dodge an enemy attack to come up behind them and ended up shooting the wrong direction because it didn’t register my key press to change my direction to face the enemy is frustrating. This can also be a frustration while platforming. This is a common thread through the Steam reviews. The game also teaches patience in many of the sneaking and platforming puzzles.

I would also like some way to know if you have done all the side content before you move on. The quest log is a little loose. 

I will always advocate for a manual save option in every game. I appreciate autosave, and it is quite good in this game, but there are just so many things that can go wrong and only having autosaves can ruin a game if you are not able to go back to a previous save. There are reports of bugs (not an uncommon complaint in today's world) and this is something that would absolutely be a deal breaker for me.

I was really hopeful this game would be good and am relieved to see that it is. Although I haven’t finished it and cannot comment on the story as a whole it is interesting and I am drawn to complete it. I have not grown tired of the art style (another running theme through the Steam reviews) and I am intrigued as to see what the end of the story is. Another bonus is that there is an demo so I would actively encourage anyone who is slightly interested to try the demo. Although it isn’t a full showing of the mechanics in the game, it does give a good overview of what to expect from the game. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys this style of game and encourage anyone who is even slightly interested to go try the demo. The game is also only £17 on Steam. 

Please feel free to leave any comments below as it is a good indicator of what people think and any comments would be appreciated.