It’s not often that a studio spends about seven years working on a side-scrolling action platformer, but Replaced isn’t your typical run-and-gun experience. Launching on April 14th for Xbox Series X/S and PC (alongside Game Pass on day one), it’s a dystopian odyssey – a desperate crawl through the remnants of once-glorious cities in search of…well, something. There’s still a lot to unpack, so let’s jump into 15 things you should know about it, starting with the most eye-catching part…
Gorgeous 2.5D Pixel Art
Replaced doesn’t just hit you with its art style – it is its art style, but not just because it’s exquisitely crafted 2.5D pixel art. Or even that it’s inspired by titles like Flashback, Another World and The Last Night (which is still MIA). There’s a sense of style and atmosphere that is the most fitting evocation of Blade Runner yet. It’s cinematic (and very often cinema), whether you’re nervously running through abandoned buildings, avoiding being blown up by psychotic Termites, or casually strolling through a busy marketplace, taking in all the little details.
Alternative 1980s Setting
Where it all goes down isn’t necessarily as important as when. It’s the 1980s, but an alternative timeline where nuclear disaster has reshaped the United States. The Phoenix Corporation has emerged in the aftermath, promising jobs and hope, but also conducting some shady experiments (as is expected from any megacorp in the future). R.E.A.C.H., an artificial intelligence, is seemingly one of them, having been trapped inside Warren’s body and escaping from the corporation’s clutches to Phoenix City, which is confined within The Wall. To what end?
AI and the Meaning of Humanity
You would have to think that R.E.A.C.H. wants to undo this whole mess because he’s not very good at acting human. Nevertheless, he tries, and while the meaning of being human is a core theme, developer Sad Cat Studios is also keen on exploring the dark turns that A.I. usage can take, especially when it comes to bio transplantology, namely replacing damaged organs and tissues through various means. Kind of gives a whole new dimension to the name “Replaced”, doesn’t it?
Cinematic Platforming
Like all those previously mentioned classics, Replaced involves platforming. There’s a sense of weight to R.E.A.C.H.’s movement, at least based on the recent demo, as he leaps across gaps, swings from bars and climbs up ledges. However, it’s less precision-focused and more cinematic with the cinematography, lighting, and overall atmosphere coming into play, especially when it comes to the…
Realistic Level Design
As director Yura Zhdanovich and composer Igor Gritsay told us, the goal with the environmental design is to keep them grounded – not just to accommodate the game’s cinematic feel but also from a setting standpoint. It’s not unlike what you would see from titles like Inside, but keeping to more realistic scenarios, as the art direction does a lot of the heavy lifting, bridging the gap between the surreal and the depressingly life-like.
Free Flow Combat
Of course, running through these gorgeous levels is only one component of Replaced’s gameplay. The other is combat, and Batman: Arkham fans rejoice, because it’s a clear nod to the glorious days of Free Flow (except on a 2.5D plane). You can seamlessly transition between enemies, hitting faster if you remain unscathed, and countering when necessary.
The Huxley
The Huxley is R.E.A.C.H.’s handgun, and it progressively builds charge as you smack enemies around. When fully charged, it can take down an enemy in one strike, and even works at range, making it ideal against gun-toting threats. Hanging back or rolling around too much means losing any charges. So on the one hand, you need to keep swinging, but on the other, also dodging to avoid the heavier hits. There’s a rhythm and flow here which feels good, and where R.E.A.C.H.’s weightiness feels the most appropriate.
Pickaxe and Heavy Strikes
One function that isn’t available in the demo is the Heavy Strike. It’s tied to the mechanized pickaxe that players unlock later, and is required to break through armored foes to hit them where it hurts. This is the only other tool that we currently know of, but it’s not just for combat – the pickaxe also adds in traversal, specifically wall-climbing. Perhaps even opening up previously locked-off areas?
Huxley Upgrades
The Huxley can also receive some upgrades to unlock more combat options, like deflecting bullets, and much like the pickaxe, it also provides a unique non-combat function (specifically double-jumping, and no, I don’t know how to reconcile the two). You would have to think that deflecting is better than wasting shots for takedowns, or that it would help in building weapon charge, but we still need to wait and see how it feeds into the overall combat loop.
Exploration and Dialogue Choices
The third and arguably most important aspect of Replaced? Exploration. We’re talking about entering the Station in Phoenix City and simply walking around, mingling with its residents to learn more about the world, their plight and what to do next. There’s a lot to see – especially lore entries that outline just how thoroughly everything’s gone to hell – and dialogue choices when conversing with the likes of the Council, even if it’s just to inquire about their backgrounds.
Side Quests
You’ll also take on side quests, and while they don’t currently offer much beyond “go collect and deliver things,” there are some notable NPCs to meet. Like Susan, who stays in the arcade and won’t give R.E.A.C.H. her binoculars if he doesn’t find a rectifier to help repair one of the broken machines. Thus, he sets out to find a ticket machine and, in true A.I. fashion, rips out everything and hopes one of the components is what she’s looking for.
Playable Arcade Games
Funnily enough, Susan won’t part with those binoculars, even if you help her fix the machine. Instead, she invites you to beat her high score, which confirms yet another distraction: Arcade mini-games. Described by IGN as a mix between Crazy Taxi and Operation, it’s pretty straightforward. Whether other such games exist is unknown, but seeing R.E.A.C.H. in all his hulking glory in this kind is…unorthodox, to say the least.
Stealth and Hacking
We’ve seen a bit of the stealth mechanics, which mostly comprise crouching behind objects to avoid detection (and a high-powered explosive shot to the face). However, another later scenario involves mixing in with crowds to avoid detection, not unlike the old-school Assassin’s Creed titles. Hacking also comes into play as a dedicated mini-game, especially when having to manipulate traffic lights.
Average Playthrough Length
Despite everything that Replaced has to offer, the development team isn’t “forcing side-content” on players. An average playthrough will take about eight hours, but going out of your way for optional content will bump it up to 11 to 12 hours. It’s about as expected, especially for a finely-honed experience that blends cinematic platformer with tense combat, and we can’t wait to see where the story goes.
Xbox Series X/S Performance and Minimum PC Requirements
Sad Cat Studios touts the game as “rather heavy graphics-wise,” but those on Xbox Series X won’t have to worry, as it runs at 4K and 60 FPS. Series S owners can expect 1440p resolution and the same frame rate. And while recommended PC requirements have yet to be confirmed, the minimum demands a Core i5-8400, 16 GB of RAM, a GTX 1060 with 6 GB VRAM and 8 GB of installation space.
