Oh my goodness, there are so many things I want to tell you about Replaced. I want to tell you about its side-scrolling action, I want to tell you about its cyberpunk landscapes, I want to tell you about its flying cars and the corrupt corporation leading this dystopian world. But, you all know – at least on a surface level – about that already. It’s in the trailers, and I can say from playing the first few hours, it’s all in the game as well. And, it’s great, as I have hoped it would be ever since Replaced was first announced all those years ago.
Replaced
- Developer: Sad Cat Studios
- Publisher: Thunderful
- Platform: Played on PC
- Availability: Out 12th March on PC Steam, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass, PC Epic, PC GOG
So, while I will get into more detail about all of that in a moment, if you will humour me for now, I want to talk about something which took me by surprise when I got to go hands-on with Replaced during a visit to publisher Thunderfall last month – the sheer amount of heart there is to be found in this dystopian and cruel world.
Allow me to very quickly set the scene. Replaced is a 2.5D “retro-futuristic” sci-fi platformer, set in an alternate 1980s America. This America has been scarred by a nuclear catastrophe, and now humanity is split. On one side, there is the corrupt Phoenix Corporation, which is holed up behind the walls of Phoenix-City. On the other side, there are those considered disposable, who live in shanty-like towns beyond the walls of Phoenix-City. Mixed into this is a gang known as the Termites, a nasty underground-dwelling bunch who hunt other humans for sport. And when an artificial intelligence known as Reach gets trapped inside his human operator’s body at the Transplantology Department, he soon discovers the harsh world that lies beyond the walls of Phoenix-City.
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Here’s our video-fied version of this preview, to see Replaced in action.Watch on YouTube
As soon as I took control of Reach, now in this foreign human body, I felt protective of him. Reach only knows what has been taught to him by his operator, and at the beginning of the game there is an almost childish naivety to him. He just wants to protect his operator’s body, and doesn’t fully understand why the PCPD are hostile towards him. So, he runs for his life into a world that he does not know. At one point, Reach comments that he thought those on the other side of the wall would be provided with necessities to survive. “But this place is… ruined,” Reach says. “The level of human aggression does not correlate with the data I have,” he adds later.
Thankfully, Reach is soon saved from aggressive Termites and derelict ruins by Tempest, a rockstar of a soul who takes him back to the relative safeness of Prospero (the Shakespearian-ness of these names is not lost on me). Prospero is, despite its very humble offerings, full of life, and while there is a deep sadness here, there is also hope. There are those who genuinely want to help others, and do good.
While much of these interactions could be missed, Replaced – from what I have played so far – actually has a healthy dose of side quests that build up this world if you chat with those around and about. And, I really suggest you do. Among other things, this saw me helping a young girl restore an arcade machine. I then spent around 20 minutes enjoying a minigame within Replaced, which added a new layer of depth to a game I thought was going to be a fairly straightforward action-based side-scroller.
Image credit: Sad Cat
Then there were those in Prospero who had been dealt a very rough hand in life. Very rough. And yet, they weren’t sitting and feeling sorry for themselves. They were out there serving others in a way they knew how. At another point one story, which I will not spoil here, left me with a lump in my throat. Sad Cat has, from my short time with it, completely surpassed my expectations with the way it marries dystopia with heartfelt characterisation in Replaced (and there are some standout characters, from the no-nonsense matriarch of Prospero known as, well Matriarch, to the rather eclectic “bonafide tech-wizard” Yo-Yo and the stern but kind-hearted Ironwood).
Meanwhile, there are numerous collectable documents and the like you can find littered throughout Replaced. Some of these are more playful, like a board game box, while others will genuinely tug at your heart strings, like an eviction notice or diary entry. Sad Cat has crammed this world with an incredible amount of detail.
Speaking of, oh my word those set pieces. I found myself on several occasions just stopping to look around. The environments, rendered in glorious pixel art, are so dynamic, with trees blowing in the breeze, birds chirping while soaring overhead, sun dappling across the leaf-coloured ground, dilapidated billboards hinting at a once prosperous past, graffiti covered walls and so much more. It is quite something to behold.
Image credit: Sad Cat
As I’ve touched on, when I wasn’t making friends in Prospero I spent my preview facing off against the corrupt Phoenix-City police department as well as various members of the Termite gang by using speed, force and stealth to make my way forward. When things first started going sideways for poor ol’ Reach, I did the only thing I knew how – I ran. I fled from the raining gunfire being sent in my direction, jumping over fences and logs as I made my way from the city itself and into the surrounding woodlands. The jumps between runs were fluid and slick, and while this section may have gone on a little long, ah, it was exhilarating.
However I was soon face to face with a rather burly cop who wanted my guts for garters, and here Reach and I learned to counterattack and dodge with some classic indicators: counter when little yellow ‘lightening bolts’ appear above an enemies head, dodge when it’s a red one. A little later I found myself a gun, and while Reach could not fire it yet due to the built-in biolock, he could use it like a baton, which was rather handy against those Termite fools. Then it was a case of punch and repeat.
At one point, I was worried this style of combat may get a tad samey, but thankfully a little later into the preview, I was at last able to fire my gun thanks to Yo-Yo. I couldn’t go totally bananas with it though – this wasn’t a John McClane “Ho, ho, ho, now I have a machine gun” moment. Rather, I had to charge up the gun with energy before I was able to take a shot. This was done by hitting and countering enemy attacks. Only then could I release a very satisfying, and somewhat juicy, blow to an oncoming foe.
Image credit: Sad Cat
As for those foes, they ranged from some fairly basic Termite goons to the much sturdier Tank Termites. Some enemies had their own guns, meanwhile, so it was important to keep an eye on what everyone was doing when a brawl happened, because I got shot a fair few times when my focus was one Termite, not realising another one was about to pop me off from behind (huzzah for those medical stims I picked up earlier!).
Then, there was the leader of the Termites, a futuristic chunk of man known as Uncle Ben, who looks like a mash up between LeChuck from the Monkey Island series and – once another journalist pointed it out to me, meaning I could no longer unsee it – the villain from Disney’s Mulan. Before I could get to him, though, I had to sneak past the rest of his Termite crew, using – aha, the third tool in my arsenal – stealth!
Avoiding the spotlight of a patrolling Termite car, which housed a very accurate Termite Sniper, I used a newly acquired pickaxe to swing behind pillars and walls in order to stay hidden. I ducked behind crates, I scrabbled up walls, and I poured myself through windows, all the while avoiding the beam of light that would immediately bring about my death should it land on me. To be clear, I did not manage this the first time. Or the second for that matter. In fact, it took me several attempts to finally make it past the searching cars, and for quite some time I was launching poor Reach into an abyss because I kept failing to deploy my pickaxe at the right time. I am pretty sure he forgave me, though…
Image credit: Sad Cat
I honestly loved my time with Replaced. I always thought I would enjoy it, but my expectations have far and away been surpassed. There are still a few things that are not perfect, of course. The ‘yellow paint’ markers guiding you by the hand can be a little distracting, and there could have been more enemy variety.
But, overall, I really think Replaced has the potential to be something special. I fully expect I will need tissues by the end of it, though, because I have theory about where things are going and well, yeah, emotions. And while emotions alone don’t count for much, it’s the brutality and relevance of its dystopian setting that makes such a human heart matter.
