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After what feels like an age of being in development, Replaced has launched and brings with it an oft-seen retrofuturist world teeming with life, all bound together by a jaw-dropping, 2.5D cinematic pixel-art presentation. Similar to other cyberpunk media, Replaced toys with weighty, emotional ideas like the ethics of artificial intelligence, socioeconomic divide, and, an old favourite, what it means to be human. The experience, although gorgeous and drenched in a tone that speaks to me, is short of perfect.
The setting is an all too familiar one: an alternate, analogue-age America brought to its knees by the fallout of a nuclear crisis, its people segregated and walled off from Phoenix City, a haven for corporate overlords to buy up and sell human life with the power of the almighty dollar. You’re R.E.A.C.H., an AI who, after an experiment gone awry, finds itself trapped in a human body against its will, and whose goal becomes to pick apart the corporation’s plans and get to the staggeringly human root of all existential thought: why was it created?
Within this framework, Replaced tells an intriguing thriller narrative that weaves between past and present to gradually pull back the curtain on the corporation’s grander vision, and how it involves many of the game’s complex, beautifully written characters. Many of Replaced’s ideas ring true today, and it does such a wonderful job of depicting the “us and them” gulf that exists in today’s world, complete with the incendiary hope for revolution against the unseen power dynamic that serves to keep the boot firmly on throats.
Although the player-character’s journey is one thing, Tempest emerged as a favourite of mine – his burning, anti-corporate anger is almost like the tinder box that explodes, pushing R.E.A.C.H. along on its journey of self-discovery.
I adore the game’s approach to cataloguing its history, particularly the collectible logs that port straight into the palm pilot R.E.A.C.H. lugs around, which comes complete with a definitively analogue, functional scroll dial. There are also several notes to find that give greater context to the world, some of which reference Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, which help ground the setting as a genuine, alternate slice of Americana.
Similar to its sister title, Planet of Lana, which is also published by Thunderful, Replaced is a cinematic, action-platformer. It combines long, drawn-out saunters through the game’s breathtaking vistas, breathless chain combat, and fluid movement, which allows R.E.A.C.H. to mantle and scramble through the district’s reemerging industry, whether it’s scaffolding or shafts. While I intend to comment thoroughly on the combat, and how it’s a pared-back variant of the combo-focused combat that Rocksteady popularised with their Arkham series, it’s the exploration and platforming in Replaced that I did take umbrage with.
As fluid as platforming is in terms of the animation linking together in concert to look seamless and realistic, there was an inherent frustration that I felt when making my way through Phoenix City and its dangerous outskirts. Particularly whenever it came to the game’s longer platforming segments, which, including the preamble of getting to the obstacle, involved a minute of prolonged swinging and leaping in hope, I found myself falling to an unceremonious end quite often.
I can appreciate trial and error, and I don’t expect the game to play itself, but the checkpointing on some of these sections seemed needlessly unforgiving. Had the game teleported me back to the platform before my drop, the finicky and imprecise nature of the hit detection wouldn’t have been so irritating. Unfortunately, being herded back a minute or two to try and try again compounded the annoyance.
In terms of how its gameplay unfolds, particularly outside of its settlement setting, Replaced settles into a formula that it struggles to break free from. Long, contemplative strolls against the scenery become laborious platforming exercises through the next facility in a line of facilities, all before R.E.A.C.H. plummets through one of, quite frankly, too many air ducts into a room of waiting foes, all inexplicably waiting for anything to happen.
The aforementioned combat, which does riff on the responsive, free-flow combat popularised by the Dark Knight himself, is sure to be serviceable without blowing anyone’s hair back. As R.E.A.C.H. adds tools to his belt, whether it’s the pickaxe, bubble shield, or stun baton, more urgency is layered into the combat as there’s more for you, the player, to keep track of, although I do feel like it’s never more entertaining to play than it is entertaining to look at. I particularly swoon over how the camera pulls in tight to give a confronting view of R.E.A.C.H. executing downed guards; it’s one of many examples of top-tier cinematography, scene-planning, and getting the most out of a particular frame that takes place in Replaced.
From the moment an arrow bolt blew past R.E.A.C.H. to embed itself in the foreground of the shot and pull focus, all before the shot reeled back to reorient itself on the immediate danger faced by the protagonist, I knew Replaced would earn its “cinematic” label. Not only is the scene composition and camerawork exceptional, Replaced is tremendous from its sprite-work through to its incredible examples of baked-in lighting, which, I’d argue, always looked best at dusk, as god rays cut through gaps in trees and city build-up alike. With that said, scenes at night, with a prototypical, cyberpunk neon and light-spotted backdrop, were just as breathtaking.
Somewhat disappointingly, the game isn’t voice-acted at all; however, there’s an enormous synth soundscape that ably serves all of the game’s moods, whether it buzzes like a fat sawtooth or drones throughout the game’s more mournful moments, it alone justifies the absence of acting.
Despite my certain frustrations with parts of the game’s gameplay suite, Replaced remains a captivating cyberpunk thriller that grounds itself through fierce, white-knuckle combat and a setting that calls back to America’s then (and now in some ways). It also features some of the best pixel art ever put to screen, which, when combined with modern, immersive camerawork, absolutely sold wholesale the gritty atmosphere Replaced promised to deliver.
