Between the ubiquitous virtual assistants cheerfully patronising us from almost every electronic device and the disposable slop that nobody asked for clogging up our social media feeds, it’s becoming pretty hard to escape artificial intelligence these days – but it could be worse: what if you had an AI actually implanted in your brain? Such is the premise of Replaced, a 2.5D action platformer that follows a scientist named Doctor Warren Marsh who’s on the run after a sentient AI called REACH is shoehorned into his skull. The twist here is that you don’t actually play as the scientist, you play as the AI that’s effectively puppeteering him – with your sole objective to return to the laboratory so you can unpair from your human host. It makes for a compelling 11-hour quest that winds its way through an alternate ‘80s America rendered in a pristine pixel-art style, and one that I ultimately remained engrossed in despite some dull sidequest design and combat that occasionally felt more unresponsive than a muted Siri.
It really can’t be overstated just how stunning Replaced’s 16-bit inspired game world is. It basically updates the look and feel of classic 2D adventures like the original Prince of Persia and Flashback in a similar way that Octopath Traveler’s HD-2D style transformed SNES-era RPGs, enhancing primitive yet personality-packed character sprites and pixelated landscapes with 3D depth and lighting that really pops. From ruined scientific research facilities, to neon-soaked streets, and down into the flare-lit depths of an underground enemy hideout, Replaced’s world is consistently captivating to explore. Developer Sad Cat Studios is clearly – and quite rightfully – proud of its work, since REACH will occasionally pause to marvel at some immaculately crafted cyberpunk skyline that looms in the distant background. I really appreciated these opportunities to stop and pore over every perfectly crafted pixel.
REACH and Clear
REACH isn’t equipped with a particularly extensive arsenal, but its omniscience seems to include the same martial arts info dump that Neo had installed in The Matrix, since it turns Marsh’s pencil-pushing scientist body into a kinetic killing machine. Armed with a gun that transforms into a baton, REACH is able to indulge in a sort of 2.5D tribute to the Batman: Arkham style of fisticuffs anytime it finds itself surrounded by burly police squads or menacing underworld mutants. In addition to delivering simple strings of skull-cracking combos, coloured indicators that appear above each enemy’s head briefly telegraph when to dodge and when to counter, so Replaced’s skirmishes demand something more than merely button-mashing your baton-smashing. Meanwhile, the use of REACH’s gun is sporadic since it can only be fired after first charging up with successive melee strikes, while getting hit or performing dodges depletes that gauge, putting further emphasis on striking a careful balance between attack and evasion.
It’s a mostly engaging system, and it gradually introduces welcome strategic wrinkles such as tank-like foes that need their armour stripped off before you can damage them, and other more nimble nasties that will dodge every incoming attack other than counters. It’s just a shame that it’s all regularly undermined by controls that frequently fail to respond – at least in the PC version, even after a day one patch. In particular, the button to apply a medkit routinely failed and often saw me copping a death blow while REACH was seemingly fumbling with its coatpocket. At other times, the input to deflect an enemy gunshot was apparently ignored and REACH’s arms would remain rooted to its sides while it copped a dose of hot lead to the face, which was equally frustrating.
As much as I think Replaced’s visual design is an absolute standout, it too managed to spoil the combat on occasion. Since you’re only ever pit against a set number of enemies at a time, reinforcements often linger in the background waiting for their turn to enter the fray like the curiously courteous extras in a Bruce Lee movie. The trouble is that it’s extremely tough to discern one 2D plane from the other in the heat of battle, and I’d invariably find myself trying to land blows on enemies that technically weren’t there, making me swish my baton through an empty space and leaving myself open to a genuine threat waiting to strike while I was distracted.
Thankfully, I found Replaced’s platforming sections far more consistent. Though it doesn’t ever reach the heights of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance or Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s complex midair maneuvering, it is fun to wall-jump your way up narrow elevator shafts, monkey-swing along suspended ceiling pipes, and carefully flip past electrified surfaces. There are also a number of interesting environmental puzzles to solve throughout, such as carefully positioning industrial fans to boost the double-jumps powered by REACH’s multipurpose pistol. To be fair, there are some cases where the checkpointing seems a little severe, and a number of times I had to painfully retrace lengthy platforming stretches after mistiming a jump and falling to my doom, but for the most part I got a kick out of Replaced’s pixelated parkour.
Attack of the Drones
When you’re not throwing down with increasingly well-armed riot squads or fighting a one-on-one battle with gravity as you scramble and flip up the side of a skyscraper, Replaced changes things up in the form of regular instant-fail stealth sections. Initially these deadly encounters with surveillance drones feel pretty uninspired, and patiently waiting for the arc of a spotlight to swing away from your position so you can scramble to safety behind a stack of conveniently placed crates is something that’s been repeated in the likes of Limbo and the Little Nightmares series many times over at this point. However, Replaced eventually makes its sneaking a little more involved with the welcome addition of a hacking system, which both introduces a neat little shape-matching minigame, as well as the ability to temporarily disable enemy turrets or create distractions for mechanical sentries. I appreciated the more puzzle-oriented form of stealth that Replaced’s hacking provided, I just wish it had been introduced earlier on.
Those stealth sequences may demand a rigidly slow and steady approach, but it’s the story pacing that staggers to a crawl each time you return to the train station hub between outings. This combat-free zone offers a series of sidequests of the bog standard go-here-and-fetch-that variety, forcing you to shlep your way through the various tent-lined streets and makeshift hospital areas inhabited by homeless hordes in search of trivial items like missing comic books or food for a local dog. While it’s true that much of this busywork is entirely optional, skipping these uninteresting chores means you miss out on vital rewards like health boosts and expanded medkit slots that prove to be pretty crucial against the heavier enemy groups in the story’s second half. I would have preferred if these menial tasks had been scrapped in favour of just buying upgrades with a currency or an XP system before hurrying back to the more exciting main objectives, but as it stands each trip to Replaced’s train station felt like my progress would go off the rails a bit.
That said, I was a big fan of the playable arcade cabinets found in the station’s basement level, as well as the funny interactions with the sassy young girl who operates them. The inclusion of playable Frogger and Space Invaders clones may seem pretty antiquated in an era when each Like a Dragon adventure features fully-working Sega Rally or Virtua Fighter machines, but since they each have a high score table you better believe I still sat on them until I topped it. Those aren’t the only nostalgic nods I appreciated either. I also loved the Wingman, a sort of GameBoy and Walkman hybrid that can be whipped out of REACH’s pocket in order to play catchy collectible synth tunes or to scan the environment for enthralling scraps of story.
In fact, it’s the story, in tandem with the jawdropping visual design, that ultimately had me hooked on Replaced all the way through to its rousing climax, in spite of any issues I had with its frequently fussy controls or sidequest stumbles. REACH’s journey and evolution feels surprisingly human given its artificial origins, and the quirky cast of side characters show plenty of personality despite the fact that each and every interaction with them is entirely text-based (even the so-called ‘audiologs’ you collect in the environment can only be read rather than heard). Sad Cat Studios has crafted one heck of a dazzling sci-fi dystopia, and with some post-release patching it could still be elevated into something really special.
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