Replaced Review: Gorgeous Pixel Art, Frustrating Game Underneath

Replaced was one of Josh's most anticipated games. It has cyberpunk pixel art with lighting that doesn't look like it should be possible, a striking demo, and a premise worth chasing. He rolled credits in about 13 and a half hours, which for Josh is an achievement in itself. And he walked away torn.

From what Josh hears in our Discord, that's how most people feel.

The look and the sound

Let's start with the good, because it's very good. If you're going to do pixel art, this is how you do it. The vistas, the camera pans across the city, and the dynamic lighting are all stunning. The soundtrack is fantastic, and Josh wants it on vinyl. The trailers and the demo didn't oversell what this game looks like.

The premise

You're a scientist working with a corporate AI called R.E.A.C.H. A lab accident fuses the AI into your body, and the corporation that owns it wants it back. You spend most of the game running from the police while the AI learns what it means to be human. It's a fine setup, but Josh found the story to be pretty base line cyberpunk fare.

Where it falls apart

The problem is the game underneath the art.

• The platforming doesn't belong. There are long climbing stretches where you push in a direction and auto-grab ledges. There's no challenge and no real "fun" in the platforming.

• The combat is basic. It's Arkham-style, with a pistol and an overdrive mode, but not nearly as deep. It's nice for breaking up the running, not much more.
• There's a lot of running. Josh means it when he says two straight minutes of holding left or right with nothing happening. It's pretty, but no hallway is that long.
• The side content doesn't matter. There are town sections with quests for NPCs, but the rewards (a little more health, an extra stim) barely matter because the fights aren't hard. Shiny objects turn out to be item descriptions only, so there's no real reward for interacting with most things.
• The quality-of-life problems are real. You can't skip the cut scene before a boss, so every death means rewatching it. (Josh took to opening Discord on his laptop while it played.) Much of the dialogue types out slowly with no voice acting and can't be skipped, except in other scenes where it can, which is somehow worse. (Note: You CAN skip cutscenes, but it requires opening the games menu and selecting "skip cutscene")

The VGP take

Josh gave Replaced a 7.5, and it hurt him to do it. He never hated playing it. The whole time he just kept thinking it could be so much better. It feels like the developers weren't sure what game they wanted to make, so they added a little of everything at its most basic.

At $20, it's still worth it for the visuals, the music and the atmosphere, as long as you know what you're getting into and have a little patience. And a patch fixing those cut scenes would go a long way.