Replaced, from Sad Cat Studios, had my attention right from its initial reveal. A moody, side-scrolling pixel art Cyberpunk adventure with reactive, Arkham City-inspired combat? It could only tick more of my boxes if it starred Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Olsen with a soundtrack by… actually, the soundtrack is pretty good. In fact the release date trailer song, Dusk by Igor Gritsay, sets the tone perfectly.
Sadly, the demo on Steam is incredibly short at around 20 minutes (which you can watch in its entirety on our YouTube channel). There’s a lot here though, some of which may still be placeholder. It was actually updated while I was playing it, adding tutorial pop-ups and extending the boss fight, which was initially ended simply by shooting the boss once. As a result, I’d say take the demo at face value but expect some tweaks when the full game releases.
The demo begins with main character Warren on the run. His lab was destroyed and his best friend killed, an accident that resulted in Warren becoming a host for Reach, a sophisticated AI that now acts as recon for Warren’s desperate escape attempts. Who is chasing him and why isn’t clear yet, though the enemies here are a gang called the Termites.
That Replaced is set in an alternate universe 1980s is barely evident, and had it been set in the future I wouldn’t have noticed the difference. Little touches like 20th century cars and chunky CRT monitors give the game away a little, but it’s hardly important. It’s cyberpunk through and through.
One of the coolest features is the combat, aided by the Huxley weapon system, something added to the game early for the sake of the demo but which, according to a tooltip, won’t be available in the release version until later. It recharges kinetically as you land blows on the enemy, and each shot is – in the demo at least – an instant kill. But it’s not the one-shot fatalities that make it so satisfying to use.
See, Warren may be little more than a scientist with a cool coat, but Reach makes him lethal. As enemies attack they will flash with little indicators. Red means you dodge, yellow means you can press Y to do flashy takedown moves that look incredible in Replaced’s art style. Each one is punchy, stylish, and satisfying. Pressing the trigger when the Huxley is armed will result in an equally flashy instant kill. I played the demo 5 times just for the combat alone. I’m hoping for upgrades or some kind of skill progression in the full game, but there’s nothing like that in the demo.
Outside of fighting, there are some mild environmental puzzles like finding a battery for a generator, or moving crates and boxes to reach high ledges. You can also jump, climb, and swing to get around the detailed, atmospheric environments. One section has you avoiding a searchlight so a sniper can’t pop your head in a single, instant shot, which isn’t original, but still feels tense.
Replaced has the feeling of the original 90s Flashback (not the god-awful reboot from a few years ago), hinting at a larger cast of characters and a deeper intrigue. The trailers released so far show off a huge variety of locations, too, as well as more action-packed set-pieces. Whenever a demo has me this hungry for more, my instincts are on song. It’s early days and we still have a full month to release, but right now Replaced has me more hyped than I’ve been in a while.
Replaced is developed by Sad Cat Studios Ltd and published by Thunderful Publishing. It is coming to PC and Xbox on March 12th, but you can download the Steam demo now.
