REPLACED

Largely inspired by Blade Runner and the topics the films delve into. Story is unique and compelling enough (quite contemporary too), narrative and gameplay both solid, although difficulty's a bit too easy even on Hard. Thankfully there are a couple new stuff introduced now and then to keep the core gameplay loop from feeling stale. The pixel-art and overall presentation are a marvel to look at and the worldbuilding and collectible lore elaborated upon on to a pretty satisfying degree. The quality is there, asking price vs actual gameplay time value (dollar/euro per hour) is a bit too high but given what a nice impression the overall experience has made, it's fine by me. Can't wait to see how much bigger and bolder the studio goes with the next project!

This game is carried [i]hard[/i] by its visual art department. As you can see by the screenshots, there are so many unique details in each and every scene that you don't feel like you're hitting rubber-stamped areas. Some places you'll even see for less than a minute, but they're meticulously built out and detailed. It's beautifully-rendered and animated and it has this incredible, impressive dynamic lighting system that's always in play. I don't know how they managed to do half the things they do in this game, visually speaking. It has a fascinating camera that the director plays with in interesting ways when you're not directly in control of the game. If the visuals are what you're interested in, you are in for a real treat. The game itself, on the other hand, is capable, but nothing mind-blowing. I actually found it a little too [i]gamey[/i] in that it felt like I was moving through game-dev-by-numbers. I don't mean to insult the whole dev team here, mind you - perhaps just the designer, but I don't mean anything maliciously. I'm just saying that the game checks boxes and stays within them rather than pushing to do anything extraordinary or remarkable beyond being a feast for the eyes. You're on a 2D plane, so you do a lot of platforming, exploring, talking to NPCs, and then there's combat that doesn't really evolve a whole lot throughout the game's 10 to 12-ish hours. But most of the time, outside of a handful of occasions that move the story forward, I found that these things just kind of exist to exist. Combat just happens because it's [i]supposed[/i] to happen, and that's because you just did your exploration segment, and that in turn was preceded by a puzzle; it just kind of loops around like that because that's what games do. A lot of it isn't meaningful or even challenging. It's just there because that's what games are supposed to be and that's what they're supposed to have, so Sad Cat put it in and dusted off their hands. The platforming often doesn't make much logical sense in the setting and the combat doesn't evolve - eventually you'll see the last enemy type and then the game just throws them at you with the only change being that they get cheesier to falsely increase difficulty. That is [i]not[/i] to say that it's not enjoyable, mind you. The game is a good time if you don't mind it bringing pretty much nothing to the table. There's nothing wrong with that, either - if I had a credit in this game, I'd be rightfully proud to have been a part of it. The yarn it tells also doesn't really go out of its way to say anything new. Most of the characters come off as archetypes that exist to fill a specific role (except Yo-Yo; Yo-Yo is the best). You can see almost everything coming a mile away because it's really just that obvious. Again, it's like story-by-numbers. These are the beats you need to hit, so hit them, and they did. Meh. Is it awful? Not at all. It's fine, and it's standard video game fare. It wears its themes on its sleeves and won't surprise you, but it still has a bit of heart to it and is worth exploring even if it stays rooted in a comfort zone. In other words, you're probably already used to what this game is going to say. With all that in mind, it is a neat little alternative world that Sad Cat has put together and visiting it as the MC is a pretty fun way to spend a little time, like watching your favorite TV show for the tenth time or eating that burger you've had hundreds of times before because you know it'll make you happy. It's "old", but that's not a hit against it. Sometimes visiting something predictable and familiar can still be an excellent experience and that's kind of how I feel about [i]Replaced[/i]. The "new" part of it is really just how amazingly skilled artists visually built this entire world and made it feel alive even though you are stuck on a 2D plane and I really enjoyed just [i]looking[/i] at this game without feeling like I was doing anything irritating or boring (except the tendency to over-rely on combat in the game's final act to pad it out). In short, it's a good game that could have been great, but who cares when it looks this good?