{"id":11490,"date":"2026-05-20T14:57:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/?p=11490"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:30:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:30:01","slug":"replaced-were-going-to-make-it-warren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/replaced-were-going-to-make-it-warren\/","title":{"rendered":"Replaced: We’re Going to Make it, Warren."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was watching a couple videos today from the State of Unreal which showed of some of the upcoming tech and some of the games that will be based on it. One of the concepts that came up in the No Law tech demo<\/a> was density in games and, coming back to write a review on REPLACED today, I was mulling over how the game manages to get that idea both right and wrong at the same time. In terms of the regular idea of density in a game (the environments, NPCs, animations, and so on) REPLACED gets it right and just oozes style in the process. With the game play, story beats and just overall pacing of the game? It’s sparse and needlessly so. There’s a fantastic game waiting somewhere inside what REPLACED delivers, it’s just nowhere near as long as what’s presented to you today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All R.E.A.C.H knew was how to help. Help its operators, help humanity, help those who needed it. But the man who created it drove it and himself too far, the limits of man and machine stretched beyond their designed parameters until something broke. What was once digital is now physical. What was once Warren is now R.E.A.C.H. Alone and hunted, pushed out of its safe world of numbers and patterns into a place that wants nothing more than to eradicate its existence R.E.A.C.H. has only a single goal: protect this body, protect Warren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since The Last Night<\/a> exploded onto the scene (and then promptly disappeared from it) I’ve wondered if anyone would ever expand or implement on that art style that they created. It seems that REPLACED is just such a candidate and it does far more than just simply imitate what The Last Night showed us all those years ago. All the environments are seeping in detail which adds an incredible layer to everything. The environmental storytelling is top tier with each section given adequate attention to properly set the vibe before a single line of dialogue is shown. There are some truly amazing set pieces and cinematic moments scattered throughout the game as my 30+ screenshots attest to. From an aesthetic perspective I’m super keen to see more titles experiment with the visual language that Sad Cat Studios has pioneered here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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REPLACED is a blend of a traditional side scroller platformer interspersed with 2D beat em up action sequences. You’ll spend the vast majority of your time navigating platforming sections, avoiding hazards and doing simple puzzles to unblock whatever it is happens to be preventing you from going forward. The beat em up sections are effectively live action puzzle sequences, pushing you to use every tool you have at your disposal to counter whatever particular brand of violence the NPCs are about to inflict upon you. There are upgrades to be had which are mostly obtained through a modicum of exploration, following dialogue trees and, in a refreshing change of pace, mini-games based on old-school favourites that most people will likely recognise. All of these elements work together well and feel like natural parts of the game, making REPLACED (at least at a mechanical level) a well balanced game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like with most beat em ups you’ll flit between feeling like an absolute god when you decimate a bunch of enemies without even thinking about it to a total clown when you get bodied by a run of the mill enemy moments before you’d complete a section. Most of this is on you of course as there’s really not a great amount of ramp up in terms of enemy variety and powers as the game progresses. There is progression of course, although most of the things you’re given come with enemies that need<\/em> that new ability in order to counter them. So really, like most games these days it seems, the real final boss of REPLACED is you and your ability to git gud<\/em>. Having said that though I don’t think most people would struggle with the combat sections, even if they took a couple tries to get through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where the game falls down though is in its pacing. There are many, many long sections of the game where you’re basically just running from point A to point B without much progression in well anything<\/em> that makes those sections worthwhile. This is compounded by the fact that the game heavily implies that exploration is rewarded (and it is, sometimes) but that also leads you to spending vast amounts of time trudging up and down dead end paths which do nothing except add additional time to your playthrough. Weirdly too is that the developers seem to acknowledge the need for proper pacing, with you returning a specific spot multiple times to a safe place to let you breathe easier whilst still progressing the story, but given those stretches you’re returning from are so long in comparison that beat in the action just feels like more unnecessary downtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is probably why the narrative didn’t feel anywhere near as impactful as it could’ve been for me. All the pieces are there: meaningful time given to background characters, an overarching plot to drive things forward, an in-built self narration mechanic to help you understand the main character’s motivations, etc. But with the large gaps between story beats you lose a lot of the momentum that’d carry you through it all with those moments at the safe haven feeling far more impactful because of it. I still have the unfounded hope that we’re past the days where game length was still seen as a meaningful metric to judge games but I know it’s still pervasive from both players and publishers alike. The cost to that though is games like REPLACED, ones that are far longer than they need to be and all the worse for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Putting this all together though, for a first time studio to put out a game like REPLACED certainly is something to admire. The art style, sound design and overall vibe of the game is just extraordinary. Even at a bare mechanical level REPLACED is more than competent with it needing the right amount of skill from the player, giving meaningful progression where it’s needed and keeping the challenge at an acceptable level that a lot of people could enjoy. The pacing though just kills the momentum which resonates through the rest of the game’s narrative. There’s so much that could be cut and the game wouldn’t be any more the worse for it. Brevity here would be its own art and who knows maybe one day Sad Cat Studios will give REPLACED the director’s cut treatment that it sorely needs. Until though I’m not going to feel bad about saying wait for a sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rating: 7.0\/10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPLACED is available on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X\/S right now for $29.50. Game was played on the PC with a total of 10.3 hours playtime and 67% of the achievements unlocked. REPLACED is also available on Xbox Gamepass<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was watching a couple videos today from the State of Unreal which showed of some of the upcoming tech and some of the games…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,16],"tags":[4179,2032,3373,3346,1726,733,6615,839,6825,4908,6449,6604,5911,6401],"class_list":["post-11490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","category-review","tag-2-5d","tag-adventure","tag-beat-em-up","tag-cinematic","tag-indie","tag-pc","tag-pixel-graphics","tag-platformer","tag-sad-cat-studios","tag-side-scroller","tag-singleplayer","tag-thunderful-publishing","tag-xbox-one","tag-xbox-series-x"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Replaced-Review-Screenshot-Wallpaper-Title-Screen-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C1067&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppBqt-2Zk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11490"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11528,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions\/11528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therefinedgeek.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}