Back in March, I looked at the REPLACED demo and concluded the analysis with the following statement.

“But I can’t deny that I’m a bit worried. The game has been in development for five years, and I wonder what all that time was spent on. I hope it’s the story, writing, and level design, because the gameplay doesn’t seem to be it, judging by the available key bindings.”

Little did I know that the studio was originally based in Belarus and had relocated to Cyprus due to Russia’s war against Ukraine (Source: Wikipedia). Who am I to criticize that when living in my ignorant German bubble?

Now that I’ve finished the game, I can put past-me’s mind at ease. REPLACED has the perfect length, the right amount of mechanics, and a strong story that is as much science fiction as it is quite relevant in today’s AI-crazy, capitalist world.

I also have a German version of this video.

As a gamer, you’ve probably noticed how prices of modern gaming hardware have ballooned as much as the egos of the big tech companies’ CEOs. Now, although their impact on so much of the world is a lot different from what’s happening in REPLACED, which is far more sinister, I cannot help but draw at least a few parallels. The game portrays the political side as weak, and the giant corporation actually manipulating society and the political scene to shape legislation to their benefit. Comparing that to today’s big-tech corporate America and its connections to the government paints a different and yet similar picture. Different in that the current administration is quite confident of itself, to put it nicely, and similar in that companies resort to anything to achieve the desired outcome, even if it means paving their way with money for questionable purposes (lobbying, “donations”, ass-kissing). Gamers Nexus has many great documentaries on the topic, outlining who pays whom, who owns what, and who profits from (so-called) donations.

(TLDR: It’s a circle jerk.)

Of course, it’s all in the name of science and for bettering the world with this great technology that is AI. Like in the game, where it’s officially about organ donors and perfect matches, all evaluated and ascertained by a powerful AI with an ever-growing database of information about people.

(Does that sound familiar?)

The AI even has a name, R.E.A.C.H., and it’s rather infamous. Some people believe in the propaganda, while others oppose it and the big corporation that runs it. The name R.E.A.C.H. even instills fear and hate.

I’m purposefully trying to be as vague as I can while still attempting to bring my points across. I hope it’s fine if I briefly outline the start of the game, so I can dive a bit deeper into the tone of REPLACED.

You start as one of the inventors of this giant AI, a scientist who definitely has the right intentions. An accident happens at work, things blow up, and you start running to escape the building. While scrambling for your life, you notice how police forces are doing quite the opposite of what you’d expect them to do: They’re killing witnesses and attempting to kill you. Very early on, I was immediately transported back to the Black Mesa complex. The opening of REPLACED contains so much Half Life DNA. Whatever happened that day, the corporation does not want word of it to get out. You, of course, eventually escape. Even REPLACED has a version of dead-eye Stormtroopers.

Beyond the city walls, you discover the bleakness and hostility of the world outside the naive and idealized life you’ve known – you, the scientist, or rather, you the AI that’s now inside the scientist, not you the gamer. By exploring the locations of the 10 chapters, you uncover lore that slowly fills in all the gaps and sheds light on how screwed up this world is.

Eventually, you meet your first friendly NPC, a guy named Tempest. He has the heart in the right place, wants to help wherever he can, and stick it to the man. He takes you to a safe place where people like him gather, the so-called Disposals. Living conditions aren’t the best, as people are trying to live their lives in tents in close proximity to a train station. The station is considered the most secure place outside of the city, and as such, it is overcrowded. But the more time I spent in that place, the more I felt a sense of community. Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere is dire and desolate. But people sticking together like that, with a few stand-out characters you’ll meet and start to bond with as much as this short game allows, feels like an approximation of a cozy place.

REPLACED is all text-based, but it doesn’t burden you with unnecessary fluff. I devoured all lore entries and conversations because none of them were filler. Sure, there’s the occasional children’s rhyme or restaurant menu, because of course there is. Overall, though, I don’t feel the game wasted my time. Almost every word I read meant something and contributed to building the world and telling the characters’ stories. Plus, there are cats to find and a dog to pet. What else do I have to say to convince you of the homeyness of the place? And it mattered because it made the events of the final two chapters so much more impactful.

The game also asks a similar question as Detroit: Become Human did. What defines a human if not its behavior? When is an AI not a computer program anymore? But also what happens if an AI isn’t constrained properly and/or its creating company is given too much power? Skynet has always been a Hollywood fantasy up to this point, but incidents like the recent escape of one of OpenAI’s latest models from a sandbox indicate at how powerful this technology already is. And it’s certainly not getting worse moving forward, right?

(Sarcasm)

But even when putting these meta questions aside, REPLACED tells an engaging and emotional story. Some statements toward the end really got me thinking, be it in a dialogue or from a lore text. Something that hit home the most was along the lines of “we know how to survive, you know how to continue living”.

I actually played twice in a row. The second time was a Let’s Play series for my German YouTube channel, which also served as a refresher for this Gamer’s Diary. I had a lot of fun, and being in that world felt right. I know it sounds weird to say that, but I think it’s a testament to how coherently it was constructed. It all made sense and came together as an emotional, rewarding adventure.

Famous Last Inference

Looking at the game’s Steam page, REPLACED sits at a Very Positive rating, which I concur with. Of course, you can be nit-picky and complain about this and that, like the often walking simulator-esque levels or the shallow hacking game or the limited gameplay mechanics or, or, or. I see it differently: REPLACED is all killer, no filler and has enough properly paced content that kept me engaged for two full back-to-back playthroughs.

Beating REPLACED took me about 11 hours the first time on Normal difficulty.

I think the devs struck a good balance between giving you something to do, be it platforming or punching enemies with an expanding set of moves, and just being in the world, relishing the amazing art design and visual presentation. I’m already ADHD enough, so I welcomed something that slowed me down and still managed to retain my attention.

Of course, I have a few gripes. I’m a German after all. But they were easily overshadowed by the rest of the game. Platforming was sometimes ultra precise and tightly timed, which resulted in a couple of hilarious and stupid deaths. Combat could also be finicky. Occasionally it felt a bit unfair when the enemies threw several mechanics at me simultaneously. Try parrying an attack, evading an oncoming tanky enemy, getting out of a grenade’s blast radius, and deflecting enemy gunshots at the same time. But maybe that was just my typical skill issue because I didn’t manage the battlefield properly. I mean, in a real fight, your opponents wouldn’t just line up and take turns, as they do in many other games. So, from that perspective, it was actually fine.

The one real criticism I do have is that some combat stages were incredibly hard to read. Artistically, they looked outstanding, no doubt. From a gameplay perspective, it was less ideal because I had a hard time discerning my character from the enemies because of the lighting choices.

That’s it.

I can wholeheartedly recommend REPLACED.

Thank you for reading. I hope that no rogue AI selects you for harvesting organs so you can have a good time, wherever you are.