Novinky
The inspirations and innovations of Replaced
M
Matt Cabral
And while Replaced's Creative and Game Director, Yura Zhdanovich, certainly gives credence to those easy comparisons, he's also eager to dive deeper and offer details beyond those surface similarities—starting with those frequent comparisons to Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic.
"We draw from a wide range of influences—including Blade Runner and Cyberpunk 2077—spanning cyberpunk films, neo-noir stories, and classic sci-fi that shape the mood and narrative approach," begins Zhdanovich.
"But one notable influence is the Australian film Upgrade, which explores the idea of an AI taking control of a human body—not a construct like Johnny Silverhand from Cyberpunk, but an actual AI."
As this AI protagonist—dubbed R.E.A.C.H.—players will dig into the dark mysteries and uncover the corrupt secrets of a sinister corporation in an alternate 1980s America, a time and place that introduces numerous other cinematic muses, according to Zhdanovich.
"Most of our team are ‘90s kids, and some are ‘00s kids. We grew up watching late ‘70s, '80s and '90s action/thriller movies: Alien, Rambo, Robocop, and Terminator. So those influences are kinda engraved in our brains."
Regardless of which pop-culture catalysts strike players' nostalgic nerves, they can look forward to navigating a dystopian retro-future that'll regularly challenge them through fluid platforming, clever puzzle-solving, deep exploration and, yes, skull-cracking combat that'll be comfortably familiar to anyone who donned the cape and cowl in the Batman: Arkham games.
"We were heavily inspired by the Arkham series, and overall it was our goal to adapt this system to work in a 2D environment," says Zhdanovich. "But unlike Batman, R.E.A.C.H. definitely can kill. We have a variety of finishing moves that allow players to blast enemies’ brains with style. We also have a Huxley—a corp-issued pistol—that allows us to have some ranged combat as well."
Of course, as Zhdanovich stresses, Replaced's more limited 2.5D perspective also puts a fresh spin on the combo-chaining, counter-heavy combat. "There are many restrictions to what the player and enemies can do…we don’t have the luxury of enemies being able to attack you from the front or back…so we have to keep the player constantly engaged."
Players favoring brutal finishing moves and powerful handcannons over a more pragmatic approach will also want to stray off Replaced's beaten path for character upgrades. "We’re not an RPG by any means, but we do reward players for thorough exploration. The protagonist gets new abilities and gadgets as the player progresses through the story," explains Zhdanovich.
"So while we don’t force anybody to do stuff they don’t want to do, we encourage everyone to look around, appreciate the visuals, and try to find some useful upgrades for the protagonist and his gear: either by exploring or doing some small side quests."
While the creative casually references Replaced's visuals being worthy of appreciation, the game's ambitious presentation has undoubtedly brought the project plenty of well-deserved attention. But the artistically imaginative and technically impressive visuals are another area that's frequently defined by catch-all descriptors and simple comparisons that don't do them justice.
Zhdanovich breaks it down simply, saying Replaced is "basically a 3D game with a 2D perspective," but he also concedes there's much more to it than that. "We don’t have any name for our art style, but we did put an enormous amount of time into crafting it and making sure that the game’s cinematic nature truly shines while still being a pixel art game at its core."
Achieving this goal meant merging the game's absorbing retro art style with more cutting-edge development technologies. "We do use a range of modern features—such as dynamic lighting and shadows, volumetric fog, layered effects, and a custom cloud generation system—to help bring our retro-futuristic world to life," continues Zhdanovich. "Our overall toolset is fairly straightforward, but it allows us to carefully shape mood, depth, and atmosphere in ways that weren’t possible in cinematic platformers of the past."
Replaced's neon-soaked inspirations, visceral combat, and cinema-rivaling visual style tend to dominate conversations about the game, but Zhdanovich also sees its rich, layered narrative as the unsung hero that ties everything together.
"Our game is really story-focused. And while we definitely showed off only a small amount of gameplay mechanics and situations, we think that actually putting it in the context of the story will make everything else shine. Beautiful views and cinematic moments are our focal point, but they only start to mean something when the player has some goal and mystery behind it."
We look forward to pursuing those goals—while wielding that corp-issued pistol, of course—and unraveling Replaced's many mysteries when we jack into the game next month.
Replaced releases on Epic Games Store in April.