We finally have a platformer with a truly impressive visual and audio direction. The artistic style is beautiful and easily one of the game’s strongest aspects.

Story-wise, the game is good, although it feels slightly lacking when it comes to character interactions. Most of the lore is delivered through newspapers, posters, and other scattered environmental details. That is not necessarily a bad approach, but I still feel the game would have benefited from more direct conversations between characters.
The gameplay is where my feelings become mixed, so let’s break it down category by category:

Combat

The combat system is fairly simple, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This is a platformer after all, and there are only so many combat mechanics you can realistically implement without overcomplicating the experience.
The developers clearly chose to limit the number of enemies you fight at once, and honestly, that was a smart decision. Since the game is so visually intense and focused on atmosphere, overwhelming the screen with too many enemies and effects would have hurt the experience. Even when you fight larger groups, enemies usually approach in waves rather than all at once.
That said, the AI feels somewhat stale. After a while, you begin to predict exactly how enemies will behave in almost every encounter. There is also a certain clunkiness to the controls at times, with some inputs feeling slightly unresponsive.
Despite those flaws, the combat is still enjoyable overall. My biggest issue is simply the lack of it. I expected more combat encounters throughout the game.

Levels

The level design is probably the aspect I have the most mixed feelings about.
Some levels are straightforward and enjoyable to go through. Others, however, become genuinely frustrating. There are moments where the game forces you to move forward, then backtrack, only to return again with an object required to progress. Instead of feeling clever, these sections often feel unnecessarily tedious.
At times, it seems like the level designers confused “challenging” puzzles with “time-consuming” ones. The problem is not that the puzzles are intellectually difficult or mechanically demanding, but that they often require repetitive and exhausting busywork.

Bugs / Optimization

As mentioned earlier, certain movements and commands occasionally feel unresponsive. In addition, some sections make it difficult to tell whether you encountered a bug or if the issue was an intentional design choice.
For example, there are jumps where the sprites visually appear connected, yet the hitboxes are not. This often results in unnecessary deaths and repeated sections, wasting the player’s time for reasons that feel unfair rather than challenging.

Pacing / Time Investment

Some levels feel far too long for the payoff they provide. At times, it feels like the developers were stretching the game’s length by forcing the player to travel long distances or engage with overly complicated puzzles.
The issue is not necessarily understanding how to solve the puzzles; in many cases, the solution becomes obvious rather quickly, but actually executing the process takes far too long. Certain sections genuinely feel like they do not respect the player’s time.

Overall, REPLACED is a good game with a fair price point. Its art direction, visual presentation, atmosphere, and soundtrack are easily its greatest strengths and the main reasons to experience it.
The combat feels more like a secondary feature than a core pillar of the game, while the story is decent but not particularly groundbreaking.
The real weaknesses lie in the level design, puzzle pacing, and the amount of unnecessary downtime in certain sections. If those aspects had been refined further, this could have easily become one of the best games I have played in recent years.

Even with its flaws, I am happy that I chose to play it. The developers clearly have talent and a strong artistic vision. If they continue improving by listening to player feedback (something they already seem willing to do) I believe their future projects could be truly outstanding.