Release date for dystopian platformer Replaced slips to 2024
Sad Cat are "very aware of traps of over-promising and under-delivering"
Developer Sad Cat Studios have delayed their debut cyberpunk platformer Replaced into 2024, because they “can’t afford to release a sub-par game.” The Belarusian-based studio previously pushed the game from 2022 into 2023 due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, but based on its moody retrofuturist trailers I’m happy to wait until every pixel is perfectly positioned, as long as the teams are staying safe.
“After Replaced's initial announcement in 2021 and its follow-up trailer in 2022 we had this incredibly high bar of community's expectations,” the studio wrote in a recent Steam blog. “And at this point, we knew that we can't afford to release a sub-par game. We truly want Replaced to be something special and memorable for everybody. This is our first game, and we want to make every aspect of it the best it can be.”
Sad Cat continued: “we do understand the game's scope, and we're very aware of traps of over-promising and under-delivering. As of today, development is progressing at a steady pace. The majority of systems are functional now and we are in a super-intense asset production phase.” Elsewhere in the statement, the studio shared that our main protag has “more than 500 meticulously hand-painted animations made just for platforming,” and while those jumps, slides and rolls are finished, the team wants the whole game to reach that “same high standard.” Thus, the delay into next year.
Replaced arguably stole the show when it was revealed at E3 2021. I particularly enjoyed glimpsing the Batman Arkham-esque counter-centric combat, but looking back, its second trailer had a heavier dollop of The Batman-type shots - gunshots lighting up dark fight scenes, flares in flooded areas, dramatic close-ups on growling cars, and so on. Just my vibe.
The game’s Steam page divulges more information about the setup, which casts you as an AI who’s been involuntarily trapped inside a human body during the lawless, nuclear kinda-post-apocalypse. Even more my vibe. It’ll now launch on PC, Xbox consoles, and Game Pass next year.