Xbox Series S Pixel Art Game Launches With Issues
▼ Summary
– Replaced, a 2.5D platformer eight years in development, launched today for PC and Xbox with a retro-cyberpunk style.
– The Xbox Series S version has significant launch issues, including a memory crash between chapters and broken ending cinematics.
– A workaround for the crash is to quit and restart the game, with a patch scheduled for certification on April 15.
– The PC and Xbox Series X versions are unaffected, highlighting a disparity in performance between Xbox consoles.
– Despite the technical problems, early reviews for Replaced on PC are very positive, resulting in a high Metacritic score.
The long-awaited release of Replaced, a 2.5D platformer from Thunderful and Sad Cat Studios, has arrived with a significant technical flaw affecting Xbox Series S players. After eight years of development, this retro-cyberpunk action-puzzle game is now available on PC and Xbox, but its launch on the less powerful console is marred by critical performance issues. While other platforms run smoothly, Series S owners are encountering game-breaking problems that disrupt the experience.
Specifically, developers have confirmed a memory-related hang that can occur when transitioning from Chapter 4 to Chapter 5 during a single extended play session. This crash appears to be caused by the game exhausting the system’s RAM. A temporary workaround involves quitting and restarting the application, though this is hardly an ideal solution for immersive gameplay. More troubling is a separate issue where the ending cinematics fail to play correctly on the Series S version, robbing players of the narrative conclusion.
A fix is already in the pipeline, with a patch submitted to Microsoft’s certification process for approval. The update is slated for review and is expected to be deployed rapidly afterward, potentially resolving these launch-day frustrations. The contrast between platforms is stark, as the PC and Xbox Series X versions are reportedly functioning without these defects. This incident highlights the ongoing development challenges studios face in maintaining performance parity across the divergent hardware specs of Microsoft’s console family, a task that proved difficult even for a visually striking 2.5D pixel art title.
This problematic launch overshadows the otherwise positive critical reception for Replaced. Early reviews, primarily based on the PC version, have been strong, contributing to a Metacritic score of 81. The aggregate reflects numerous scores in the 8 and 9 range, slightly tempered by a handful of lower ratings. It’s an unfortunate setback for a project that has generated considerable anticipation, turning what should be a celebratory release into a cautionary tale about platform-specific optimization.
(Source: Kotaku)
