Replicated Reviews

Come for the puzzling Stay for the cute hint robot Test your mental might

Replicated is a neat short puzzle game. I was initially confused by the rules, but eventually came to understand the game when returning to it after a long absence.

Replicated is a game that gives your brain some much needed exercise. If you're someone that's good at picturing interlocking shapes in a 3D space you'll find you have a leg up on these puzzles. The presentation is really great compared to other games in the puzzle space that this game shares. I largely enjoyed that the game doesn't spell things out for you and it's from some simple trial and error you'll pick up what is intended. The game has a hint system (that I didn't realize until very late into the game) and overall some fun flavor and surprises. I'd recommend the game for the price, sale or otherwise, as it's a solid experience and has some really smartly designed and tricky puzzles but also nothing that should be frustrating to the point of moving on to something else. But it also has a very basic premise and doesn't rely on gimmicks so the amount of levels it has feel spot on without it growing unwieldy to play. I'll be interested to see what this developer makes in the future.

[table] [tr] [th][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33501916/]Follow my curator for more great game recommendations![/url][/th] [/tr] [/table] Replicated is a deceptively simple looking yet thought provoking shape matching game where it’s up to you to find the two matching shapes in a single group of cubes. Each level presents you with a number of square blocks, two to sixteen, that make up two identical increasingly more complex interlocking 3D shapes. It starts simple, two single cubes next to each other, but quickly escalates to long serpentine shapes. Controls are simple, just click on a single cube to mark it red and then build up a series of red cubes until you have the matching shapes. You can also turn on a simple marking system that allows you to mark the other shape blue and that does help. It was slightly annoying that the marking system switch didn’t persist between levels, having to be turned on every time. Presentation is far beyond other similar puzzle games of this genre with an actual story, cute robots, great music and beautiful presentation. There are 35 base levels, some at the start are tutorial, 5 bonus levels and 1 more after that. Going in blind, it actually took me a few levels of the tutorial to work out what the game was about, I was just clicking at random. Maybe some sort of quick video or demonstration would be of more use. But once it clicks you’re good. The game could use a few more levels as I was finished in about 100 minutes and that included eating dinner! Simple looking but with head scratching complexity at times, Replicated is well worth adding to your puzzle library.

[b]replicated[/b] is a really good puzzler about selecting some of the cubes on a level so they're connected by at least one side and in a way that unselected ones end up being the same shape. [b]51 levels altogether[/b], 35 regular ones, 5 hidden, 10 added a year after release, and 1 to end the journey with, resulting in a total playtime of [b]about 2 hours[/b] (or less based on your perspective perception). no timer or move limit. [b]controls work well[/b], left click to select, another left click to deselect, right click to rotate the camera, mouse wheel to zoom in/out, and when you think you're done, click the tick in the corner. if the solution is correct, you can go to the next level (only one is unlocked at a time), if not, the level resets, but there are never too many cubes on a level, so it's not an issue. in fact, it's easier to start over by clicking the tick than deselecting every object yourself. there's also a [b]marking mode[/b] that lets you color blocks differently with a second click, but these don't count towards actually selected blocks for the solution. [b]the presentation is excellent[/b], unintrusive audio (though the sound effect for deselecting is a bit loud) and pretty cute graphics. once the tutorial is done, you'll get a sidekick who has something to say about every level and there's even a [b]hint system[/b]: find all the objects around the level, then click your assistant to get some help. windowed mode and resolutions are available, as well as a few volume settings for music. not a slider and there's none for sound effects, plus level numbers aren't visible while playing, but [b]the only major negative is the way hidden levels are presented.[/b] they are unlocked by solving simple 2d patterns found on some levels, which is yet another neat idea, but they're completely dark. clicking cubes lights them up and it's a pain in the neck to turn everything on, then figure out what's part of the pattern and turn the rest off again. I can definitely recommend [b]replicated[/b], it doesn't overstay its welcome and there are a lot of small details to make it stand out more, but the price might be a bit high outside a sale.