Replikator brings to gamers a new title in the style of Team 17’s retro Alien Breed series which sees you exploring space stations and destroying aliens. You control a mercenary called Khan and with your team, have to find out the cause of an accident at a space research facility which has caused the deaths of everyone there.
Getting Started
Replikator starts with a nice semi-animated cut scene with text dialogue which you can skip if you choose to. Then we see our main character in some sort of meeting hall where you can interact with the rest of your gang. The first initial area is somewhere to help you get the hang of your controls and there is even a training area.
Eventually you will need to start your adventures so you have to find your way to an EXIT which will take you to another level where the action starts. At this point, you are also given a chance to choose your difficulty level – easy, normal or hard.
Controlling Replikator
The control scheme is unusual. The left analogue stick moves your character around while the right analogue stick turns you around and also allows you to aim at things from a distance or closer to you. ZR (on the Nintendo Switch) will open fire but be careful and don’t waste your ammo otherwise you’ll be trying to find extra ammo (going around in circles looking for it mainly) or finding a terminal where you can buy ammo, all while the enemy robots will be firing on you. While you start getting the hang of the game, you will be getting killed a lot!
The L button is a type of punch in which you can destroy scenery where you can hopefully find extra ammo or energy and sometimes, you can destroy a bit of wall to find a secret room. You can shoot the scenery and walls but it’s best not to as it can drain your ammo.
Aesthetics
The graphics have a nice retro feel to them but do have detail. The enemy are mainly flying drones or poles which can fire laser bolts or electricity from you, but there are the stereotypical monsters that look like the facehuggers from the Alien films. A nice touch is that only the area you’re in can be seen although adjoining sections are shrouded in darkness, which are lit up as you enter them.
Pressing Y will zoom out, showing you a map you can move around, showing you where there are items to pick up to help you, but it doesn’t tell you where the monsters are, but the most useful is that it shows you doors you’ve already opened or need some pass or terminal access to open, so you can tell where there’s most likely to be monsters. There are icons in the rooms which tell you if there is something in the room you can collect.
The music has a very atmospheric feel to it. It can range from silent to very quiet in some areas, but will be louder when the action starts. I feel the type of music works really well for this game. The sound effects are also well done, with laser guns, explosions and doors opening.
Grab And Run
During your quest, you will pick up ammo packs (needed), additional energy, blueprints for better weapons you can obtain later, cubes and ‘currency’ you can use at terminals to either recharge your energy or replenish your ammunition. At times, you will get the chance to unlock parts of a map or occasionally, find notes which will fill you in a bit of the game’s back story.
When you die, and that will happen a lot, you are returned to the main staging area from which you can use the collected cubes to make an upgrade. You can also select one or two free upgrades, which are effective for the current life.
Closing Thoughts
I will admit I wasn’t keen on Replikator to start with, but as I started getting the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. It was frustrating at times when I did well, explored a lot of the level only to be killed and everything respawned, but I kept wanting to go back and try to complete the level, which I did (eventually). Once the level is complete, you’re taken to a store in which you can trade cubes which you’ve collected for credits with which you can buy health and ammo.
Replikator isn’t the type of game I’d normally play but I will say I enjoyed it a lot. If you’re into space shooters and exploring, it’s well worth a go.
7/10
Leave a Reply