Replaced is a 2.5D action game that cleverly blends cinematic platforming with tense, almost tactical combat. The first twenty minutes of the game can feel a bit leisurely, but once you get going, the pace barely slows down until the credits roll. The main story takes about ten hours, and this is one of those times when the number isn’t misleading. The developers clearly didn’t care about the “longer is better” mentality—and frankly, they did the right thing.
Table of Contents
How many hours does Replaced take: full running time
Plot without distractions: 5-10 hours without fluff
If you’re focused solely on the main story, expect to spend between five and ten hours with the game. The range is quite wide, and here’s why.
Difficulty. Replaced has three tiers. On low, you can easily shave a couple of hours off—enemies die faster, and you’ll be staring at loading screens less often. Hard difficulty, on the other hand, turns every encounter into a puzzle. Bosses start punishing you for the slightest mistake, so add at least a couple of hours to the overall running time.
Leveling. Most upgrades in Replaced are either tied to side activities or hidden so hidden you won’t find them without a guide. On Easy difficulty, you don’t even need to worry about increasing your health or health supplies—the story difficulty generously forgivingly allows for this. But on Normal and Hardcore, you’ll inevitably have to upgrade your R.E.A.C.H., and these forays into upgrading will definitely lengthen the playthrough. Sometimes quite noticeably.
100% Completion of Replaced: 10-15 Hours
Replaced is a linear game. There’s no open world with endless question marks on the map, and thank goodness for that. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do outside of the main story. The chapter-based game world is packed with scannable objects, upgrades for R.E.A.C.H. and Warren’s gear, and there are also several side quests. All of this is scattered across nine chapters, and collecting everything in one fell swoop isn’t possible.
We haven’t yet found every hidden pixel in Replaced. However, it’s already clear: to fully experience the game, most players will need between 10 and 15 hours. After the end credits, you’ll be allowed to return to specific chapters and pick up anything you missed. This is very convenient if you’ve been rushing through the story, knocking down corners.
How many chapters are in Replaced and their order?
All 9 Replaced chapters: list and description
Replaced is divided into 9 chapters. The problem is that the game doesn’t spoil us with official title screens. You can only understand where you are by indirect clues. Apparently, the chapters don’t have names at all—neither in the menu nor in the interface. You have to navigate by context or pop-up notifications about trophies and achievements. Complete a chapter—a trigger triggers—and that’s your landmark.
Unofficial Replaced chapter guide:
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Chapter 1. Prologue: Escape from the Phenix City Lab.
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Chapter 2. Introduction to Life Beyond the Walls.
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Chapter 3. Prospero and Uncle Ben.
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Chapter 4. Return to the City.
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Chapter 5. Street Fights and the Commissioner.
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Chapter 6. REACH vs. R.E.A.C.H.
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Chapter 7. Back to the city blocks and the central area.
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Chapter 8. The Road to the Commissioner… again.
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Chapter 9. The Final Dénouement and Credits.
Once again: these aren’t canonical titles. They’re simply short descriptions of what awaits you within each section. The developers haven’t provided any official titles, so you’ll have to make do with folklore.
How to manage time between Replaced chapters?
A classic mistake when hunting for platinum in Replaced is getting stuck in one chapter and methodically tapping every wall. In practice, the game rewards you not for persistence, but for your ability to wisely distribute your time between acts. Some collectibles and R.E.A.C.H. upgrades are tightly tied to story flags—and the longer you spend in Chapter 5, the higher the chance you’ll have to return to NG+ to pick up what you missed. And that’s a whole other story.
Density of Secrets by Chapter in Replaced
The chapters in Replaced vary in content density. The prologue and finale are essentially a corridor with a couple of scannable objects; spending an hour there is simply pointless. But the third and seventh acts are full-fledged hubs: NPCs, side quests, and branching paths. This is where you should transfer the time saved in linear sections.
Walkthrough Guide: Secrets & Timing
When it’s time to abandon a chapter and move on
There are no strict limits in the game, but there are clear signs that further digging is useless. Here they are:
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You’ve combed the map twice, and the collectible counter is stuck—the rest is locked behind a story trigger. No need to sit and wait for a miracle.
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You’ve defeated the same boss on hard mode three times in a row—return to the previous location and farm upgrades. A couple of medicine upgrades often solve what the tenth retracement didn’t.
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A side quest requires an item you don’t physically have—set the “return to NG+” bookmark and move on. Forty minutes of searching for something the story will reward you with in a chapter is exactly that—a waste of time.
Replaced Chapter Selector: Returning after the credits
After the credits, Replaced opens the return to specific chapters through the selector. In fact, this is a built-in time-management tool, which the developers explicitly mention. It works fairly: overall progress on collecting and leveling is preserved, and story flags within the selected chapter are rolled back to its beginning.
The practical scenario is simple. You’d run through the main story in 7-8 hours, then finish it 100% after the finale in another 3-5—the end result is the same 10-15 hours as with a methodical first-run cleanup. Just without the burnout somewhere around Chapter 4. Apparently, the team intended this scenario to be the main one—and this, incidentally, is evident in how forgiving the game is with missed content.
