Replaced (2026)

When I first launched Replaced, I was reminded of Full Void, a short puzzle platformer I loved three years ago. This has many similarities, both in having many puzzle platformer elements and being set in a dystopian future ruled by a tyrannical AI. Replaced is far longer, however, and combat is a major part of the game.

Said combat is challenging, sure and offers some variety with blocks, deflections and dodges. Rather than focus on unique challenges for the boss fights, however, they mostly just focus on throwing repetitive hordes of enemies at you. The final boss, in fact, isn't even a single tough enemy. Instead, it's an even more horde-y horde of multiple swarms of enemies coming at you. While I didn't hate it, it wasn't much fun to have to fight these battles, especially if you died and had to repeat again the repetitive battle.

The story isn't especially original, with the minor twist that the protagonist is literally a human whose body is taken over by an AI. It has some decently done characters and the protagonist's plot is sympathetic and well-handled. The puzzles aren't too difficult and the sidequests are pleasing.

It played well on my Steam Deck.

Replaced is one of those reluctant completion games. It starts off interestingly enough for you to keep playing, but slowly starts to wane and wear on you as you keep playing. By the time you're close to the end, you want to stop playing but figure you might as well finish it since you're so close anyway. Then, upon finishing, you can't help but feel your time was wasted.

This game is absolutely gorgeous and has some of the coolest art direction of any game I've played. The pixel art mixed with its 2.5D perspective make for a visually stunning game. Unfortunately, that's all Replaced really has going for it. The music is forgettable, the combat is unsatisfying and monotonous, the platforming is stiff and often frustratingly demands absurd levels of precision, and the story is incredibly boring.

The game wasn't so bad that it left me with nothing but disdain for it, but it was a horribly forgettable experience - which is oftentimes worse.

This game has such an incredible presentation. I am in love with the cinematography, which is not something I thought I would ever say about a 2D pixel-art-style game. It feels much more artistic and 3-dimensional than such a game ever would. The basic gameplay is fine enough: standard platforming, moving boxes, and combat. The combat works well for me with batman style dodge, counter, light, heavy, and some special attacks that require charging. It was nothing groundbreaking but extremely satisfying.

However, the big downside for me is the story and main character. While I haven't played it all the way through, the story seems to be a mega-corporation that claims to do good for its citizens but is secretly doing a lot of evil to enrich a couple of key villains (whom I have not met yet). And while it is fine that lots of games retread this it hinges on the main character. And therein lies the problem.

The main character is a fish-out-of-water but completely empty vessel. He is thrust from his comfy corpo life into being on the run and live amongst the cast outs of the corporation. He doesn't seem very phased by this nor does he express much shock or desire to fix things. His motivation to get back to his old life isn't very believable because he is so emotionless. It just doesn't work for me to drive me to see this through. Such a shame.

I haven't played a ton 2D cinematic platformers, yet this still felt familiar. The gameplay was a mix of Prince of Persia, Out of this World and the Arkham combat style. A lot of what Sad Cat Studios presents here is terrific , though I did have a few minor quibbles that prevented it from reaching greater heights.

I'll start with the stuff that I didn't find enjoyable. The characters, story, world building and writing were ho-hum and even typing that out sounds mean because none of those aspects are bad by any measure. I just wasn't compelled to see the story to the end, or see how Reach's decision would impact his friends. The lore bored me. Maybe I'm getting old, or I've read so many science fiction stories that something is really going to have to jump out to make a difference. Not so here.

Some of the platforming felt off. I never felt super confident that I was going to make a jump, though the game is forgiving in that regard.

I desperately wanted a "run" button. Not that any of the areas are overly large, but going through the main hub was like pulling teeth at times.

So, with that out of the way, let's get to the good!

The animation, presentation, graphical style, and soundtrack are top notch. Amazing. There's so much personality to the backgrounds, NPCs and settings that I took at least 40 screenshots during my playtime. The synth, morose songs playing with smoky lights filtering through apartment blinds is just pure serotonin for me. Inject it right into my veins. The level of detail on character's outfits, or the vending machines, or even the foreground construction had me in awe. Terrific and the best part of the game by a mile.

Combat is 2D Batman Arkham style. Lucky for me, I love that style. It's not entirely original, but it doesn't have to be. Had a blast with every encounter.

Overall this is really close to being an amazing game, but instead it will just have to be 'pretty good" for me. Only a few, small things held it back.

I really want to like this game more than I do, but sadly, I think there are just too many knocks against it, with only 1 upside.

To start with the positive, the artstyle. Man, it's just really great looking throughout. There were some moments where I felt I was getting a little bored of the unique artstyle, and then some new scene would happen and I would be wowed again. I am definitely excited to see where the studio can take this style if they have future projects.

Now for the bad. First, the story. Technically, I don't know if I would consider this bad, but I also wouldn't consider it good. There is some background stuff going on, but I was given no reason at all to care about it. The actual main story presented is incredibly bland, and the characters are fine, but nothing special at all It also felt incredibly lazy that the good character "betrayed" everyone at the end.

The combat is Arkham combat but 2d, but also in a really bad way. This bleeds into the "platforming" the game has as well, but things just don't feel responsive and good, it feels like there is molasses everywhere. I would want to be doing something fluid, and the game just doesn't allow it. Additionally, there is basically no variety to combat at all, so by the 2nd hour in, outside of some flashes in some fights, it gets boring fast.

The exploration is pretty terrible. You would think for an on-rails game like this that the "exploration" would be made to feel good with how little there is, but the jumping and moving mechanics are so slow and wonky that it was aggravating. Similarly, I despised how you couldn't fast forward any dialogue in the whole game. For a text box or two is fine, but for an entire game it was incredibly annoying.

Overall, I want to like this game more and I definitely feel passion behind it, but actually playing it was a chore, and I actually ended up dropping it 75% through and just watching a playthrough of the ending, and after doing so, I definitely felt like it was the right decision. Solid 5/10