The phrase ‘style over substance’ gets bandied about with alarming frequency in the gaming community. While it might seem like I’ve given away my opinion on the game in the opening sentence, let me assure you that this Replaced review is a complicated affair that you’ll probably want to read in detail. I’ve been led on a journey by this game, and any of you sods who scroll straight to the bottom to see the big ‘7’ down there are missing out.
What Is Replaced?
If you somehow missed all of the trailers and chatter about Replaced, you’ve probably been living in a hole in the ground. Either way, it’s a 2.5D platformer with a cyberpunk storyline and some of the most striking visuals that the industry has managed to push out over the past several decades. The combo of exquisitely produced pixel-art and the excellent use of modern lighting systems and rendering effects has resulted in a game that can easily turn heads, and it has done so all over the internet since the trailers started dropping last year.
The story follows R.E.A.C.H., a human-level AI who finds himself accidentally transferred into the body of his creator. With the lab exploding around him, Reach finds himself having to escape from the futuristic cyberpunk city while hunted by the police. Upon finding himself stuck outside of the city, he must find help amongst those who dwell outside the wall on his journey to return to his mechanical form.
Resplendent in Pixels and Particles
One of the major elements of Replaced that attracted people to it was the visual design. The game is rendered in 3D but takes place mostly on a 2D plane, with the world and characters depicted in some of the best modern pixel art we’ve seen in ages. The combination of modern bells-and-whistles, like high-quality lighting systems and efficient particle effect generation, as well as the incredibly well-done art, has produced truly beautiful and unique graphics. This is easily the best-looking game of 2026 so far, and there’s every chance that will still be the case by the end of the year.
It’s sometimes an unpopular thing to say, but the game manages to be truly cinematic, aping a lot of the visual style as laid out by many cyberpunk movies. There are sweeping camera movements, slow-,o action moments and intense character arguments, all taking place within a world of 2D pixels rendered over a 3D plane, and all feeling incredibly close to their movie counterparts.
A Narrative Affair
While it drew attention for its cracking visuals, Replaced is very much a narrative affair. As you start out the game, you know very little about what is going on in the world or with yourself. Your character is basically a computer program driven by pure logic, and things start to change for you as you interact with the world and characters. The focus is very much on the people rather than too much on the slightly generic ‘evil corporation’ that sits in the background. The game gets into the nitty-gritty by showing you a lot of the inner thoughts of people on both sides of the city-vs-outsiders conflict and by defying your expectations in both instances.
There’s also plenty of the classic noir twists and mysteries that you expect from this sort of cyberpunk storyline. You get to know characters, there are betrayals and rug-pulls abound, and even when you might feel like things are wrapping up, you’ll still have more to do. It’s a great story for both giving you the dark, driving cyberpunk story you want, without it just playing with the same tropes and archetypes that we’ve seen a million times before.
The House of Cards Comes Crashing Down
Of course, with all of this unqualified praise, you’re probably thinking that Replaced sounds like a perfect title, but you’ll have to hold your horses. In terms of visuals, audio and narrative, this game is a stunning masterpiece. When it comes to gameplay, things aren’t quite as smooth and clear as that. This is a mix between a “realistic” platformer, such as the early Oddworld and Prince of Persia games, and classic Metroidvania titles. The issue is that the gameplay is slow and weighty like a realistic platformer but has the combat and action sequences of an action-platformer.
This results in a lot of frustration from a gameplay perspective. There are these really cinematic chase sequences where it’s basically just “don’t press the wrong button, or you’ll have to do it again”, which is annoying when it feels like a single stumble should give you time to recover. You’ve also got to deal with the combat gameplay basically just being that Arkham Asylum shtick again, which is serviceable enough but gets tedious when the elements you have to deal with keep increasing.
The Final Word
In any other position, Replaced would easily be in the running for Game of the Year. As it stands, there is a solid chance that this is the best-looking game of 2026, even with the rest of the year left to play out. Despite these facts, it’s a bit of a slog to get through from a gameplay perspective. This should have been an easy 9, but with the fundamentals of gameplay being so off-kilter, it’s an experience that is carried by its stunning visuals and narrative and dragged back by its mediocre gameplay.
Developer: Sad Cat Studios
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release date: 14th April 2026
