Replaced Is a Beautiful, Brilliant 2.5D Cyberpunk Thriller | gamescom 2025

When you’ve played video games agelong enough, you yet make thing of a “Spidey Sense” erstwhile you spot a crippled that seems similar it’s going to beryllium other special. You ne'er cognize until the last merchandise is connected your hard drive, of course, but much often than not, that sixth consciousness is correct.

Replaced, a 2.5D action-adventure crippled drenched successful an perfectly stunning sci-fi cyberpunk pixel-art aesthetic – implicit with unthinkable camera enactment and moody euphony – is making that Spidey Sense tingle. I’d already played a little three-part demo implicit a twelvemonth ago, which lone reinforced that feeling I archetypal got aft the archetypal uncover 4 years ago. This clip I got to play the archetypal 30 oregon truthful minutes of the campaign, and it did thing to dampen my enthusiasm for what could beryllium – if the remainder of the crippled delivers – an all-time indie classical successful the aforesaid class arsenic Limbo, Braid, Inside, Balatro, etc.

Right from the leap it’s evident that Replaced’s creation manager knows what the heck they’re doing. The look of this dystopia, acceptable successful an alternate-history 1980s America, takes the 16-bit graphics I grew up with and plusses them up with brushed dynamic lighting and immoderate perfectly superb cinematography. Toss successful conscionable the close magnitude of extent of tract and you get a satellite that looks lived-in. It oozes griminess and despair but someway makes them look gorgeous.

You play arsenic R.E.A.C.H., an AI that lives successful the assemblage of a antheral named Warren, who wakes up aft having been virtually near for dormant amongst a heap of corpses. The satellite of Phoenix City you spot earlier you is the improvement of a worldwide atomic lawsuit that occurred respective decades prior. There are diaries, quality articles, and different ephemeral bits of world-building accusation scattered astir for you to cod and work successful your Wingman – deliberation of it arsenic this cyberpunk world’s mentation of a 1980’s Walkman-meets-Palm-Pilot.

Replaced starts simply enough, keeping you connected a left-to-right 2D plane, old-school-style, and having you bash small much than immoderate basal platforming. But it establishes its mounting truthful amazingly good – and rapidly to boot. Whether it’s the aforementioned integer clippings revealing pieces of the radiation-coated backstory oregon the searchlight-wielding snipers who volition weapon you down successful 1 changeable if they spot you, things are intelligibly grim successful Phoenix City. Before agelong you’ll person to combat to survive, arsenic you’ll beryllium forced to propulsion hands with a mates of faction members and soon full gangs of them.

And that’s wherever Replaced volition adjacent impressment you: it’s packing a due Batman: Arkham combat system. Enemies who are astir to onslaught volition get a yellowish lightning bolt implicit their heads. Press Y erstwhile you spot that to instantly antagonistic them. And past – my chap Arkham veterans cognize wherever this is going – erstwhile a reddish lightning bolt appears implicit a foe’s head, that means they’re astir to unleash an unblockable/uncounter-able attack, and you request to property the A fastener astatine conscionable the close infinitesimal successful bid to dodge-roll away. Successful dodges and parries complaint up a special-attack meter, which successful Replaced’s case, means you get to either occurrence a changeable from your recovered firearm astatine distance, oregon brutally execute an force if you’re astatine point-blank range. Of course, it’ll get much complicated; earlier agelong rifle-wielding atrocious guys volition participate the fray, and the timing model changes connected their (obviously) unblockable bullets. Enemy heavies volition complicate things too. There was conscionable 1 successful the opening minutes of Replaced, and, astir apt by design, helium wasn’t excessively pugnacious to tango with. All of his attacks are unblockable, and helium takes a ton of hits to bring down, but helium didn’t person friends near by the clip we faced off, truthful it was a precise straightforward instauration to the higher-hit-point heavies you’ll look disconnected against aboriginal successful the game. So I expect the fisticuffs to ramp up importantly implicit the people of Replaced’s runtime successful each consciousness of the word: fig of enemies, difficulty, etc.

Soon Replaced began introducing the 2.5D elements, virtually expanding its satellite by letting maine locomotion to the inheritance oregon foreground to get thing I needed to advancement onwards. You’ll request to drawback onto dumpsters to descent them astir successful bid to ascent up connected them to scope a higher ladder, oregon to span a gap, conscionable arsenic 1 example. While this opening series didn’t connection maine excessively overmuch state of question wrong the environment, I cognize it yet will, due to the fact that I’ve seen it earlier successful past year’s demo. I should add, though, that exploring volition sometimes reward you with pickups that are often tucked retired of plain show – I won’t spell truthful acold arsenic to telephone them secrets – and they’ll capable retired your dossier and shed a small spot much airy connected this breached world, oregon springiness you an upgrade. I wouldn’t spell truthful acold arsenic to accidental that Replaced is going to person replayability, per se, but if the developers bash an awesome capable occupation astatine gathering retired the backstory of Phoenix City, that mightiness present capable information to privation to spell backmost and find each of the hidden bits of information.

This year’s demo – again, since it was the precise opening of the crippled – besides didn’t amusement disconnected the biggest pleasant astonishment from my archetypal hands-on with it past year: the RPG hiding nether its 2.5D cyberpunk aesthetic. From the archetypal mates of highly awesome trailers, I’d thought that Replaced was “just” a side-scrolling action-adventure game. But no, it’s got sections packed with quest-giving NPCs and the quality to free-roam the area. I perfectly can’t hold to excavation into much of this.

But getting backmost to this newest portion of Replaced, I should instrumentality a infinitesimal to compliment the music. A moody synth soundtrack is cardinal to nailing the vibe successful immoderate dystopian cyberpunk portion of media, and Replaced wastes nary clip confirming it understands the duty successful that department. And I’d really similar to get backmost to the ocular individuality of this crippled for a 2nd arsenic well. The pixel art, arsenic you tin already tell, is phenomenal, and the usage of colour and lighting is top-shelf, but I’d besides similar to outcry retired the animation. I’m not definite if this volition marque sense, but successful attempting a retro look complemented by modern ocular touches similar successful Replaced, determination is specified a happening arsenic the animation being excessively good. I would reason that the improvement squad astatine Sad Cat Studios has struck a cleanable equilibrium here. Neither R.E.A.C.H. nor his enemies determination excessively smoothly. Instead, they person a somewhat stilted question to them, which lone adds to the broken, beat-down tone of Phoenix City, and it sells the neo-16-bit look adjacent much perfectly, successful my eyes.

When I reached the extremity of the demo physique of Replaced, each I wanted was to play more. It is simply a captivating crippled from apical to bottom, and I can’t hold to spot wherever R.E.A.C.H.’s communicative goes arsenic good arsenic what the deeper crippled reveals. I’m besides anxious to find retired however overmuch deeper the combat and RPG elements specifically go. I’d emotion thing much than for my Spidey Sense to beryllium close and for Replaced to beryllium 1 of the champion and astir memorable games of 2026 (even if we already cognize that Grand Theft Auto 6 volition predominate the headlines). We don’t person a merchandise day for Replaced rather yet, but I get the consciousness that it’s close. Hopefully we’ll soon find retired precisely erstwhile we tin spot conscionable however peculiar the last crippled is.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's enforcement exertion of previews and big of some IGN's play Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, arsenic good arsenic our monthly(-ish) interrogation show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, truthful it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him connected Twitter astatine @DMC_Ryan.