Cyberpunk goes sidescroller with Replaced, the new game from Sad Cat Studios that is one of the most visually outstanding games of the year.

The game is set in an alternate history where the world is a broken mess, a corporation dominates society and the haves and have-nots decide quickly if you keep your organs. You play the role of R.E.A.C.H, an AI that during an accident gets stuck in the body of his creator and is forced to escape its lab and survive.

The game plays out a a sidescrolling platformer this the player controlling R.E.A.C.H. as they climb, jump.and swing through levels. Early on you also find a weapon which then opens up combat which plays like a 2D Batman game where the focus jumps between attack, dodge and counter and even includes similar indicators to help prompt you for the right response. As your combat abilities improve, they still fit into these starting mechanics so it is valuable to become comfortable with how it works early on. I found that I favoured dodging and attacks at the expense of counters which didn’t always work but allowed me to avoid half of the timing dependent counters.

I only had two big frustrations during the game. The first were some jumps required more timing that you’d expect, or aren’t consistent to how jumping in other games work, where it feels like there’s slight delay requiring you to take action earlier than expected, so you’d have a few cheap deaths early on. The other is combat can sometimes punish you unexpectedly and you lose health VERY quickly. There were a lot of times when I was taken down by a lone enemy after dispatching a dozen or more, forcing me to replay the whole sequence again.

Collectibles throughout the game offer a few bonuses and boost. They offer a good incentive to explore the maps and are usually adjacent to the main path, so worth checking every nook and completing every side quest.

Visually the game is outstanding – it uses a pixelated/voxel style that gives retro vibes initially but its use of light, shadow and a very smart camera adds a real cinematic flavour to it that creates some striking moments and works brilliantly. Audio is suitably moody and there’s an extensive soundtrack that you can also sit back and enjoy if you find their respective collectibles in the maps. While it may take some inspiration from Cyberpunk, Blade Runner, etc it does come across as a very unique take within the genre and does feel like it takes its own path.

Replaced will click with you if you’re a sci-fi fan who enjoys a good story and a decent challenge. The game itself can be completed within a few hours so it doesn’t waste your time and if you have a nice screen it’ll be a very pretty game on your eyes. I really hope it gets recognised for what’s been done here because I’d really like to see more. 🙂

Replaced is out now on PC and Xbox. Played on an Xbox Series X via Game Pass.