As a man in his mid-30s, I have to be reticent whenever a new slang word becomes part of the everyday vernacular of society. I feel like for the most part, any new slang is for those of a younger generation, even if it becomes incredibly popular. One day, you reach a point where you will always look a bit odd if you try out a fancy new word in an unironic way. I’m more than at peace with the fact that I am mostly maxed out on my slang stat in life. I don’t need new slang words. I’m fine with everything I’ve grown up with.
But once in a while, a word comes out that actually makes sense to me and that I don’t hate using. One of the biggest examples of this is the word “aura.” Aura essentially means “cool,” but I love the word because I feel like it better encapsulates the concept of cool in a way that the word “cool” doesn’t.
Essentially, aura is something that emanates off of you. As gamers, we’ve seen the physical manifestation of an aura in countless different games over the years. I love this word for being cool or having charisma because to me, having swagger is all about it feeling real and authentic. If you are doing a bunch of “badass” things because you really want to be cool, you’ll usually be exposed fast as a fraud. But aura is a natural state. It is out of your control. It is an effortless effect.
I guess I’m a bit of a snob, but so many games that try to be badass just don’t end up feeling that way for me. I love the DOOM games, but I just don’t think they are as cool as they want to be, because they are so desperate to be badass at all times.
I feel the opposite about the new indie cyberpunk thriller Replaced from Sad Cat Studios. I was simply blown away by the visuals, sound, direction, and music of the entire experience. It was undeniably… cool. But it felt like something more than that. It was managing to be cool without actually trying that hard to do so. Replaced can also be surprisingly vulnerable at times. All of this makes me feel like simply saying that it is badass isn’t enough. Replaced genuinely has “aura.”
But even something with aura can lose it if there’s nothing under the surface. Replaced starts out a bit shallow, but it slowly develops its gameplay and story as it goes along, and it has become one of my surprise favorite games of 2026 so far.
Replaced FLEXES With Its Visuals, But It’s Not Just Clout Chasing
You play Replaced as “R.E.A.C.H.” an AI system that has become trapped in its creator’s body (Warren Marsh). R.E.A.C.H. was essentially designed to help identify organ donors and match them up with appropriate candidates. But this is a cyberpunk world, so as you can imagine, this ends up going horribly wrong for society. Once the Phoenix Corporation gains control of the country, they use this system to force people to “donate” their organs to the wealthy and powerful before discarding them.
In terms of concept, Replaced is nothing special. Many aspects of this world feel like they are straight out of Cyberpunk 101. If you have experienced enough of this genre, you aren’t getting anything new here.
And yet, I think the game excels with its setting and story in a few key ways. First off, all of the aforementioned production values are genuinely incredible. This might be the best looking pixel art game that I have ever played. The amount of detail in each environment is incredible, and the lighting effects in particular are stunning each and every time they pop up. The game also has some impressive cinematic direction, excellent sound design, and fitting music. A game with this sort of art style is never going to make me feel as immersed as I did in Night City in Cyberpunk 2077, or even as much as I was in Detroit in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but this world very much felt alive to me, and it’s a pretty incredible achievement. I have played plenty of games this year with fancy graphics, realistic settings, and new engines, but Replaced is easily my favorite looking game of 2026 so far.
Similarly, while the general lore of Replaced did not particularly move me, one element of the game very much pulled me in and had me very engaged until the end, and that was the journey of our main character, Reach. Reach has been doing his job from a computer, so getting trapped in his creator’s body means he is suddenly experiencing the world and various citizens that he has been greatly impacting for the first time ever. As you can imagine, this is an eye opening experience for him.
Once again, this has been done plenty of times, but I think there are a lot of strengths here that still made me very enamored with the experience. Replaced has a surprisingly long runtime for a cinematic indie game, as it took me roughly 12 hours to beat. But that time is really valuable, as it really gives Reach time to develop. His character arc is easily the highlight of the storytelling for me. As you can imagine, Reach undergoes some transformations over the course of the story, but the runtime of the game allows for these changes to be subtle. Each event and interaction is a pretty new experience for Reach, and these experiences slowly alter him. It never felt like there was some super dramatic moment that suddenly makes Reach a different person. But there are a lot of small changes that keep occurring that make him feel very different by the end of the game, and it all feels natural. It’s a really strong character arc, and I felt connected with Reach in ways that genuinely surprised me by the end.
The one downside is that I really didn’t fully feel plugged into this arc until around the halfway point of the game, when a certain event happens. I also think a bit too much of the world’s lore (which is important) is hidden behind optional journal entries and newspaper clips that you have to find yourself. But even if you don’t dive too deeply into those, once the plot gets cooking, I thought it was very riveting all the way up to its very epic finale.
The Combat Is Giving Me Life… The Platforming Is Giving Me The Ick
The setting, audiovisual elements, and story would be enough to make Replaced worth a look one way or another, but luckily, while it is flawed, the gameplay also does enough to sustain and even enhance the experience at times.
The biggest way that the gameplay shines is with its combat. Replaced’s gameplay is essentially a 2D version of the Arkham games from Rocksteady. You have a few very basic attacks, and you get clear indicators when an enemy is about to attack, allowing you to counter or dodge. This means that if you get good, you can pretty easily put together some long combo sequences reminiscent of an action movie.
Early on, I was a bit worried that this system would be a bit too straightforward in a 2.5D setting. While the core Arkham combat can also be a bit simple, the bigger environments, gadgets, and stealth elements all help mix things up a bit. Replaced has strong core mechanics, but your options are very limited to start. You just get a basic attack, an attack to destroy shields, a dodge, and a counter move at first. Luckily, the game consistently adds new elements to the combat that do just enough to keep things interesting. As you go along, you unlock a gun, a special power up where you can shoot that gun unlimited times, a special counter for enemy gunfire, and a grenade type of weapon.
This still isn’t nearly enough for me to consider the combat particularly deep. The 2.5D setting can also make things a bit clunky at times. When the screen gets really crowded, your movement is limited, and you might end up just spamming the dodge in spots. Some of the counters can get a bit wonky when you have two or three people attacking you at once as well. But for the most part, it works. Because of how limited the combat is, it is really smart that they continue to slowly unveil new mechanics over the course of the game instead of giving them all to you at the start of the game. Also, you can go pretty long stretches without fighting, which helps to keep it from getting stale. But when combat is really cooking, it gives you all the same great feelings that Arkham, Sleeping Dogs, and Spider-Man do. Stringing together a long stretch of combos, counters, and gunshots makes you feel like you are a complete badass, and the visuals and sound design come together to make it extremely satisfying. Despite its limitations, I thought the combat ended up being a pretty big win for Replaced.
Sadly, I can’t really say the same about the platforming. This is easily the weakest element of Replaced for me.
The problems start right from some of your first jumps in the game. Jumps have a slight delay from when you press the button that I always felt a bit uncomfortable with, even once I was pretty deep into the game. In one of Replaced’s first big sequences, you have to run from some enemies and jump over obstacles as you go. I think I died on this relatively simple sequence a half-dozen times. While it’s not always that bad, I felt that mild awkwardness with all of the platforming abilities that you get in the game. You eventually get a hook that lets you cling onto certain surfaces, and the ability to double jump in certain spots, and I never felt 100% great about using any of these abilities. Admittedly, the platforming does look very cool when you pull it off properly, but it never feels responsive in the way I would like for this type of gameplay.
While the mechanics are mildly awkward, the bigger issue ends up being the visual design of these sequences. While there are spots where Sad Cat Studios actually does try to use some very light yellow paint to show you where to jump, I was constantly a bit confused as to where to go next during platforming segments in the game. The cracked portions of the wall that you can cling onto are very easy to miss, and the dark visuals often obscure the next platform that you need to go to. There are also a few other sections of the game that have slightly confusing level design in terms of direction, and there’s no mechanic in Replaced that tells you which way you are supposed to go. This can be a bit annoying if you pick the game back up in certain areas after a bit of time off.
The one time I didn’t always mind the platforming was during the “stealth” sequences in the game. Since this is a 2.5D game, these are mostly simple areas where you need to move from point A to point B while cops or snipers aren’t looking. These sections are a touch more straightforward out of necessity, and the “stealth” elements added a nice bit of extra tension. But unfortunately, these are about the only platforming sections in the game that I enjoyed at least a little bit, and there is a fair bit of platforming in this game.
I Don’t Want To Be A Glazer, But Replaced Ate, Fam
In the end, it’s clear that Replaced was devoted to looksmaxxing in order to mog its competition.
No cap, I didn’t expect this game to have so much gas. I knew it had drip of course, but rizz is rarely enough for me to enjoy a video game, and I thought many elements of the gameplay looked sus.
And admittedly, the platforming did make me crash out at times, but the combat lowkenuinely cooks and had me feeling like a sigma male when I effortlessly took out a dozen NPCs in a row.
Simply, Sad Cat Studios understood the assignment, and despite some flaws, Replaced is based.
Score: 8.5/10
If you enjoyed this post, please consider following me on social media, or checking out The Big Nerd Gaming Podcast!
The Big Nerd Gaming Podcast on Youtube
The Big Nerd Gaming Podcast on Spotify
Big Nerd Gaming 
Leave a comment