REPLACED is a game with some shortcomings, but its foundation—its art direction—is executed at an extremely high level, even exceeding expectations.
Level design feels somewhat immature. Early on, side paths often contain hidden content, but later in the game, you frequently reach the end of a path only to find nothing there. The lighting looks great aesthetically, but as guidance, it’s inconsistent—main paths and side routes are sometimes lit with the same intensity, and red/green doors don’t reliably indicate whether they can be opened. On top of that, the side-scrolling structure forces a lot of backtracking. Side content often requires repeated traversal, and unlike in 3D games, you can’t freely route around it. Movement speed is also on the slower side. Combined with repeated obstacle sequences and unskippable, unvoiced cutscenes, the overall pacing can feel dragged out.
Combat, however, is not an issue for me—if anything, it’s more substantial than I expected. I initially thought it would be similar to cinematic platformers like Limbo or INSIDE, where combat mainly serves presentation. But the game clearly takes its combat seriously. Dodge, parry, deflect, charge attacks, executions, camera work—everything you’d expect is there. On normal difficulty, it’s neither mindless button-mashing nor overly punishing, but you can still die if you’re careless. For me, it strikes a good balance—there’s challenge, it looks good, and it doesn’t drag the experience down.
The real focus is the art. I didn’t come into this game for the story (which isn’t exceptional, but still solid—a dark cyberpunk world combined with an alternate history setting makes the worldbuilding quite engaging), nor for the gameplay. I came for the visuals—and on that front, it delivered 100% on my expectations, even slightly beyond. In a roughly 12-hour playthrough, I took nearly 400 screenshots—about 33 per hour—which makes it the highest screenshot density I’ve ever had on Steam. From its very first trailer to the final release, the visual quality barely dropped, and in many cases even surpassed what was shown before. The UI, the cassette player like interfaces, terminals, music, and environmental details all consistently serve Cassette Futurism.
What makes it especially interesting is how it fills the gap left by nostalgia filters. Old games often don’t look as good as we remember, while modern games are often too clean and modern. REPLACED, much like System Shock Remake, sits right in between. It combines modern lighting, depth of field, and cinematic presentation with pixel art, CRT scanlines, analog-style interfaces, and 80s retro sci-fi aesthetics. Characters are 2D pixel art with fully hand-crafted animation, while environments are 3D, often using pixel-textured assets rather than just applying filters. Combined with its 1984 cyberpunk setting, the theme, technology, and aesthetics all align. For me, this is currently the game most deserving of Best Art Direction in 2026. It may not be a T0-tier game overall, but in terms of art, it absolutely is T0.