Relooted

I loved playing Relooted. It’s an intelligent blend of adrenaline, puzzle-solving, and real-world historical awareness. Few games dare to tackle restitution and colonial legacy through gameplay, and even fewer manage to make it engaging without trivializing the subject. Relooted succeeds. It made me think. It made me strategize. And yes, it fulfilled a dream I didn’t know I had: living out an Afrofuturistic heist fantasy. A demo is currently available on Steam. If the stars align, I highly recommend giving it a try. See you on the run!

Overall, Relooted is a unique hybrid of puzzle-platforming, infiltration strategy, and momentum runner with a historically informed geopolitical narrative. That sounds like a lot. because it is a lot. This game is incredibly ambitious, both thematically and mechanically, so even though it is not a triumph on all occasions, it really does punch above its weight for a small South African studio. Shallow in some parts more than others, yet incredibly provocative throughout, this game increased my respect for global cultures and broadened my western lens on African archaeology and anthropology.

Relooted is a wonderful action heist adventure that provides a deep and poignant history lesson into the brutish acts of colonialism on the African continent and the plundering of cultural and religious property as spoils of war. Possessing great art direction, puzzle and level design, and cultural representation, the game suffers from a variety of glitches, disconnected voice direction, and frustrating wall-jumping mechanics that made it too hard to brush aside.

Relooted's premise is bold, necessary, and handled with genuine care by Nyamakop. The concept of repatriating real African artifacts through heist gameplay deserves celebration, and I want to be clear that my criticisms are aimed at execution, not concept. The Nu-Nu casing mechanics are engaging, the escape sequences deliver real thrills, and the Trevor/Nomali sibling dynamic feels authentically alive. However, the repetitive mission structure makes the game feel like an ongoing tutorial that never quite graduates to the main event, and technical issues like the 60 FPS lock, poor optimization, and inconsistent animation quality are hard to overlook. The reused sound effects and stilted in-game voice acting further detract from immersion. Relooted feels more like a promising extended demo than a polished final product, which is frustrating because the foundation (the movement, the casing, the artifacts themselves) deserves better. I respect what Nyamakop set out to do here, and I hope they get the chance to refine this concept, because there's something genuinely special buried underneath the technical roughness.

Relooted is a unique type of independent game because it puts as much emphasis on ideas and points of view as on gameplay. The ways you plan heists are creative, the teaching parts are well thought out, and the Afrofuturist setting gives it a unique personality.

Relooted isn't just a polemic. It is also a smartly designed and mostly hugely enjoyable game that has a clear love and understanding for this genre. For fans of side-scrolling action puzzlers it's an easy recommendation. Reminiscent of those great XBLA titles we used to get on the regular in the mid-2000s.

Relooted turns a fantastic premise into a fun heist game. Putting its weaknesses in writing and plot aside, repatriating African artifacts is fun, swift and captures the emotional spikes and troughs of the heist genre nicely. Relooted also never loses sight of why these artifacts should be repatriated, treating them not as empty collectibles but instead as a way to help players understand their cultural significance and why they should be returned.

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Relooted makes you feel like you're a mastermind, and escaping is thrilling, but there are just enough problems that drag the experience down to the point you can't ignore them.

Relooted's clever blend of gameplay elements as you plan, solve puzzles, and then execute via exciting parkour segments completely blew me away and it certainly stands tall as one of the most unique and rewarding indie games that you'll ever play. 🏺