I don't see why it makes a difference for this purpose that you're replaying network packets or controller inputs or any other interface to the game engine.
The important thing is that there is some well-defined interface. I guess designing for networked multiplayer does probably necessitate that, but if the engine isn't deterministic it still isn't going to work.
There was a twitter thread years ago (which appears to be long gone) about how the SNES Pilot Wings pre-game demo was just a recording of controller inputs. For cartridges manufactured later in the game's life, a plane in the demo crashes rather than landing gracefully, due to a revised version of a chip in the cartridge. The inputs for the demo were never re-recorded, so the behaviour was off.
There was a twitter thread years ago (which appears to be long gone) about how the SNES Pilot Wings pre-game demo was just a recording of controller inputs. For cartridges manufactured later in the game's life, a plane in the demo crashes rather than landing gracefully, due to a revised version of a chip in the cartridge. The inputs for the demo were never re-recorded, so the behaviour was off.