Nekome Nazi Hunter, on paper, looks amazing. This personal, gruesome revenge story has all the right stuff to deliver the gory catharsis its title promises. Combining Arkham-like stealth and combat with an historic setting and unique perspective, it seems like it'll be one to look out for. I had the pleasure of sitting down with a pair of developers from Probably Monsters for a half-hour walkthrough of Nemoke’s stealth, combat, and story. I came out the other side looking forward to getting my hands on the sticks.
It all starts with one word: revenge—well, technically, it's nekome. More than just a title, this is the Yiddish word for revenge. And it permeated every brutal frame I saw, pulling every lever and pulley behind protagonist-meets-fascist-dismantling machine Vano Nastasu’s stoic face. Really, it's something even deeper than just revenge… Nekome feels more like retribution – the soulful, carnal hunt for revenge whose only outcome is justice.
And it's easy to understand why. The Nazis killed Vano’s family and left him for dead. After being rescued by a man and nursed back to health, this redemption by knife is his only recourse. It's interesting to see this kind of gory revenge story focus on the Romani perspective rather than the Jewish perspective we've seen portrayed in works like Inglorious Basterds and Wolfenstein. It still has some of that grindhouse tone, but that change adds something new to it. Though the demo didn't really touch on the Romani perspective, I'm sure we'll learn more about it as time goes on.
Instead, it mostly centered on showcasing a weighty, crunchy style of hand-to-hand combat rarely represented in games about World War II. Vano doesn't have an arsenal of dieselpunk firearms like BJ Blazkowicz, nor does he have the weaponized set dressing and basic fisticuffs that Indiana Jones uses against unsuspecting fascists in The Great Circle. Instead, he's trained in deadly kill-or-be-killed gutter fighting. This real combat style is all about getting in and incapacitating your opponent as quickly as possible.
In motion, Nekome’s gutter style immediately begs comparisons to the Arkham games and Sifu, with counters and strikes opening enemies up for gruesome takedowns. While I can't speak to the feel of playing it for myself, it had that no-holds-barred look you'd want from a game with such a straightforward combat style. This all-out, brutal style underlines the already personal story. As Probably Monsters continues to layer polish and flair onto what I saw, I think it will only continue to get more personal and stylish.
The developers also added a notoriety system to really drive home how vicious each kill is. When you take down an enemy, especially an officer, the other Nazis around you will notice, and your notoriety goes up. If you kill enough Nazis, the rest might fear you so much that chicken logos will appear above their heads and they won't attack you. Obviously, you can absolutely still kill them.
Ending Nazis will also net you something resembling experience points that you can put into new abilities, like doing stealth takedowns on officers. The build I saw was still early enough that Probably Monsters hasn't fully solidified parts of the UI and some of Nekome’s proper nouns, so I'm sure some of this is subject to change, but the ideas will likely remain the same.
It seems like the skill tree rewards stealth as much as it does guns-blazing combat. Vano has a pretty straightforward stealth setup that lets him crouch behind cover, take down low-level enemies, and even has a focus meter that lets him focus to sense enemies around the corner à la Detective Vision from the Arkham games. But Vano isn't a billionaire with a high-tech suit; he's just a bloodthirsty guy with a knife, so this ability is relatively limited, at least with his early moveset.
The levels I saw seemed especially well-equipped for some varied stealth. Where one took place in a series of tighter corridors, another was set in an outdoor section of a large prison, encouraging a varied approach to stealth, combat, and blending the two when necessary. Each level is going to have its own interesting side objectives, too, like burning a certain number of hate symbols scattered throughout the level or taking out a sniper a certain way.
Nekome promises righteous, blood-red carnage that blends Sifu, Arkham, Wolfenstein, and Inglorious Basterds, albeit with its own distinct flair. While Nekome is probably still a ways out, I had a blast even just watching its developers walk me through a few sections of an early build. I can't wait to learn more about its story, whose distinct perspective only makes me more excited to go hands-on.
