If you want to eviscerate some Nazis in a video game, you have no shortage of options. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will let you knock some fascists out, while the Sniper Elite series is founded on delivering glorious ultraviolence on a regular basis. But considering how many World War II games there are, it’s surprising how few actually tell the story of the real people that Nazis marginalized rather than having players foil vaguely evil military operations.
For the developers at ProbablyMonsters, Nekome: Nazi Hunter is more personal. The new game gives players the usual catharsis that comes with killing Nazis with plenty of gore, but it’s also telling a revenge story from the perspective of civilians instead of soldiers. That sets the stage for a grittier revenge tale that takes its cues from grindhouse movies as much as it does Wolfenstein.
At this year’s Game Developers Conference, ProbablyMonsters showed me a very early, pre-alpha demo of the game, which entered development last year. The build was far enough along to give me the basics. It’s an action-adventure game set in the early days of the war and sees players visiting locations around the world to kill Nazis in brutal combat that takes cues from the Batman: Arkham series and Sifu. While the basic premise may sound pretty typical for gaming, game director Jeronimo Barrera told me where Nekome is unique.
“When we were thinking about making this game, and we knew we wanted to kill Nazis, a lot of references were out there for us,” Barrera said. “Obviously in video games it’s a subject that’s been touched on quite a bit. Then you look at films and you have Inglourious Basterds and Sisu. So we said, how can we do this and give a new perspective? That’s when we decided to make it really personal, to let players confront the worst monsters that have ever walked the Earth. We settled on our main character being Bono, who is of Romani descent. The Romani people were one of the first groups that were actually marginalized by the Nazis.”
The Romani have long faced stigma and prejudice throughout Europe. Their persecution at the hands of the Nazis dates back to 1933, when they were gradually forced into internment camps and killed. The number of Romani people who were killed in World War II is unclear, but scholars estimate that the death toll is somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000.
To tell Bono’s story in a way that feels authentic, ProbablyMonsters is working closely with a Romani Sinti consultant. You may even have caught teases of Romani culture in the game’s debut trailer: It ends with a distinctive Romani whistle, which the team says is a motif throughout the game.
It’s not just gratuitous violence; there’s a point to it.
It’s a surprising choice considering the title of the game. “Nekome” is the Yiddish word for revenge, which might lead you to expect the game would center around Jewish history. That was originally the plan, according to ProbablyMonsters chief product officer Mark Subotnick. The decision to change the concept came from the team’s desire to bring a new perspective to games set in this time period, but the title still fit with the new story.
“We started the first draft, which I wrote, with a Jewish protagonist. I’m Jewish, so it was an obvious choice for me,” Subotnick said. But when Jeronimo and his team from previous games looked at it, they started refining the story. “As the guy who wrote the story about a fantasy fulfillment for me, I was way more into the Romani story, because it’s a story that’s never been told,” Subotnick said. “We loved the name and we found a way to bring that passing of the vengeance from Jews and our culture to this Romani individual who has a bit of both. [Bono] gets exposed to multiple cultures throughout his journey.”
Barrera added that many different groups of people banded together to resist Nazis all over the world, and that will be reflected in this very global game. The hands-off demo mostly took place in Tripoli, at a jail modeled after a real monument in the city. The story will also go to northern Africa and parts of Europe during the war to give a wider context of the Nazi regime’s horrifying impact. It will even take players to the United States to have them confront some uncomfortable truths.
“The idea is that you were left for dead, and you were rescued by this man who takes you back to New York,” Barrera said. “We explore some of that, because during research we found that the biggest Nazi rally outside of Germany was at Madison Square Garden. It’s not just gratuitous violence; there’s a point to it.”
Violence is a major focus of Nekome: Nazi Hunter, though. In its early state, the game features a free-flowing brawling system where Bono takes out Nazis with heavy, impactful punches. Fistfights play out like those in a Batman game, except they tend to end in visceral knife takedowns instead of bloodless knockouts. There are stealthy attacks that are just as graphic, but Barrera wanted the face-to-face fights to evoke the grittiness of wartime.
“If at the time, if you were going through boot camp or you were drafted, your first strike had to kill the guy or you were going to be killed. There was this real gutter style,” Barrera said.
Nekome isn’t aiming for total realism; it’s more trying to adapt the grindhouse tone of Inglourious Basterds into a game. Some thoughtful quirks eschew video game signposting to keep players grounded, though. For instance, Bono can pick up guns, but players will never be told how much ammo they have from an on-screen UI. The team wants there to be tension whenever you take down a sniper and use his gun. How many shots did he have left? The same goes for improvised melee weapons, like pipes. They can break as you smash skulls in with them, but you’ll never know how close they are to falling apart.
While there’s plenty of time for the game to change during development, ProbablyMonsters has a strong idea of what it’ll ultimately be. There’s a bit of immersive sim DNA in the vein of Sniper Elite, as players can take down enemies however they see fit. (You can also burn swastika flags and propaganda posters to earn skill points.) Barrera describes the game as nonlinear and says it contains a dynamic quest system. Whatever the exact structure of the final game ends up being, one thing is for sure: Nekome will give no quarter to the Nazis.
“Yeah, it’s fun to punch a Nazi in the face Indiana Jones-style,” Barrera said. “It’s more fun to kill ‘em.”
