Ex-Rockstar Dev’s New Game Looks Like an Unofficial Inglorious Basterds Adaptation

Pretty much since the conclusion of World War II — and certainly during that conflict as well — Nazis have been one of the go-to enemies for violent mass media. Given the real-world horrors perpetrated by that regime, they make for an instantly easy villain to have the player slaughter without feeling too much guilt, especially in games that put that history front and center, like the Medal of Honor games or the Wolfenstein series.

As such, it’s little surprise to see veteran developers like former Rockstar game director Jeronimo Barrera take a stab at that concept. Nekome: Nazi Hunter looks like a bloody good time, with a mesh of stealth mechanics and hard-hitting combat rewarding a player’s inventive approach to taking down Nazi soldiers. In fact, for fans of Grindhouse-style action films like the works of Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie, Nekome: Nazi Hunter looks like the unofficial video game tie-in they’ve been waiting for.

Nekome: Nazi Hunter Is The Inglorious Basterds Game We Never Got

The story trailer for Nekome: Nazi Hunter suggests that the Nazi hunting game from GTA and Red Dead veteran Jeronimo Barrera is the closest players will likely ever get to an adaptation of Inglorious Basterds. The game puts players into the role of Vano Nastasu, a Romani man who has lost his entire family to the Nazi regime. Sneaking into occupied territory with little more than his wits, his mitts, and a knife, Vano sets out on a quest for revenge. The trailer for the game highlights how the core loop will seemingly be rooted in stealth and combat, with Vano picking off Nazis while making his way through compounds and dispatching any enemy that he can find. According to Barrera, the game is more than just the typical action-adventure, as it is more rooted in turning Vano into a figure of terror for the Nazi regime.

The game will reportedly include a “notoriety” and “fear” system that is impacted by the player’s actions and prior kills. Increasing the notoriety of Vano means some enemies will panic and flee if they find out the player is nearby — or they could potentially call in additional forces to deal with someone they recognize as a greater threat than if the player were primarily sticking to the shadows. The result is a game that puts emphasis on the player’s approach to missions, whether that be from them going on a murderous rampage or preferring to stick to the shadows to deliver a killing blow at the right time. The trailer fuses a fun visual aesthetic not unlike the TellTale Games house style or Sisu, fused with the Grindhouse-inspired aesthetic of films like Inglorious Basterds and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. That’s a natural fit for a game with this tone.

Nekome Is The Latest In A Long Line Of Brutal Nazi Killing Games

Nekome: Nazi Hunter is far from the first game to turn killing Nazis into the primary gameplay loop, with plenty of shooters, strategy games, and horror titles doing something similar over the years. One of the most iconic entries in the FPS genre is the Wolfenstein franchise, which has spent decades milking that concept for great effect. Nekome has a lot of clear fun with the concept, with the combat sequences in the trailer highlighting a grisly approach that rewards using items like pipes as well as the lead character’s distinctive knife.

The focus on combat allows the player to deploy some hard-hitting moves and deliver grisly kills, with the trailer revealing that the player will be able to deliver brutal hits mid-combat. There’s something cathartic about the premise of Nekome: Nazi Hunter, especially in an era where apologists for one of history’s most monstrous regimes have repeatedly tried to co-opt gaming culture for their own ends. Just like the modern Wolfenstein games from Machine Head, it’s exciting to see a brutal action game that knows exactly what kind of story it is telling and what kind of people it sees as history’s true villains. If you loved Inglourious Basterds, then Nekome: Nazi Hunter is going to be a must-play when it launches.