Earlier this year, I discovered a trailer for Nekome: Nazi Hunter, which is how I learned it’s a Grindhouse-inspired action game where you brutally kill a lot of Nazis. Immediately, I was in. And now, after playing it for roughly 30 minutes, I’m even more in.
Nekome: Nazi Hunter is absolutely, deliciously, disrespectful to the Nazi’s of the 1940s Nazi regime in Germany during World War II. It begins with protagonist Vano Nastasu dressed as a butler within a palace of sorts. Inside, a group of Nazis is seated around a table covered in delicious food. As the Nazis eat, a leader figure praises the group for opening up three more death camps, gloating about their awful acts of violence while eating chicken, vegetables, and more. Vano wheels in a silver platter, removing its cover to reveal a decapitated Nazi head with a knife through its skull.
He then uses a knife engraved with “Nekome,” which is Yiddish for vengeance, according to the game, to completely slice off the leader’s arm. He then guts his belly before slitting the Nazi’s throat. At this point, I take over on the sticks, pressing X repeatedly to deliver all manner of cuts, slashes, and more to the other Nazis in the room – they stand no chance, and I quickly paint the ballroom red.
You can parry with Y and break their blocks, but ultimately, combat is simple, more focused on delivering bloodshed than intricacy. What I play is in a pre-beta stage, and it’s evident – it’s a bit janky, but not enough to distract me from the delight I take part in as I rip apart Nazis galore.
From here, we flash back to Vano as a child to learn that his entire family is ripped from him at the hands of “Hitler’s Hyenas,” which is seemingly led by the Nazi leader Vano kills at the preview’s start. I’m glad he gets his revenge, because that leader shoots Vano’s father point-blank, then his mother, then forces Vano and his brother to fight over a knife to kill each other, reminiscent of the pool stick scene in The Dark Knight. Vano refuses to kill his brother and stabs himself instead. The aforementioned Nazi leader shoots Vano in the back and doesn’t check to make sure he’s dead.
I flash forward again to see Vano in the future, somewhere in New York City. He’s speaking with Harold, a butcher-mentor with a heavy NY accent. He explains to Vano the importance of training before exacting revenge, but Nazis soon storm the room and take Harold out, adding more fuel to Vano’s vengeance-filled journey. Searching for Harold’s killer, I stalk through a NYC alley to learn there’s an American-German Bund group in support of Nazis in 1940s America. I utilize the game’s stealth kills here and like the action combat, it’s simple (but effective). Turns out, killing Nazis just doesn’t get old, at least in this 30-minute preview.
I hope to continue my Nazi-killing delight in the full game when it launches sometime early next year.