SGF ’26: The Goriest and Most Cathartic Game I Saw

“Nekome” is the Yiddish word for revenge, which become immediately apparent when I sat down to play ProbablyMonster’s upcoming effort.

You play as Vano Nastasu, a young Romani man who lost everything. His birth parents were murdered by Nazi soldiers, and the adopted father who gave him a new life in New York City meets the same fate right in front of him. After slaughtering a roomful of soldiers with a piece of cutlery, a flashback reveals Vano is working in a butcher shop, surrounded by knives. Clearly our tragic hero knows how to handle a blade. Now he a motivation for some Third Reich bloodshed.

Stay Sharp

Yes, Nekome is a third-person action game built around close-quarters melee combat. Naturally, Vano’s default tool is a knife, but the environments are littered with improvised options: pipes, stanchions, or whatever you can find when shit goes sideways. But don’t expect the kind of chivalrous fighting of most brawlers. Nazi Hunter is about being outnumbered and winning any way you can. While the exchange of melee strikes might have the defensive button presses of the Arkham Asylum or the Yakuza series, this is some down and dirty fighting that coats Vano in pints of Nazi blood.

At this year’s Summer Game Fest, I spent about thirty minutes with the demo, working my through through multiple rooms and corridors crammed with Nazi soldiers, and I died a few times more than I expected to. But the game gives you options. You can play cautiously, picking enemies off one at a time with stealth takedowns before the rest of the group notices. Alternatively, you can just in and start swinging. But in typical stealth game fashion, expect any observers to call for reinforcements or pull a firearm on you.

There Will Be Blood

Fortunately, Nazi Hunter’s combat is responsive enough so that fights feel fair. Attacks automatically snap toward the nearest target and and incoming strikes are telegraphed clearly, taking any guesswork out of parrying. Best of all, it feels like a knife fight; combat is messy fast, and unforgiving if you get too arrogant. Best of all, Vano leaves his own form of artistry behind. By the time I was done taking down a group of soldiers, the room looks like a crimson-hued Jackson Pollock.

Beyond cleaving up bad guys, there’s another mechanic that out might find rewarding: eliminating Nazi propaganda. Through their offices and halls are posters and flag, which can be burned if you come close to one. But this isn’t just about pushing back at ideology. For every five pieces destoryed, you’ll earn rewards like extra health. There’s something about ripping a swastika off the wall that feels much more invigorating than picking up a generic health pip or ammo pack.

As promising as Nekome is, the build was clearly a work in progress. There were moments where the combat timing felt slightly off, with inputs occasionally taking a micro-second to register. For a game as reliant on rhythm can feel disruptive. And while the slender vertical slice of play was engaging, I hope the full game transcends the loop of entering rooms and eliminating enemies. As such, enemy variety, environmental diversity, and the ability to turn enemies against themselves will be a critical factor in determining if Nekome can maintain its murderous momentum. So far, it definitely has potentional.