Nekome: Nazi Hunter is shaping up to be one of the most stylish, brutal games to ever fit into the Second World War niche. It’s a third-person slasher with a narrative that runs deep, giving players control of Vano Nastasu, a Romani man whose family has been eradicated by fearsome Nazi soldiers.
He steps onto a path of pure vengeance, consumed by grief and hell-bent on eviscerating every Nazi he can get his hands (and his blade) on. It’s a savage tale of revenge, and in a new trailer, ProbablyMonsters revealed more about the game’s roster of villains, known as Hitler’s Hyenas.
I caught up with ProbablyMonsters, learned some exclusive details about one of these hateful murderers, and put a few questions to Jeronimo Barrera, the game’s director.
Hans the Handsome Confuses Beauty with Brutality
At the Galaxies showcase, an all-new Nekome: Nazi Hunter trailer premiered, revealing the slate of memorable villains coming to the game, all ripe for pursuing and (hopefully) executing.
I had a chat with the team at ProbablyMonsters to learn about Hans the Handsome, one of the most intriguing Hyenas, and one of the most twisted, violent characters in the game.
Hans is an immaculate, obsessive soldier who values his privileges and social standing above everything else. His home, his clothes, and the company he keeps must be perfect at all times. He goes so far with his brutality as to feed a rose garden with the blood of his victims, claiming it makes the petals take on a deeper, richer hue.
In Nekome: Nazi Hunter, Hans personally eliminates Vano’s parents and shoots the man himself, leaving him devastated and on the verge of death. In a throwaway comment, Hans complains about the Nastasu family’s blood getting on his clothes.
One mission in Nekome: Nazi Hunter leads the player to a Nazi gala at Hans the Handsome’s castle near Freiburg. It’s nearly impenetrable, but Vano manages to assume the identity of a waiter, making his way in to exact revenge…
After learning about Hans the Handsome, I managed to get a few questions answered by Jeronimo Barrera, the game’s director.
‘Many Stories To Tell’
The narrative at the heart of Nekome: Nazi Hunter is a unique one. It’s not your typical WWII story that sees you assume control of a soldier in the heart of battle. It’s something more deliberate, more emotional, and much more brutal. That was something Barrera alluded to when I asked why it’s time to tell this story.
We are not just telling Vano’s story, as throughout the narrative we touch on many areas that are factual and almost hard to believe.
For example, the first Hyena you come across is in Vano’s adopted home of New York. Nazis in NYC? As shocking as it is, yes; the largest gathering of Nazis outside of Nazi Germany during that time was in NYC! What we realized was that we had a lot of material to work with and many stories to explore and tell.
The game, which has been inspired by the likes of Inglourious Basterds, Sisu, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, promises to tackle some of the most notorious villains of the Second World War. The Nazi regime tore Europe apart, and while doing that, it persecuted tens of millions.
Our initial research was more about trying to find a story that hadn’t been told. That took us into exploring areas of this history that may have not been the most obvious, yet just as important to tell.
The Romani and Sinti peoples and cultures were some of the first to get persecuted by the Nazis. Along with finding an interesting main character, we looked at how other games, movies and books expressed similar fantasies of destroying and killing Nazis.
I asked if a specific big bad would be the ultimate target in Nekome, but Barrera played his cards close to his chest: ‘I’ll answer you with a question: Who deserves Nekome (in the Yiddish sense of the word)?’
For reference, nekome translates to ‘vengeance or revenge’.
Barrera said that chasing Hitler’s Hyenas is woven into the game’s narrative spectacularly. He described them as ‘carrots for the player to chase’, and that ‘encountering them becomes a thrill of the hunt.’
Nekome: Nazi Hunter doesn’t have a release date, but it’s expected to drop in Q1 2027. Let us know if this seems like your kind of game on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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