I was lucky enough to get hands-on with an early build of Nekome: Nazi Hunter during Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles. This stylish, brutal third-person action title is impressive, and I came away feeling ready to play more – but it’s not slated to arrive until early 2027.
As I hacked up fascists and made my way through an alternate history setting as Vano Nastasu, a Romani man out for vengeance, I found an intense familiarity in Nekome. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was playing a game heavily inspired by Peaky Blinders.
Read on to get the full scope of my Nekome: Nazi Hunter preview.
Nekome: Nazi Hunter Makes Brutality a Blessing
My Nekome: Nazi Hunter preview opened up with an explosion of violence, plunging me deep into the Second World War and assuming control of Vano Nastasu. He’s a young Romani man, part of a group heavily persecuted and slaughtered en masse by Hitler’s Nazi regime during World War II, which makes up the game’s core setting.
This is where the first connection to Peaky Blinders, a popular television series centered around a violent Birmingham gang with origins in the 1920s, starts to creep in.
The lead in Peaky Blinders is Tommy Shelby, a young Romani man with a cutthroat take on life and a determination to lead his gang to fame and fortune.
Vano is extremely handy with a blade, while Tommy wears a cap with razors hidden inside.
Tommy’s story takes him from the 1920s to the 1940s, which is where Vano’s story begins. I even noted that Vano sports an ‘undercut’ hairstyle, which renders him almost identical to Tommy Shelby.
The soundtrack, which picks up and pulses during fight scenes, could have been pulled straight out of Peaky Blinders, and the fear system that permeates Nekome is reminiscent of the aura surrounding Peaky Blinders’ Shelby family. The more you tear enemies apart in Nekome: Nazi Hunter, the more those who remain are terrified of you.
And there are plenty of opportunities to do just that. Nekome doesn’t pussyfoot around, and from the game’s earliest sequences, you’re made aware of just how gruesome and gratuitous this game is. You can take a blade and stab fascists to death, you can desecrate bodies, you can pick up whatever isn’t bolted down and stove heads in, and you can use cinematic finishers to pull your enemies to bits.
Some special mechanics allow you to empty a room of enemies in a matter of seconds, and the pacing is split between slower stealth sequences and all-out, no-holds-barred action. Each level you explore has hidden passages, collectable items, and opportunities for strategy, but ultimately, it all comes down to sheer violence.
I only had 20 minutes or so with Nekome: Nazi Hunter, but that was enough to fill me with intrigue about the fuller product. We’re still as much as a year away from launch, and that was evident in the quality of the demo I played, but even this far out, the combat felt satisfying, and the game’s fundamentals were in line.
I’ve already added Nekome: Nazi Hunter to my wishlist, but will you do the same? Let us know what you think about this game on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out our preview of Enginefall, the post-apocalyptic survival shooter
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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