At first glance, the video game “Relooted” may look like a standard side-scroller. But the heist adventure — which is on many lists as the most anticipated game of the year — promises to reward players with a deeper narrative.
Set in the late 21st century, the game follows Nomali, a fast-thinking, acrobatic leader who assembles a crew of ordinary citizens-turned-thieves.
Their mission: to reclaim 70 real-life African artifacts from Western institutions and return them to their rightful homelands.
With each mission, players aren’t just solving spatial puzzles or testing their reflexes — they’re also participating in a modern reclamation story, blending meaningful narrative with satisfying, high-stakes action.
“Relooted” does not yet have a final release date, but its demo was released on September 16 to high praise. It is expected to arrive on PC and Xbox Series consoles before the end of 2025.
In an interview with Gamespot, “Relooted” producer Sithé Ncube said that the diversity on the development team helped inform representation within the game itself.
“A lot of people are based in Johannesburg,” Ncube said, in reference to the city where “Relooted’s” game studio — Nyamakop — is based. “Some people are based in Cape Town, but we also have people [elsewhere], like a 3D artist in Ethiopia.”
“I'm originally from Zambia,” Ncube continued. “When I started on this, I was living in Port Elizabeth, and now I'm in Johannesburg. We also had people work on the game from Ghana [and] Nigeria. And the voice actors are also from [all over]. They have different backgrounds as well, all of which are pretty close to the backgrounds of the actual characters.”
Ncube said that even before she started working on “Relooted,” she was interested in what game developers across Africa were doing, and how their heritage and background informed the games they were working on.
Ultimately, Ncube said, the diversity of their development team adds to the authenticity of their project.
“Because there are some instances where it's like, maybe we need a pronunciation for this type of thing,” she explained. “And you can ask someone who's very close with someone in the team, or even just someone within the team.”
That authenticity carries over even into the game’s most minute details.
“Even the environment art,” Ncube pointed out. “Someone told me that they really like the rooftops in our game, and I was like, ‘What?’ I've literally never heard anyone comment on rooftops, but they said, ‘Yeah, you can see that it's purposely African. It's good.’”
In addition to producing “Relooted,” Ncube created Prosearium, an initiative designed to help 1,000 African women create and self-publish their own games.
“Sometimes you can see the common thread among communities across the continent, which is usually related to the lack of accessibility of resources when compared to the Western games industry,” Ncube told Forbes Africa after the initiative launched.
“It is difficult to find local game publishers and financing options almost throughout the continent,” Ncube said. “As industries become more visible, we’re bound to see more variety crop up around the continent.”
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Header image via Nyamakop
