Relooted: Racist or a Reclaiming of History?

The Summer Games Fest 2025 brought us many long-awaited trailers and first-looks at the most anticipated games. Hollywood franchise films made significant releases at the event, presenting their latest adventures like ‘Dune: Awakening’, ‘Game of Thrones: War for Westeros’ and the introduction of a new Star Wars campaign for Fortnite. However, amidst all the excitement and VR announcements, there was one gaming studio under fire for the racist portrayal of Black Africans. ‘Nyamakop’, a South African-based gaming studio, showcased their latest video game, Relooted (2025), and it already has a lot of international push back.

Relooted is an action-adventure, puzzle platformer following a group of individuals on a mission to take back what was already promised to them. The international allies who originally signed the Transatlantic Returns Treaty have retracted their agreement, deciding against the exchange of the indigenous artifacts. Set in the 21st century, from across different countries in Africa, a team of brave explorers form a heist to retrieve the 70 stolen artifacts. Before the artifacts and art pieces are locked away in storage or private collections, it is up to the ‘relooted’ team to rescue them and bring it back home.

Running in and out of village homes, escaping bulleted attacks, sneaking past the world’s most advanced security systems, this side-scrolling video game is centred around 6 black characters trying to liberate their culture. The beautiful art style is everything that one expects from an Afrofuturistic game. The digital animation is defined by the clean lines, distribution of strong colours and clear expressions. Afrofuturism is a lens that reimagines the African experience as science fiction, away from Western theories and other stolen histories. It’s a way to confront the atrocities faced by Black communities in an alternative, fictitious universe.

International museums are known for housing captured paintings and seized jewels. African artifacts like clay pots and decorative masks are no ordinary pieces, but works of ancestral heritage. Relooted depicts some of the real-world pieces displayed in museums today, modelling the 70 game artifacts off existing ones.

Regardless of how genuine the team at Nyamakop were, the gaming community could not disagree more. The video game sparked debate on X following a tweet from Epic Games, many expressing that Relooted is racist and ‘too woke’.

Photo: @EpicGames (X/Twitter)

Do the haters have a point? Is the only thing Black people can do in a video game is commit theft?

It is anxiety-inducing for a large studio like Epic Games to endorse a storyline like ‘Relooted’. It can be misleading and reductive, resulting in harsh stereotypes that misrepresent the Black community. What kind of message does it send when illegal activities are being carried out by Black characters?

However, representing history, reclaiming it and reimagining it is not new to storytelling. In fact, many of our favourite television series and film franchises have the same approach. It is a form of expression that challenges society’s inherent biases and moral compass. Take a look at the Age of Empires, Assassin’s Creed or even Black Panther.

Relooted is an action-packed experience that provides the player with access to a part of history that has never been unlocked before. It is a fictitious adventure, inviting the audience to part-take in a heist similar to ‘Mission Impossible’ or ‘Oceans’. Relooted contains a plot that is uncomfortable, but is it any different from mainstream media? Is it truly stealing when it is rightfully yours?