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How Nyamakop Turned Restitution Into an Africanfuturist Heist Game: Ben Myres on Relooted

Nyamakop’s Relooted makes cultural restitution the premise of a puzzle-driven heist game. Here’s what Ben Myres has said about its design, real-world inspiration and fictional future.
Length4 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Relooted turns a question about cultural restitution into a puzzle-driven heist: players plan how to recover objects in a fictional future, then race through an escape after taking one. Nyamakop CEO Ben Myres has described the game as a way to introduce players to African cultures and imagine the celebration of objects returning to their places of origin. The game’s treaty and its loophole are fiction; its artifacts draw on real objects and histories.

What is Relooted?

Relooted is a single-player action-adventure game developed and published by South African studio Nyamakop. Its Africanfuturist story imagines a future Johannesburg and a crew operating from a South African hideout. The premise is that a fictional Transatlantic Returns Treaty creates an opportunity to reclaim cultural objects from Western institutions. That treaty and its loophole are part of the game’s imagined near future, not a real agreement. Nyamakop’s official game page describes 70 real-life artifacts in the game.

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The real-world issue behind the fiction is the contested holding of cultural heritage and efforts to return objects to their places of origin. A figure often cited in coverage of this subject needs careful framing: PC Gamer identifies a 2018 report by Senegalese academic Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, commissioned by French president Emmanuel Macron, as estimating that 90% of the tangible cultural heritage of sub-Saharan Africa is held in Western collections. That is the report’s estimate as relayed by PC Gamer, not a live census or a count of every artifact.

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What do you do in Relooted?

Each heist is built around preparation followed by a timed escape. Players solve puzzles, plan a route and position crew members before taking an artifact triggers the countdown. Nyamakop’s description highlights crew coordination and Nomali’s parkour escape; Xbox Wire describes heists as chains of five to fifteen puzzles.

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Plan first, execute under pressure

In an article for Xbox Wire, Myres explains that solving the puzzles establishes a plan. Once the alarm starts, players execute those solutions in sequence, turning the escape into what the article calls a “heist montage.” Myres says, “Each individual puzzle in Relooted is only a few steps to solve if you can figure it out.” The challenge is therefore not simply solving isolated puzzles: it is arranging the solutions into a route that can be carried out quickly.

Why did Nyamakop make the game?

In an interview with El País, Myres said he wanted the game to invite players to learn about African cultures and civilizations. Before heists, the game presents historical details about each object and the people associated with it. He described the subject as “poco representado, investigado y divulgado”—underrepresented, researched and communicated.

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Myres also connected the game’s imagined recoveries to the real process of restitution, while distinguishing the two: “La restitución en la vida real lleva décadas y mucho papeleo. Es increíble poder imaginar cómo sería esa celebración.” In English: “Restitution in real life takes decades and a lot of paperwork. It’s incredible to be able to imagine what that celebration would be like.” The game offers that imagined celebration through its fiction; it does not depict a real treaty or resolve the complex legal and institutional work involved in real returns.

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Is Relooted out now, and what platforms is it on?

Yes. Steam lists the Windows PC release date as February 10, 2026, and Nyamakop’s official page says the game is out. Xbox Wire’s February 9, 2026 launch article listed Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC as launch platforms. Current availability can vary by platform and region, so check the relevant store listing before buying or subscribing.

Was Relooted included with Game Pass?

Xbox Wire said at launch that Relooted was included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC plans. That is a launch-era statement, not a guarantee of present-day catalog availability; check the current Xbox Game Pass catalog and your region’s terms.

PC requirements and controls

Steam lists full controller support and says the developers recommend playing with a controller. Its storefront system requirements are for Windows and may change, so check the live listing before installing:

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Are the artifacts in Relooted real?

Nyamakop says the game features 70 real-life artifacts, and Myres told El País that players encounter historical details about each object and its people. The objects and the histories that inform them should be distinguished from the fictional heist plot: the treaty, crew and specific recovery scheme belong to the game’s imagined future. The number of artifacts is the studio’s current official description, not a claim that the game represents every contested object or restitution case.

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Sources

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