Nekki has announced that its cinematic single-player action game SPINE will launch in summer 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam. The Switch 2 version is also planned, but it will arrive sometime after the initial launch.
SPINE is set in a dystopian cyberpunk city controlled by an authoritarian AI. Players take control of Redline, a rebellious street artist who is searching for her captured brother. She is equipped with a sentient combat implant called Spine, which gives her enhanced combat abilities.
The main attraction, however, is the combat. SPINE combines third-person shooting with hand-to-hand fighting, allowing players to dodge bullets, counter attacks, disarm enemies, grab their weapons and chain attacks together. The goal is to make fights feel more like a choreographed action movie than a conventional shooter.
If you are trying to understand what SPINE actually plays like, think of it as a combination of Batman: Arkham’s free-flow combat, Sifu’s martial arts and the gunplay of a John Wick movie.
The Arkham comparison is useful because combat revolves around reading enemies, dodging attacks and responding with counters rather than simply shooting everything in sight. Hands-on previews have also compared its combat to Batman: Arkham and Sifu, while the game’s gunplay adds the John Wick-style Gun Fu element.
Unlike Sifu, however, SPINE is not focused purely on martial arts. Guns are an important part of the combat, and players can move between shooting and close-range attacks as a fight develops. You can shoot an enemy, close the distance, disarm another attacker and use his weapon before chaining into another attack.
That makes SPINE more of a cinematic action game than a traditional third-person shooter. Players should expect short, intense combat encounters where movement, timing and positioning matter as much as aiming.
The cyberpunk setting is another major part of the experience. Tensor City is a futuristic metropolis controlled by an AI regime, with a sharp contrast between its polished upper areas and the poorer, decaying parts of the city. Redline’s fight against the regime also forms the basis of the game’s story.
SPINE is being developed using Unreal Engine 5 and is designed around fluid combat animations and a camera that stays close to Redline during fights.
SPINE will launch in summer 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The Switch 2 version is planned for after launch.
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