You wanted him back and he’s back. The man who once killed three men with a pencil is making his video game debut (if you don’t count Fortnite) in Bithell Games’ John Wick Hex. Unfortunately for fans of the widely acclaimed action series, John Wick Hex is a bit of a mixed bag.
Bithell Games took a big risk turning the high octane action of the John Wick series into a turn-based strategy game. They wish they could say their ambition paid off in spades, but John Wick Hex flops more than it flourishes. Here’s what it got right and where it slipped.
10 Gets Wrong: No Fluidity
The John Wick films are a ballet of horrific violence and killing. That said, they don’t glamorize it – every death is brutal – you constantly feel on edge as a knife (or a pencil) could go through the head of someone that John doesn’t very much like.
Violence in the films is strikingly visual and set at a ludicrous pace that makes you feel like you’re on an unrelenting roller coaster. John Wick Hex is the antithesis of this. Combat is clunky and often glitches, while the cut-scenes that play out as you finish levels come off comedic instead of badass.
9 Nails: His Quick Analytical Decisions
If you gave someone the rights to make a John Wick game, nine out of ten times you’d expect in return a brutal, fast-paced action game more akin to letting a pit bull off its leash in the presence of a group of timid felines. Nope, Bithell Games subverted all expectations and delivered a strategy game.
It’s an interesting angle to approach John Wick, especially since he’s clearly a strategic mastermind operating on split-second decisions constantly. The game really works in this respect, though it would’ve benefited from increasing the pace a bit.
8 Gets Wrong: No Keanu
The John Wick Hex devs deserve some praise for getting Ian McShane and Lance Reddick on the project to reprise their roles as Winston and the Continental clerk Charon. Those additions were fun to see, but in no way make up for the lack of Keanu Reeves.
Reeves is a busy man and maybe the acclaimed action star was too caught up working with CD Projekt Red on CyberPunk 2077 to stop by and provide some lines for Hex. Legendary voice actor Troy Baker did a bang-up job taking on the role as Wick, but nothing can replace Reeves.
7 Nails: He And The Game Look The Part
This is exactly how a John Wick game should look, so major props Bithell Games for nailing the style of the Wick universe. John Wick always had that graphic novel feel to it, with its over-the-top violence and larger than life characters, so opting for a cell-shaded cartoon style was perfect.
Films to video games (and vice versa) have had a bad track record over the years and one of the easiest things to mess up is the graphics. Just because a film is shot in real life doesn’t mean players don’t feel as though they’re in a fantasy world or perhaps a video game.
6 Gets Wrong: Dragged Out Boss Fights
The John Wick films do certainly have their fair share of epic, drawn-out “boss fights.” That said, the more satisfying of moments come when John just treats a more established character or villain like they’re any other piece of garbage that he regularly deals with.
For example, Alfie Allen’s (the guy who killed his dog and ignited the entire trilogy) was killed with a simple anti-climactic shot to the head. No epicness, no 10-minute fight to the death, John just wanted the whole ordeal to be done with. The game could’ve severely benefited from setting up some situations like this instead of one boring boss fight after another.
5 Nails: John’s Murderous Creativity
Killing is an art to John Wick. Like any great artist, he probably doesn’t see it that way, he’s just doing what he does best. But if you’re killing three people with a single pencil then in some deranged way you have no choice but to accept that you’re an artist at what you do.
The films set out the blueprint for this so well that the devs for John Wick Hex had no way they could mess this up. Whether it be throwing your empty gun at an enemy or rolling around kung-fu kicking a guy, stealing his gun and shooting him with it.
4 Gets Wrong: It’s Lack Of Originality
Most of John Wick Hex’s creativeness comes right out of the playbook of the film trilogy. When it comes to what it brings to the table in terms of new action or video game innovation, there’s little-to-none to find here. Much of the time it feels like for every step forward Hex takes an additional two steps back.
While it’s fun to see what John can do, it all becomes been-there-done-that as you progress. And as mentioned, the lack of fluidity makes the combat even less enjoyable than it could’ve been.
3 Nails: Fisticuffs!
Who doesn’t miss beat’em ups? Aside from a few contemporary indie games, all your classic action games of the ’80s and ’90s like Streets of Rage 2 or Double Dragon have all been forgotten. While John Wick Hex is far from a side-scrolling beat’em up, it does feel like it’s trying to update classic action gameplay.
When it works, combat in Hex feels like a lot of fun and does a good job of branching together strategy and action. The problem comes from the janky cut-scenes that come in after the fact.
2 Gets Wrong: Superhot And My Friend Pedro Do It Better
Maybe Bithell Games had no choice but to make John Wick Hex a strategy game. Whether they realized it or not, gamers already have two fantastic titles that already make them feel like the action hero badass that is John Wick. Those two games being Devolver Digital’s My Friend Pedro and – the obvious choice – Superhot.
My Friend Pedro is quite literally a ballet of bullets; cartoon anarchy filled with twirls, spins, and kills off of a bullet ricocheting out of a frying pan. Superhot on the other hand, is exactly what you’d expect a John Wick game to feel like, but set inside a cryptic, surreal simulation of sorts. Unfortunately, both do John Wick more justice than Hex
1 Nails: Going In The Right Direction
In a post-Superhot world, making a game of that sort is just asking for gamers to scream rip-off! The obvious route to a John Wick game might not be the right route, and it seems that Bithell Games had some inclination to this.
Hex is going in the right direction, the game looks and sounds the part, all it needs to do is feel the part. A John Wick strategy game could work, but not only does it have to flow incredibly well, it has to bring something new to the table that hasn’t been seen in the film series.
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