After a longer wait than some expected, John Wick Hex has received an official release date of October 8 for both PC and Mac. Developer Bithell games announced the project earlier this year and given its proximity to the release of the third film in the series, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, most expected the game to release around the same time.
The film has come and gone from theaters and has since released for purchase, but now we will have the opportunity to see how well we fill the shoes of Mr. Wick in the upcoming game. The game itself is expected to be a video game adaptation of the film franchise, with the gameplay consisting of planning out a timeline of strategy in complex fight scenes. Players will be able to orchestrate their moves ahead of time to see how the action, and consequences, play out.
While the game initially appeared to look like a Real-Time Strategy (RTS), the developers have taken time to explain that instead, each move and action takes place in a timeline, and reacting to an enemy’s actions is necessary to plan for a limited amount of ammunition, and the time needed to reload a weapon. In many ways, the game sounds a bit like Superhot, at least in the premise of working along a timeline to plan for moved based on new information as a fight is drawn out.
Still, despite the somewhat odd proposal for combat, Bithell seems to be perfectly capable of handling such an ambitious project. To satisfy the broad range of fans of the series, Bithell staes that, “we wanted to build a game and an approach to playing that was completely focused on being John Wick." Which presumably means focusing on a fighting style similar to the character in film, using a mix of judo and a mastery of gunplay.
Certain iconic voices from the series will also be included in the game, including those of Ian McShane, who plays Winston, and Lance Reddick, who plays Charon, both of which are often at the Continental Hotel, presumably where John Wick will see them. An original antagonist has been written for the game, voiced by Troy Baker. At the moment, Keanu Reeves is not yet announced to be associated with the project, so perhaps we will have someone else imitating the voice. It likely won’t be hard, given that the most we hear from John Wick in the thick of an action scene is “Yeh” and “Be seeing you.”
We still have a few weeks until the game is released but hearing Bithell speak about the challenges and how they approached the creation of the game is nothing short of promising. Be sure to check back at TheGamer for an in-depth review of the game!
Source: Ign.com