Everyone grab your favorite semi-automatic weapon and hide your dogs, because there’s more John Wick stuff on the way! In addition to the third installment of the film series coming out next week – which our very own Matt Donato reviewed already – everyone’s favorite beleaguered assassin will be coming to home consoles and the Epic Games store on PC at some point in the future with John Wick Hex. The game comes from the mind of Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone, a very successful indie puzzle title from 2012.
The upcoming action-strategy title is said to focus on the “gun fu” aspects of the film series, which means the player is going to be thrust into close-quarters firearm or melee combat. From the debut trailer, it looks as though it’s going to play in more of an X-COM kind of vein, with action points, planned movements, accuracy, limited ammo and timing of said movements all needing to be weighed during combat. There wasn’t a ton of gameplay to go off of, understandably, but the snippets seen up above seem to be promising.
The art style, meanwhile, has morphed from the gritty realism of the films to the more game-friendly noir cel shading lifted right from those Telltale games. It’s bright and pops, but is dark and shady enough to give an element of suspense as our heroic assassin emerges from the shadows to efficiently dispatch some low-level goons. Heck, we’re even going to get to hear Lance Reddick (as heard in the trailer) and Ian McShane reprise their roles from the film to tell an original story. Nobody knows if Keanu is gonna be there as well, but honestly, why wouldn’t he be back? In fact, I’m kinda thinking he’s back.
While there’s been no release window announced just yet, it seems possible that this may be out by the end of the year. Maybe they’ll wait to debut it to coincide with the inevitable John Wick 4. In the meantime, uh, how about a Gun Kata game? Or another Matrix game? Like, a good one? Come on, people. Get it in gear.