OK, that last bit may not have been
terribly slick and John Wick-like
(budgetary restraints reflected in the
game’s animations, perhaps), but
beyond that this feels just like a
movie tie-in, and prequel, to the
super-stylish hitman
series should.
The above sequence
took me about 30
seconds to complete,
but I can work out
from the all-important
timeline at the top of
the screen that it took
John Wick a mere nine
in-game seconds to carry it out. This
may be a stop-start tactics game, but
it’s one of the fastest feeling games of
its type that I’ve ever played,
interposing an aggressive sense of
flow into a methodical framework
that would make Keanu Reeves
himself whip off his shades and
earnestly frown in approval.
A crucial part of this sense of pace
is the fact that the game is timeline-
based rather than turn-based. You
have as long as you want to make
your move, but every charactermoves at the same time as you along
the minimal hex-based grid. Each
action—shooting, melee attacks,
weapon pickups—has a ‘preparation’
time as well as the time it takes to
complete the actual action. Most
actions, apart from
regular melee strikes
and gunshots, use
Focus points too, which
you can recharge
whenever you have a
couple of in-game
seconds to spare.
Timelines at the top
of the screen show how
long it takes for you and visible
enemies to carry out each action.
This is vital, as you use it to gauge
whether you can execute attacks
before your enemies do, or at least
make sure that during their attacks
you’re on the move dodging to
minimize your chances of being hit.
All this imbues John Wick Hex
with a satisfying sense of action-
movie improv, like a more regimented
top-down version of Superhot, or
indeed the John Wick movies
themselves. You often run out ofammo, and health resupplies are at a
premium, but through a combination
of meticulous melee moves you’d be
amazed at how many corners you can
fight your way out of.HEXCELLENT HEXECUTION
Certain moves, like Takedown, not
only chuck your enemy to the ground
and stun them, but change your
position, letting you preselect a
contiguous tile where you want John
to stand after the move. Similarly the
Push move lets you grab an enemy
and haul them back a few tiles—great
for breaking line of sight from a
nearby gunman or closing the
distance on an another enemy.
The cel-shaded art style is
complemented by that color-de-
rigeur neon palette of mostly blues
and pink. It’s a sparing aesthetic, and
a little flat in detail. Character faces
are beady-eyed and blank, and
animations are limited. There isn’t
one for attacking downed enemies,
for example, so instead they’re jolted
instantly and awkwardly into upright
positions for the attack.
This means that the zoomed-in
real-time replays you can watch at
the end of each level don’t look quite
as flashy as you’d hope for, even
though they are a welcome touch.
But beyond that, John Wick Hex is
a movie tie-in that doesn’t go for the
lowest common denominator. What
could easily have been a generic
real-time action game works
wonderfully in this form—converting
the pace of the movie action into a
very elegant illusion of it.
It works admirably despite some
lapses in the presentation, and feels
like an idea that the developer could
evolve into something really special
in the future—with or without the
John Wick licence.NEED TO KNOW
WHAT IS IT?
A hex-based tactics
game set in the John
Wick universe
EXPECT TO PAY
$20
DEVELOPER
Bithell Games
PUBLISHER
Good Shepherd
Entertainment
REVIEWED ON
Windows 10, Intel Core
i7, 16GB RAM, Nvidia
GTX 1060
MULTIPLAYER
None
LINK
johnwickhex.com80
John Wick Hex is
an elegant tactical
puzzler that captures
the pace and action
of the movies.VERDICTAll this imbues
the game with a
satisfying sense
of action-movie
improvG
runt 1 rounds a corner, and I lash out at him like a coiled
snake, judo-flipping him to the ground. Grunt 2 spots me,
fires a shot, but I duck back into cover, finish off Grunt 1,
then run out to meet the pursuant Grunt 2 with another
takedown. Grunt 3 tries running up behind me, but I whip
round and gun him down, timed perfectly to greet the recovering Grunt 2
at my feet with concussive smack across the chops.WICK-ED FUN
Action and tactical puzzles converge
in JOHN WICK HEX. By Robert Zak
UI-LOGY Here’s how the UI in John Wick Hex works
1
Focus points let
you carry out
various attacking
actions. Make sure to
recharge often.2
In the tougher
Expedited Mode,
you have five seconds
to carry out each
action, amping up
the pace.3
The most vital
piece of your UI is
this timeline, which
tells you who’s doing
what and when, and
lets you plan
accordingly.4
When you select
an enemy and
highlight a move, you
get a detailed
breakdown of
its effects.13 24REVIEW