It was only maybe a matter of time before that Keanu Reeves made its debut in the world of video games. Lately it is easy to see the well-known actor in the guise of Johnny Silverhand, but the man has also been recreated in a title that sees his character as the full protagonist John Wick. In the registered work Bithell GAMES the world of cinema and videogames come together to give life to John Wick Hex. After making its debut on PC, the production also arrived on PlayStation 4 in May of this year, and then recently also arrived on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, the version we tried to write this review. With what seems a contradiction to the reason for the iconicity of Keanu Reeves, John Wick Hex is a title that aims to bring the lethal character to an environment where strategy is everything, from having to move to calculating every possibility to take down the dozens of enemies. Let's find out if this particular formula, far from predictable, manages to shine in the work of Mike Bithell (already known for the success of titles such as Thomas Was Alone).
Time is strategy
From the very beginning, it is clear how the title wants to leave the narrative sector on the sly, in order to make its peculiar gameplay shine. This is obviously a choice that is anything but appreciable since it would have been possible to indulge in this too, but some cutscenes scattered between one scenario and another manage at least to make sense of the flow of events. In a nutshell, however, our John Wick will have to knock out dozens of bad guys up to the main enemy of the adventure, Hex, as the title suggests.
John Wick Hex gameplay is fresh and fun.
The creator, as already mentioned at the beginning, has decided to use one for this context absolutely strategic style, which is somewhere between turn-based and real-time gameplay. With an isometric view, easily adjustable to your preferences, it is necessary to move John Wick to well-established points. The lack of freedom might be unpleasant in the first moments, but it takes just a little before the basic idea explodes among the thousand actions that the lethal protagonist can perform. This must indeed juggle enemies, using his weapons and melee skills to knock out anyone who stands in front of him, using the mechanics of time. In fact, what differentiates John Wick Hex from classic turn-based strategy is the presence of one time bar that acts as a "regulation" for each of the actions that take place in-game. From attacks to movement, to dodging and enemy turns, everything is overseen by the timeline, which you must learn as you read in order to proceed room after room unharmed.
While the evolution of the player's skill is necessary to face anyone who stands in front of John Wick, unfortunately the experience totally lacks a sense of progression. The playful formula that just learned is really fresh and fun, unfortunately ends up slowly withering in a few hours, resulting in stale time. Fortunately, the game doesn't take long, and it doesn't take long to reach the end credits.
Is John Wick Hex a bad tie-in?
Artificial intelligence and boss fights are not very successful.
Fighting with enemies can certainly be pleasant, but there is to be considered their artificial intelligence doesn't particularly shine, not to mention that these come from every corner of the map without particular criteria. The desperate situations where you can think quickly in the action, however, are certainly in line with the idea of John Wick Hex, and the various levels are short enough not to be frustrating in the event of a game over. While the enemies are therefore successful in some ways, we are unfortunately forced to completely reject the bosses, so anonymous as to undermine until the very end the sense of progression missing in the production, which therefore fails to show itself even with particular clashes to remember.
The low budget of the project has certainly made its contribution, and it must be considered that the solutions applied to overcome this factor are nevertheless brilliant. There cel-shaded graphics it can be satisfying for many users, just like for the particular animations, which - although not qualitatively excellent - will trigger some nice deja-vu for those who spent an evening in the company of John Wick's films. We can confirm that the title is technically solid, except for some sporadic interpenetration that absolutely does not undermine the experience. We can also define ourselves surprised at how well the transition from mouse to controller was structured, and does not make the game sections cumbersome.
