John Wick Hex

A fantastic movie adaptation that may not look the part but manages to perfectly translate the action of John Wick into video game form.

John Wick Hex is a sharp-dressed, tactical, dog eat dog shooter that offers an unforgiving challenge with smart action and an authentic layer of style.

John Wick Hex isn’t your traditional movie tie-in game. Whereas so many others take a franchise and shoe horn it into a genre, Bithell Games have taken John Wick under a microscope, examined its DNA and gamified the essence of it. It’s an ingenious take on what it means to be the Baba Yaga, an efficient killing machine that’s as human as the next guy but fights like an assassin savant.

With its disposable plot and bizarre genre choice, John Wick: Hex is not for all fans of the high octane movie franchise but turn-based strategy fans will certainly get a lot out of this experience.

John Wick Hex is a fantastically unique adaptation of the film property, and even if it doesn’t quick stick the landing, I have to applaud Mike Bithell and his team for bravely trying something different with something as loved as John Wick. The gameplay is sharp and tight, brilliantly adapting the inner workings of John Wick’s mind into a gameplay mechanic and making you feel like a top-tier assassin when you pull it off. While a bit rough around the edges John Wick Hex is a great licensed adaptation with a bold fresh take on the existing property.

John Wick Hex is a fascinating example of a developer making compromises in order to make the game fit with the license. Sometimes those compromises are quite substantial indeed. They also end up being a non-issue, however, because in delivering a true John Wick experience, Mike Bithell and his team have given us something intriguing that adds to the film property. That is a refreshing change when most licensed tie-in games simply look to capitalise on a popular thing to the profit of the developer. For something based on such an unapologetically dumb film property, there is some truly intelligent and thoughtful game design that went into the making of John Wick Hex.

John Wick Hex could have been a number of different games, none of them as strange and satisfying as this.

Does this make for a faithful representation of John Wick? As I said, I have no idea. I’d feel much more confident in saying it’s not the best Mike Bithell game possible, but I imagine that’s a much less meaningful statement for most people, judging by box office totals compared to the broader cultural impact of Thomas Was Alone. As such, I’ll split the difference, and say that John Wick Hex is a solid strategic action game that’s great if you’re in the mood for skulking around in stylish shadows and killing lots and lots of bad guys.

Early on, John Wick Hex seemed far too random to enjoy. But as I spent more time with the game I got used to its systems and how it functioned and I started to enjoy myself more and more. Each level is a tactical game of cat and mouse and strategy and planning are vital. Positioning is key and thinking ahead of time is paramount. The story, graphics and especially the cutscenes are nothing to write home about but luckily the gameplay makes up for it. If you are up for a strategy title, John Wick Hex is fun as long as you are willing to give it a bit of time.

When you finish a level, you get the option to replay what you did in one fluid motion, which ends up a little stiff thanks to the gridmovement and somewhat limited moveset. But you quickly get the hang of how to use each move, and soon you’re reacting quickly to each challenge rather than taking a while to figure out your next move. When you hit that rhythm, John Wick Hex sings, but it doesn’t delight as much as the movies. [Issue#176, p.78]

A good but far from perfect tie-in.

This is a game where the triumphs come from tiny marvels of efficiency and careful planning rather than kinetic skill.

John Wick Hex is an unexpected take on an action franchise but it mostly works. With a bigger budget you can imagine the possiblities, but what we have got really does put you in the headspace of Baba Yaga.

John Wick Hex is a unique experience that marks a return for movie licensed games. It does just enough to stand out and provide an enjoyable adventure for fans of the series through some solid strategical action sequences. It’s not going to leave your heart racing as the films did, but it will provide you with a few hours of entertainment across its various levels.

The game's at its best when you're being forced to adapt, but it has a bad habit of introducing scenarios that feel like they require trial and error. For example, some enemy spawns are near impossible to see coming on a first run, and while you're never truly out of options, taking a few bad hits can cripple your chances -- especially in later levels.