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John Wick Hex

Mike Bithell on John Wick Hex: "we had to get the action right"

We caught up with Mike Bithell at E3 for a chat about all things John Wick Hex related.

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After getting our hands on John Wick Hex, the upcoming strategy title set in the cinematic universe, we were immediately impressed with the game's clever combat system. A more action-oriented spin on strategy, John Wick's "Gun Fu" system manages to capture the essence of being John Wick, without compromising the game's deliberate pace.

Speaking with the game's creator, Mike Bithell, we asked him about the challenges that went into creating such a system:

"We actually started with a very turn-based game, we started with a game that was very much Xcom with one character [...] The problem was, it felt like the AI was playing a much more interesting game than you. We decided to make it that real-time thing..."

When you play out a scenario through this system, the game then shows you how John Wick would fight out the scene in reality. This was a huge challenge for the developer, and the team is still putting the final touches on this replay system.

"So we had to get the action right, we had to get you as John doing the moves correctly, that's a lot of animation work, that's a lot of real detail to finesse the action actually looking like John Wick [...] It's about capturing that action scene you just did, and getting that right is something we're still working on," Bithell told us.

During our interview, we also discussed the story and cast, although Bithell wouldn't be drawn into discussing the matter despite our best attempts. Might Keanu Reeves make it into the final game? We're going to have to wait and see.

But how long will we have to wait? John Wick Hex has no specified release date, but Bithell did tell us the game will launch initially on PC and Mac via the Epic Games store. Console versions are also coming, but no further details have been shared.

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John Wick HexScore

John Wick Hex

REVIEW. Written by Ben Lyons

"The combination of action and strategy make for gameplay both fast-paced and continuously enjoyable, all over an original campaign that really brings Wick to life."



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