John Wick Hex

On top of that, Hex's story feels like it belongs in the John Wick universe thanks to some great performances by actors from the movies and the writing by Bithell and his team. While there might be some bugs, I have no problem recommending this game. While I don't think it's a masterpiece, it's still worthy of the Bithell name.

Perhaps I’m just a victim of my own expectations. There are plenty of games that get away with minimal plot and an uninteresting protagonist, I just never expected to count a Mike Bithell game amongst them. The important thing is John Wick Hex has an abundance of intuitive and original ideas, and it’s fun and engaging to play. It’s certainly worth your time if you like strategy games, and if you also happen to be a fan of the films then that’s just the icing on the cake.

All that said, I had a great time with John Wick Hex. It tiptoes the line between tactics and puzzler in an engaging way, has a ton of character, and feels exactly as minimal as it needs to be: you pick up a working vocabulary of Wickensian tricks, just in time to be tested on them. Its slip-ups tend to just make it more charming, while most repetition can be offset by going for challenges that ask you to play quicker and smarter.

One of the best movie adaptations of all time and an impressively original strategy game that manages to rival even the best action titles in terms of tension and adrenaline rush.

Imagine for a moment if somebody blended the brutal efficiency of Hotline Miami with the tactical mind play of XCOM and then wrapped it all in John Wick theming. That’s the basic idea behind John Wick Hex, which effectively puts players into the mind of John Wick himself as he analyzes each situation moment to moment, calculating the perfect moves to make in order to eliminate waves of incoming baddies and make it out alive. It seems absurd, translating the quick and precise action of the John Wick films into a slower strategy game, but somehow, it works, even if it doesn’t quite manage to rea...

An elegant tactical puzzler that captures the pace and action of the movies.

John Wick Hex is a surprise in a number of ways, but the biggest is how much it hits the mark in terms of conveying what it's like to be John Wick himself. While it falters in some key areas, the overall experience is a good one.

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

A surprising tactical direction that really works.

It’s not a perfect game, but John Wick Hex still lives up to its premise and creates a new blueprint for how to adapt a film property. Hopefully, it does well enough for a sequel because I’m dying to step back into the shoes of John Wick.

John Wick Hex excels at making the player think like John Wick, but fails to back it up with combat that is representative of the titular assassin. The strong fundamentals ensure a constant reliance on resource management and upcoming enemy actions, but the artificial animations, easily manipulable enemy AI and various technical issues makes the thought of surviving such overwhelming odds far more interesting than actually attempting them. The gameplay is interspersed with a mostly surface-level dive into the John Wick universe via its locations, plot and characters, aside from excellent voice...

A solid recreation of John Wick’s signature combat style that is marred with repetitive gameplay