Keanu Reeves managed to star in not one but two of the best games at E3 2019, but the John Wick tie-in is not what youd expect…
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If this was the 90s then thered already be a bunch of John Wick games, all of which would be mediocre action platformers with only a passing resemblance to the movies and almost indistinguishable from any other film tie-in. Thats how things worked back then, but as the public slowly grew to realise that licensed games were almost always terrible (and publishers realised they made much more profit from a property they owned) the whole concept of movie tie-ins almost entirely died out.
In the modern era licensed tie-ins are almost exclusively cheaply made mobile apps. Except, there has been some sign of improvement in just the last few years, with concerted, if not always successful, attempts to make high quality, big budget games based on properties such as Star Wars, Alien, and Marvel. But theyve all been by established, mainstream developers owned by the publishers themselves. John Wick Hex though is a bit different. And by a bit we mean a lot.
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John Wick Hex is being made by British indie developer Mike Bithell, whos best known for avant-garde puzzle platformer Thomas Was Alone and the abstract, Metal Gear-inspired Volume. He is, almost literally, the last person youd expect to find making a video game adaptation of John Wick. Especially given that, instead of the third person action game you might expect, hes making the game as what he calls a timeline strategy.
Even the cartoonish visuals are a bold choice, but according to Bithell film company Lionsgate approached him about making the game with the open assumption that hed want to do something unusual and original. Thats a high encouraging attitude to see from a film company, especially as Bithell was then granted extensive access to the director and stunt team.
Whether Keanu Reeves himself is involved remains a mystery and while the initial press release mentioned Ian McShane (Winston) and Lance Reddick (Charon, the concierge), Bithell isnt even allowed to confirm their involvement anymore. Although the fact that he doesnt simply say that Reeves isnt involved presumably means that he still might be.
Well allow him to explain the unexpectedly strange story of how the game came to be in his own words but thankfully the game is just as interesting. In fact, its probably the best game we played at E3 last week (which is admittedly not the compliment it should be, given how relatively few games are ever playable).
The idea is that youre playing as John Wick himself in a prequel story, in what at first appears to be a turn-based strategy. Its not turn-based though and instead time is paused until you choose an action, with everything that John Wick and his enemies are doing occurring at the same time. A timeline, similar to the sort used in video editing software, shows exactly whats going on – and will go on – at the top of the screen and so you have to carefully plan out where youll be at any given moment.
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With enemies shrouded by the fog of war you have to bear in mind whether youre in cover, your stance, your ammunition level (reloading wastes all the bullets in your current magazine), your health, and your focus – a measure of John Wicks disorientation, which increases the more he rolls or is injured. Perhaps the closest gameplay comparison is Into The Breach, in that a single bad decision can have disastrous consequences no matter how well you were doing before.
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Despite what it might sound like the basics are very easy to pick up, even if it takes a few minutes to get your head around the fact that everything is happening at once. Despite its relative simplicity the system is hugely flexible, as youre also able to use judo moves, throw guns at people, and chain attacks into fluid combos that really do look like the movie (we noticed a Watch Replay option in the game, but werent allowed to press it).
According to Bithell the gameplay is reversed engineered from watching the films and talking to the stunt team, allowing him to construct rules and gameplay based on what you can see on screen. Thats a fascinating way to make a game and so far the end result is hugely engrossing and extremely authentic to the movie universe. If this becomes the future of film tie-ins then were about to enter a new golden age of interactive cinema.
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Formats: PC and consoles
Publisher: Good Shepherd Entertainment
Developer: Bithell Games
Release Date: TBA
GC: So who approached who for this?
MB: They approached me. Which is weird, still, to me.
GC: Really? Based on what?
MB: [laughs] Cheers mate!
GC: [laughs] You know what I mean. Your back catalogue… it doesnt exactly scream John Wick tie-in.
MB: [laughs] I know, I know. Basically, their producer knew me from way back. He produced Volume for PlayStation. Hes now a freelancer producer so Good Shepard and Lionsgate went to him and said, Find us someone whos going to make something interesting for John Wick. Because they see it as a franchise thats about finding weird and creative solutions. They wanted someone who could come in and do something odd.
GC: Ive never heard of that happening before.
MB: Thats Lionsgate, theyre used to having these massive hits with odd ideas, like John Wick, Hunger Games, and Twilight. But Im starting to get a sense that more and more film studios are starting to think that way.
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GC: There does seem to be a small renaissance going on in terms of quality video game tie-ins at the moment.
MB: Theyre being taken seriously and its partly a generational thing. People are always saying, When will games be seen as being as important as film and TV? Well, the same way it happened with them. Film wasnt accepted as an art form until the people who didnt think it was died, right? It took a generation to happen and I think its the same with games.
So now we have executives in film studios who grew up playing video games. They get what they are, what they do well, and what they dont do well. The people were working with at Lionsgate are gamers, they had a SNES growing up. That cultural awareness allows us to go into a room with them and have a conversation. And all their kids are playing Fortnite, thats the other one. Ive become very good at explaining ideas via the lens of Fortnite. Its like Fortnite but completely different… [laughs]
But there are other film studios, who Ive had conversations with, who are thinking about doing interesting things as well.
GC: Thats very interesting because previously it seemed like film companies just didnt care at all. It was just an easy licensing or marketing opportunity to them and nothing more.
MB: People have come to us before and said, Hey, you should do something based on this licence or this world. And the first time it happened to me, and the team had a conversation about it, we said, Well, do we want to do this? And a lot of us had worked on bad licensed games before and we were like, Well, we only want to do it if we can do original, interesting stuff.
So we made a company policy that we would never pitch something just to get a gig. We would only pitch the crazy ideas. The pitch based on the licence Im thinking of, that I cant tell you what it was, I sent the finished materials to the person thatd asked for them and their only response was an email with LOL.
So imagine our surprise when we said to Lionsgate that we want to make a fight choreography game thats about strategy and they say, Yeah, thats actually an interesting idea.
But the other thing I thinks really important to say is… because, obviously, Im a pretentious hipster indie so Im going to do a weird thing. But also, I do think this is the best version of John Wick. I think a third person action game… I dont think itd work as well. Theres no way itd be as graceful and precise. Youre going to end up making clumsy decisions, because you havent got time to think, and John Wick is not clumsy.
GC: So why are the film companies doing this? Do they think theyll make more money with a better game or is it primarily to increase brand awareness?
MB: I think with John Wick in particular theres definitely a feeling that theres – I mean everyones thinking expanded universe in the wake of Marvel. I mean, this is only my impression, but it seems to me that they want to build out the universe and find different corners of that John Wick mythos.
In the movies they are building up this kind of world, but they dont explain everything and there is that mystery there. You dont want to do the classic prequel of where did Han Solo get his blaster, you know? You dont want to do that with John Wick. Its also not my place, I didnt create this world, but there are corners, there are things we can play with. And what were doing with the story, which Im not allowed to talk about, is interesting and kind of introducing a different element.
GC: Did they help with the story? Did they suggest plot points?
MB: It wasnt so much plot points as just figuring out with them when it was set, where it was set in the universe. But no, it was my idea.
GC: And they went with that as well? Sorry, I didnt mean to say that with such incredulity.
MB: [laughs] No, youre my internal monologue. Thats been the last year of my life: They agreed to that? Really? Okay!
GC: Well, good for you.
MB: What usually happens with licensed games is you do a prototype, you do a pitch, and they say, Yep, were okay with our branding, so heres a 200-page document that lays out the brand guidelines and the existing story. And well just approve or disapprove of every build you do. Thats not how this worked. How this worked is they said, Mike, youre gonna come to LA once a month and youre gonna be in meetings and youre gonna be working with the filmmakers.
And what that does is that its not that Im trying to figure out and unpack what John Wick is, Im literally sat with Chad, the director, and Im working on the game with him. And Im in the gym with the stunt team filming them, after telling them I need a move that does something specific gameplay-wise and theyre making that move up for me. Its that kind of co-operation.
And what happens when you do that, besides getting a lifetimes worth of anecdotes in a week, is that it gets you into the mindset so when youre pitching stuff, because you know what John Wick is and how everyone who works on it thinks about it, you pitch better ideas. Which means that they say no less often.
I dont think that weve ever had a, No, this is the wrong way of going about it, you need to do a 180. Its always been, Thats cool but can we add this. Theyve actually taken me aside at times and said, Be a bit more ambitious, ask us for something weirder. Its been amazing, really amazing.
GC: So how did you come up with the game from a mechanical perspective? Considering you have no experience making strategy games.
MB: We started off looking at a prototype that was basically a one-character XCOM. So you do a turn, they do a turn, you do a turn. The problem is that one-character XCOM sucks, because youre basically always watching enemies. Because you do your move and your action and then every enemy does theirs, so youre spending most of your time watching the enemy playing the game.
But showing that to the executive team on John Wick their first question is, Why is John Wick waiting his turn? John Wick doesnt do that. And thats a valid point. So we ended up building a completely new kind of structure, which is this… were calling it a timeline strategy.
So its a constant ballet of moves against each other, which is genuinely original and I cant take credit for it! [laughs] Because essentially it comes from me making a bad XCOM, realising how wrong that was for John Wick, with the help of the filmmakers, and then us figuring out something thats reflective of how the films work, with their logic.
Were basically reverse engineering the movies. If we treat the movies as Lets Plays, how do we make a game where the ultimate strategy is what were seeing on screen? And what we learnt from playtesting is the players who love the movies learn the mechanics the quickest, because theyre playing it properly.
GC: Is the idea of a doing a strategy game something you had before getting the licence?
MB: Weve been thinking about strategy for a while, because its a thing I admire but theres definitely games I love that are strategy and theres definitely strategy games I dont love. But it felt like a scenario where we could do something interesting. And also, my co-designer is an obsessive strategy game fan.
The story really was Ben [Andac, the games producer] and me went to the cinema to watch another action movie and as we were coming out the conversation turned to John Wick and he said to me, what would you do with John Wick. And I said that I wouldnt do an action game, Id probably do a strategy game. And this was not knowing he was taking notes.
Once we realised Bens ruse and actually started maRead More – Source
