There Is A John Wick Videogame Coming

I did not know there was a John Wick game in development. That changed.

The choices made in developing this game are interesting. The first is obvious: cell-shading. This presentation choice is as deliberate as the use of light, shadow, and color is in the films and likely meant to mimic the overall effect of subtlety signalling the unreality of the narrative. The choice of using the concierge from New York's branch of the Continental as our voice-over is another; this is another subtle signal as to the nature of the game. It's doesn't seem to be tied directly into the films' events, but rather show off what John ordinarily does when operating.

And making this a game where you program John's routine before the fact, then executing it to see if you read the situation correctly, is brilliant. The VO talks about how being a master in combat forces you to think ahead; we know this today as the OODA Loop. Using the mechanic of a player programming a routine to simulate this is inspired. No, this is not the first game to do this, but Wick being tied to this game will expand awareness of those others to a significant degree.

I hope this game is as good as the teaser implies. We need more fun games of all sorts.