Lionsgate is interested in bringing the acclaimed action franchise into gaming, as news about an upcoming AAA John Wick game just surfaced. But how would that even be possible?
What can make a John Wick game compelling in a competitive AAA market? The answer: make its combat like Sifu.
A Sifu-like John Wick Game is Possible
SloClap’s Sifu is considered one of the best games to utilize movement and combat, thanks to its precise parry controls and impressively designed linear levels. While its story is a straightforward revenge tale, the John Wick franchise is no better.
If a developer wants to make a triple-A John Wick video game, then players would have to feel what it is like to be the Baba Yaga.
Lionsgate should take a page from Sifu’s combat system. It should lean into gun fu territory, drawing inspiration from The Matrix or that upcoming title SPINE. Players would have to constantly pay attention to parry counters and maintain a combo without getting hit.
Combat should be as free-flowing as Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham titles. A John Wick AAA game wouldn’t make sense if it were a first-person shooter where your character can only aim and shoot at enemies. You couldn’t feel the overwhelming force of a hundred enemies ganging up on your character. Hand-to-hand combat would fail to capture the overwhelming pressure of facing multiple enemies closing in at once.
A John Wick game with gun fu elements and seamless third-person combat can work. We already see games like this with Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series. While Nathan Drake may not have the skillset of John Wick, the contextual melee combat in that game was satisfying.
Who Should Be the Character in a John Wick Video Game?
Chad Stahelski’s world of John Wick is rife with secrecy. Down to the darkest corners of the criminal underworld, to a secret coven of Assassins, it’s a universe that doesn’t really make sense, but it remains undeniably compelling. Making John Wick the protagonist would still make sense, but they have to take a few creative liberties to make it happen.
The video game should take on John Wick’s first few years as an assassin. Make him like Bruce Wayne from Arkham Origins, where he can still make mistakes. It will only be until the endgame that players can utilize the full might of John Wick, unleashing his best moves and taking down thugs in the coolest way possible.
No one knows the true scope of this rumored John Wick AAA game. Whether it ends up as an open-world adventure, a third-person brawler, or a first-person slop like Call of Duty, it would be better served by borrowing the consistent fluidity of games such as the Batman: Arkham series and Sifu, balancing melee and ranged combat more effectively. Otherwise, it risks becoming just another barebones action game in an already crowded genre.
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