Let's go back a decade plus to October 22nd, 2014. Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty good in the summer, GTA V is coming out on PS4/Xbox One in less than a month, you have NO idea what a Bitcoin is, but you know it makes money somehow, and it's the seventh day of Crimefest 2014. So far, it's been good, a big preview to the big event this year (getting my boy and yours Hoxton out of jail), a revamp to the skills system and the introduction of the new Perk Deck cards, a couple livestreams, PD:TH for free for 24h, shit's been good and its looking to get better. So you sit down, see the community notification that the next day is up, see a suspiciously larger than predicted download start, and you go to the main page to see what new things are here.
...to watch a fuckin movie advert!?
Yes, long before the days of spin-off films and Netflix miniseries, the directorial debut of Chad Stalehski that starred a "considered washed up" Keanu Reeves, then best known for The Matrix, Point Break and Bill & Ted, would have a notably unique way of advertising itself by having the character be the fifth member of the Payday gang, instead of Hoxton, the REAL fifth member (and not even that, fuck you Houston, you were here fifth!). Overkill even doubled down on the crossover by having Chains and Wick know each other from back when, plus giving him his own Perk Deck, sunglasses masks and AKIMBO WEAPONS, SOMETHING WE HAD BEEN ASKING FOR SINCE PAYDAY 2 LAUNCHED IN 2013!
Naturally, I remember the reaction to Wick's introduction into the game to be...as nuanced as any controversial take on the internet could be. #KickTheWick was in immediate turbo use, especially when the character picker at the time was just "here is your preferred guy, and if they're already taken, it's the roulette wheel", partially due to it being a glorified ad and mostly because no-one knew what was about to happen, which was people going to see it because it was in Payday so why not, and coming back to go "Guys, I don't wanna alarm you, but John Wick's actually really fucking good!". One year on, and Wicks initial hatred was considered a relic even by then, thanks in part to the film being good, more in part to it being outplayed a month on and, realistically, because we were having a big DLC and balance bloat issue, and then Overkill just REALLY started pooping the goose during the next Crimefest!
So, to cut off the point I made in the title, do we count as the first real John Wick game? Honestly no, he was a guest character brought in before he was famous who quickly became one of the balloons we could use to further stand out. We had a weapon pack, a map pack featuring Lance Reddick (R.I.P.), a shitty VR game that no longer exists and a poster in the background of a scene in John Wick 2 (which the Wiki spoiled me on during opening weekend, and I STILL will not forgive them for that). We started off alongside it, and it had rapidly outgrown us by the time 3 happened, hell, it has had other games that didn't need our help to be mid! So seeing the trailer for the untitled game and seeing comments going "finally, a REEEL John Wick game", it's...well, it's true, but it's nice to say that it wouldn't be the first game he was in.
And we'll always have Hitman...
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