Reviewed by: BobiRoka
Developer: Rockstar Toronto
Publisher: Take Two

Let’s get one thing cleared up right now. The idea for this videogame was around way before (and probably more inevitable than) the movie license. The Warriors is a natural – albeit skewed (to fit into Rockstar’s patently grim portfolio) – progression of the sideways scrolling beat ‘em up popularised in the 80s/90s by the likes of Double Dragon, Final Fight and Streets of Rage. If you can’t see it, then completing about 70% of the game will make it plain as day (I’ll say no more).

Rockstar could have easily translated this 2D mechanism into 3D and left it at that, but that really wouldn’t be Rockstar at all. Oh no, what we have here is a bastard hybrid of ideas from those aforementioned ‘old-skool’ titles, combined with Rockstar’s typically sick-yet-playful game design. Oh… and the last 5 missions follow the plot of the movie.

Time to get more specific.

In The Warriors you have to hurt people. You have to really mess them up. Especially the police, who take ages to go down and insist on pinning you to the ground to try and ‘cuff you. This can be extremely annoying, especially if you don’t have an AI friend/human player around to spring you free. It’s best to use whatever’s lying around, whether that be a brick wall, iron fence, bottle (or it’s jagged remains), baseball bat, crowbar, length of 4 x 2, Molotov cocktail, brick, dustbin…

(3 hours later)

…Snooker cue, bass guitar, saveloy or ice cream. Anything you can find will give you a distinct advantage, but you still need a grip on the rules of fighting.

The combat system is fairly intuitive, with various combo moves accessed via just two (light/heavy) attack buttons, hit them both at the same time to activate a super-heavy attack. The remaining two face buttons are for initiating grab moves and interacting with the above list of random scenery. Oh yeah, and people. Some people you don’t have to hurt. You can just mug ‘em instead.

Like it’s sister game (GTA), The Warriors often feels like several games running at once. There are mini games everywhere: The Rage meter in combat that turns your avatar into an invincible frenzy, the Squad commands (Stay/Attack/Trash everything and more…), the constant need to mug people to maintain your flash (health potion) supply, spinning the analogue stick to unscrew a car stereo, working out at the gym Daley-Thompson’s-Decathlon-style (and I thought this was relegated to artsy-fartsy experimental games like Fahrenheit! – Oh, and Olympics games of course, doh!), the analogue stick dexterity tests for resisting cuffs, tagging (70s for spraying graffiti) walls, and other numerous tasks… I could list them all if I didn’t want you all to discover them for yourselves (not to mention seriously use up my word count – do brackets count?).

The 23 core missions offer around 20 hours of gameplay, but this is variable according to how many bonus objectives you choose to complete, or indeed, uncover. The first 18 missions begin with the initiation of the gang’s youngest recruit, Rembrandt, and go on to cover the events leading up to the ‘meeting’, which kicks the film plot into gear for the remaining portion of the game. Some of these missions take the form of Flashback Scenarios, unlocked at various points along the main story mission arc, each telling the origin story of a different (pair of) gang member(s).

And so the game follows it’s linear trajectory, but not in a completely linear fashion. After completing the first mission, you’re taken to the Gang’s HQ, which acts as a hub-come-front-end each time you load up your profile or turn on the game. From here you are offered a choice of continuing with the central plot, playing a flashback mission (if you’ve unlocked any through progress with the main story), working out (to boost your physical ability), accessing ‘Rumble Mode’ (more on this very soon) or simply wandering out onto the streets of Coney Island for some sandbox-type bopping (complete with rationed out bonus objectives, which unlock a wealth of gameplay options you can implement throughout the game).

The actual missions themselves are quite staggeringly diverse. You’re as likely to find yourself with one AI companion, as you are ten, and the scale of skirmishes range accordingly. Some missions revolve around those aforementioned mini-games, i.e. stealing, tagging up turf, springing your buddies free while avoiding the cops… again, I could go on. Some simplistic stealth elements even come into play, complete with quick takedown manoeuvres.

If that isn’t enough, then check out the multiplayer options: Two-player co-op – at ANY TIME. That’s right. If you’re a bit stuck, or have a friend arrive in the middle of a game, all they need to do is press ‘start’ on a 2nd controller, to join in. You play on a single screen ‘final-fight-style’ until you move a distance apart, at which point the screen splits in two, allowing players to go about their individual business when necessary. Then there’s Rumble mode, which offers a wealth of arena-based 2 player/Vs CPU larks, from one-on-one scraps to gang Warfare, CTF, King of the Hill, you name it it’s there…

Specific Enough?

I’ve spent so much time explaining what’s ‘in the game’ that I‘ve hardly had a chance to criticise it. Reservations? Blocking is a pain, but only because it’s mapped to the Xbox controller’s ‘black’ button, which is never really much use in hectic combat games like this. More a platform specific concern, but a concern nonetheless. As a side note, even if you do get knocked down or grappled, there are various counter combos that can only be implemented from a prone position.

Graphically, the source material has been done justice, even if the limitations of the aging tech driving the game render the environments in a rather gratingly dreary tone. Overall production values are generally quite high though: lots of well acted (yet skipable) cut scenes, great voice-over work, and a suitable period soundtrack/score. In other words, the usual Rockstar package…

Before summing up, I must unfortunately express my disappointment with the two-player co-op mode. Conceptually it’s genius, but in practise it’s quite hard work. The in-game camera can be fiddly at the best of times, but when you only have half a screen to work with, you’re straining to see what’s going on within the dimly lit street settings and both players have separate gameplay agendas… it’s just a tad unworkable. Persistent players might be able to work around the various gameplay elements after each spending time with the single player game, but for a casual co-op armchair fix, the Rumble Mode is generally more successful, though not as successful as a particular bonus feature you unlock after the credits have rolled…

That’s the crux of it really. Unlocking content. The more you play, the more the game gives you. It’s difficult to get bored when you seem to be rewarded for every 5 minutes you spend with it. The relatively gentle learning curve will sit perfectly with casual gamers, yet there’s enough depth in there to satisfy the more discerning types who thought GTA was a good crack. Some might argue that the game is loaded with too much content to deal with at the same time, but it’s all just there to serve as a toolset for the player to use as they see fit.

The Warriors is a dark brutal and complex monster of a game at heart, but then it’s Rockstar doing their thing again. How could you expect anything less?

Presentation	7
I suspect there’s a modified GTA engine under the hood here. It’s quite ugly really, but then so is the subject matter. A greater variety of settings might have helped, but then this might have compromised the license. Everything else (audio/voice acting etc) is spot on.
Gameplay	9
A comprehensive fighting system, imaginative level design, reliable squad AI and missions with challenging and diverse objectives. Have I - or the game – missed anything?
Value	10
A diverse and interesting 20 hour single player ride, filled out with bonus objectives, high scores and unlockable extras which will have completist obssessives replaying missions long after the end credits roll. Various stand-alone Arena battles can be accessed in Rumble Mode – and you can play it all with a friend, if you have a decent enough telly…
Benchmark	8
Like most Rockstar action games, The Warriors is difficult to pigeonhole. Is it an evolution of the street-fighting genre? Or a new Genre entirely? I would advise those who might not consider themselves fans of fighting games not to completely ignore it.
Score	9
Final Fight gets pulled thru Rockstar’s GTA grinder and arrives safe and sound in the 21st Century.