The Warriors

"Rockstar's surprisingly faithful homage to '79"

"The Warriors" is, needless to say, an odd choice to base a game on. Over 25 years old and not terribly popular, the movie has nonetheless managed to garner itself a small fanbase thanks to its nearly post-apocalyptic view of a pre-cleanup New York. In the game, made by Rockstar Toronto, the player is given a chance to step into the shoes of several of the film's main characters in their attempts to lift their gang's reputation from the small-time to the top of the heap.

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Gameplay:

"The Warriors" is, above all, an old-fashioned beat-em-up. The entire game feels like Double Dragon in 3D in New York, sort of a West-Side-Story on steroids. Combat (which is about 80-90% of the game) consists of three buttons: fast attack, strong attack and grab. Simple combos can be strung together by mixing these up, and grab can be used for a few special or context-sensitive moves, but mostly the system is extremely simplistic. While you'll be playing as several gang members throughout the game, they all control the same and differ only in animations. Other than combat, the game includes a few mini-game sections, such as chase (or getaway) sequences and timed button-pushing/mashing. If you like old-school NES or arcade brawlers, you'll find it easy to slide into "The Warriors". However, if you're not a fan of brainless violence, the game may be a bit limited for you.

Of note for multiplayer fans is that this game, again like those it is based on, has no competitive multiplayer. However, it does have a fine co-op system, which allows a second player to leap in at any time with the press of a button. The lack of head-to-head combat is mitigated somewhat by the fact that it would probably suck anyway, and the Co-op is a great addition.

Score: 8

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Story:

If there's one place most of the old-fashioned games the "The Warriors" takes its cues from fail consistently, it's story. Fortunately, thanks in part to its cinematic origins, this game manages to pull off a reasonably good plotline. Characters are well fleshed out thanks to individual looks (a tough accomplishment since they all wear gang uniforms), good voice acting and a series of flashback missions which let you live out each major member's initiation into the gang. These missions give you a real feel for the characters' and their individual motivations for joining the gang, and allow for a great deal more empathy than most games of this depth would normally allow.

Score: 9

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Graphics:

If there's one Achilles' heel in this game, it's the graphics. "The Warriors" is built on basically the same Renderware engine as Rockstar's other 3rd-person action games, including GTA 3-5 and Manhunt. While this may have worked in the early days of the PS2 and XBox, it's really starting to show its age now. Characters are reasonably well fleshed out and do resemble their actor counterparts, but unfortunately both character models and the world around them are very low-poly for a game this late in this generation. Character textures are serviceable, but environmental ones are pretty blurry up close. Lighting effects are pretty non-existent, and the only special effects you can hope to see are some bizarre filters when you take a heavy hit of Flash (read: coke) or when somebody maces you. The one saving grace is that while the world may be pretty boxy, it's got a nice amount of textural variety, with very little repetition. Unfortunately, the settings don't change enough to really show off this strength, as the entire game takes place in almost identical dingy back-alleys.

Score: 6

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Sound:

Sound, however, is an all-around winner. The voice-acting in the game is done by many of the same actors as the movie, and is almost all first-rate (the script is surprisingly good too, but for those of you who don't like swearing it may be too blue). A highlight to listen for is the DJ on the radio, whose lines are consistently well-delivered. Music is perfectly in line with the period, and many of the songs or sound cues come directly from the movie. Sound effects are also well done, with a convincingly brutal set of bone-on-bone, bottle-on-bone and other-things-on-bone contact sounds.

Overall: 9

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Overall:

"The Warriors" is, above all else, a throwback. Whether this make the game for you or ruins it is a matter of how fondly one remembers the good ol' days of gaming. If you find yourself reminiscing for the days of three-button combos and pattern-recognitions boss challenges, you'll likely get a blast out of this game. If not, well, you may want to stick to something a bit more high-concept.

Total Score: 8

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Pros:
+Suprisingly good story
+Satisfying if simplistic combat
+Good characterizations
+Seamless co-op

Cons:
-Bad graphics
-Little gameplay variety
-No competitive multiplayer

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/24/05