The Warriors

"Meh. That's a good summary."

Now, I feel I should note that I have developed a loathing of Rockstar's shoddily made, hideous games. That may have tainted my reaction to this game. However, many of my complaints are perfectly valid. I should also not that I enjoyed immensely the movie on which this is based. It amuses me how many people watched it after hearing about the game.... Anyways, on to the rambling of which you are here to read.

My initial reaction to this game was this: "Dear Lord I hate playing as this Rembrandt chap." There was considerably more swearing, but I am attempting to adhere "closely" to this site's rules. He seemed very awkward. Early on, Cleon and the various others proved to remedy most of my irritations with the fighting, but then I started to see the limitations of them as well. The first two big problems that stripped all other fun from the fighting was the tedious combat and the fact that you have no way of knowing if an attack will connect. It's largely luck, since any number of things beyond your control can stop you. On top of those faults, there's the wonderful lack of any tactical use of 75% of your already limited repertoire. Nearly absent collision detection further adds to the guesswork of attacking. (You will often see two people, you probably being one of them, swing their weapons through each other repeatedly, with no damage incurred.)

Another gameplay hindrance is the system that determines enemies' awareness of you. They don't need to yell for backup or communicate in any way with their allies. As long as they stand still long enough, their allies just kind of... know. Too bad you have to yell repeatedly at your allies before they even consider aiding you in any way.

Another fault: the terrible level design. It's all very bland. So little character in the environs, when compared to the film. On top of that, the layouts are generally more on the crap end of the spectrum. The bonus objectives, goals, vendors and the like are all very inconveniently placed in much of the game. On top of that, the cramped maps make extended stays in one area completely irritating.

The one saving grace is the sound. No, not the story. What they added is nothing special and it doesn't really contribute much. The sound is adequate mostly, but the main character voicing is above par. The random characters was the same repetitive fare you heard in the GTA games, although it seems rather inappropriate here.

The final set of complaints are in respect to the length of the game. The game is short. I beat it (95% at least) in about 9 hours. That's well shy of what most people claim it's length to be. Then there's the "mini-games," it's the same bad gameplay, only worse. Not much replay value there.

Over-all, there is little good to be said about this game. I can't think of any reason to recommend this. Don't get it if you can avoid it.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/06