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| | Title:
The Warriors
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System:
Playstation 2
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Genre:
Fighting/Adventure
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Publisher:
Rockstar Games
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Developer:
Rockstar Toronto
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Release:
October 18, 2005
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Mature
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You could play this game all day and all night and still want to keep on “bopping”. The Warriors is that much fun, whether you read the book, or seen the movie, or if you’re new to the title altogether. Because unlike other beat-e’m-up brawlers and fighting games, The Warriors actually gives players some crude and entertaining fighting to dish out and take in. The Warriors also has replay values not seen in previous videogames, since Rockstar’s own GTA: San Andreas. The game comes packed with tons (and tons) of unlockable features, modes, characters, missions and events. The lingo, while it’s as crude as the violence, works on a level of its own. “Bopping” (fighting), “burning” (graffiti), and lots of other slang from the seventies and eighties make up for some very retrofitted dialogues.
The original story follows nine members of the New York street gang, The Warriors, and their fight for survival on one dreadful night. In the movie, Cyrus, leader of New York’s most powerful gang (called the Cliffs), calls a meeting for all gang leaders to attend an important announcement. All the gangs of New York show up, supposedly unarmed for the meeting, to hear what Cyrus has to say. He tells them that they can own New York; they outnumber the cops three-to-one in their total numbers (although in the movie it was five-to-one). Cyrus exclaims that the city can be theirs if they keep a truce among all the gangs and take over the city territory by territory. Cyrus makes it known during his speech that if they are united, the cops don’t stand a chance.
Just as he finishes his speech, a member of a gang called The Rogues, pulls out a gun and shoots Cyrus in the back. The Warriors are implicated as the perpetrators, due to The Rogues accusing them of the crime. Soon police arrive on the scene, sprouting chaos in their wake. The only hope for The Warriors is to escape and try to make it back to Coney Island in one piece, twenty miles away.
Gameplay
The game’s storyline isn’t isolated around the events that happened in the movie. Instead, players (one or two-player coop is optional) start the game with the newest member joining The Warriors, a fellow named Rembrandt. The Warriors needed another “writer” (graffiti artist) who could “bop” (fight) and Rembrandt was their man. This aspect of the Warriors story actually takes place three-months before where the movie storyline takes place. Otherwise, the game’s story takes place three-months before the night of Cyrus’ meeting, and the night the Warriors are hunted ruthlessly after his death. Every mission in the game leads up to Cyrus’ meeting, counting down from “3 Months” to “Day 1". However, before getting into the missions, players will learn the basic mechanics of the game and its fighting scheme. A tutorial is tied into the game’s story that explains how to fight, run away, and do other useful tasks.
The fighting itself is broken down into two basic attacks (light and heavy), a block and a grab/grapple. You can also do combos using the basic light and heavy attacks in different ways. If you grab someone, you can do knees to the chest or head, or punches to the stomach or face. From the grab or grapple, you can also do a mugging, or you can throw or smash your foe’s head into a nearby surface, causing massive amounts of physical damage. You can also do running attacks, like flying cross-body moves or spears. Stomping a downed opponent is also available, and using your grab button to grapple them on the ground and pound away at their face or body. Counter attacks are available as well, but they’re quite difficult to pull off during heated battles. Albeit, mastering the game’s counter moves/grapples are essential for escaping large fisticuffs or police barrages. Tag-team moves can also be done if you grab someone from behind and hold them while a second person executes a devastating finishing move.
Now some of you are thinking “Whoa, cool! You can pull off a guy’s head or split his spleen open . . .” etc., etc. Instead, the finishing maneuvers in this game are based on realistic forms of brutality. The kinds of brutal moves that make you gasp in shock and disgust, or otherwise crack a wicked grin. Some finishers include the likes of straight head-butts, hard groin kicks, double fisted uppercuts, or merciless shots to the lower back. You won’t find any fireballs or Dragon uppercuts in The Warriors. Although you will find a special ability that allows you to start a “rage” mode that doubles the damage with increased speed and endurance.
The interesting thing about the Warriors, is how the fighting is not the main focus of the game play. Instead, the fighting in this game is an element of the overall game play, making it much more engrossing when battles do occur. Other elements of the game include stealing car radios, spray painting on designated objects, mugging anyone (including your own gang members), or robbing stores. Had any one of these game elements been the focus of the game itself, it surely would have gotten boring, really quick. However, Rockstar (Toronto) made sure that there was always something different to do within the game, to keep the interest levels high. Many aspects of the game are simple in execution, but extremely fun to play. Mugging people is sometimes a challenging but worth-while risk, as it involves finding the vibration on the analog stick. I know that comment seems to make no sense, and even in the game it seems a bit odd, but I’ll explain: When a Warrior grabs someone and proceeds to mug them, two bars appear on the screen. The first bar shows the player’s “mugging” progress while the second bar is for the victims escape progress. Moving the analog stick in different directions is required until you’re able to find the direction that causes your controller to rumble. Once the rumbling starts in your controller, your progress bar fills. However, anytime the rumble-direction might change and you’ll then have to find the rumble-direction again, to continue to fill the progress bar. If your bar fills up faster than your victim’s bar, then you mug them for whatever they have. If the victim’s progress bar fills up faster than your bar, then they elbow you and sometimes mace you in the face before fleeing. Getting arrested works in the same manner as mugging someone, except the player switches to the victim’s bar and the cop is the one trying to find the “rumble”. Meaning, players simply have to move the analog stick in the opposite direction of whichever direction causes their controller to rumble. If your “evasion” meter reaches the top before the cop’s “arrest” meter, then you avoid being cuffed and sent to jail. Sometimes fellow gang members (or a second player) can help you out of a bind by knocking the cops off you, or undoing the cuffs. The player can also help fellow Warriors by undoing their cuffs using the left and right triggers, or by stealing the keys off a downed officer.
Graffiti is also very interesting, as it requires the player to use the analog stick like a spray can and trace over a designated-outline. What makes the graffiti so interesting is the fact that some graffiti requires layers. For instance, a marker will appear to show what object or surface you can “burn” (spray) the graffiti on. After you complete a layer, another marker will appear with a harder design to follow, etc., etc. One mission is insanely fun, as several gangs show up for a spray paint tournament to show off who has the better skills. However, the trick is that you have to run around constantly trying to find spray cans to complete the task. Added to that, opposing gangs, all fight each other to try to obtain a spray can or detain the “burner/writer” (graffiti artist) from finishing the task. Other times players might find themselves telling fellow Warriors to watch their back for cops, as they try and spray paint in an area that the cops are trying to keep clean.
Between missions, you’re taken back to Coney Island, the main hangout and territory for The Warriors. While at the Coney Island warehouse, various other features can be accessed. Such as the Rumble Mode, working out for extra attributes, talking to various Warriors, playing unlocked missions or going outside the warehouse for extra bonus missions.
The environments are similar to the likes of Grand Theft Auto (except you can’t steal cars), with pedestrians walking the streets casually. One of the cool parts about the game’s mechanics is that civilians don’t always stand idly by if or when you decide to mug someone, vandalize something, or rob a store. You might catch a worried citizen, scurry off to a nearby phone to report the crime to the police. Samaritans can be stopped from phoning the cops about a crime, you or your gang has committed; keeping the tension high and the fun well paced. Simply because the police are a ruthless and deadly force to be reckoned with, in the Warriors.
However, it’s not all hopeless when the boys in blue arrive to clean up your mess. You can issue orders to your fellow teammates: Wreck e’m all, let’s go, watch my back, mayhem, hold up, and scatter. The last one in the list, the scatter command, is the one you will probably disregard the most. Simply because your teammates are an invaluable force to have at your side, just in case you get in a jam.
One thing that really makes this game stand out from the rest is the intensity that seriously picks up later on in the game. When the game reaches the point where the movie started, the tension and fun factor begin to rocket skywards. The mini segment with the Turnbull AC’s, and having to outrun their bus, is pure straight fun. You can really tell Rockstar Toronto really put a lot of effort into paying homage to the Warriors movie, by including every aspect of it in the game. The gritty night life of New York is painted wonderfully with the dilapidated, gang-ridden streets and rundown neighborhoods. It would nearly be impossible to play through this game and not enjoy the insanely tense and relentless moments, involving the Baseball Furies or the Hi-Hats.
Controls
While the Warriors control scheme seems simple, it might take a while to get used to the setup. The problem is that it’s a bit too difficult to switch between enemies effectively, with the default control scheme. Although the enemy-switching doesn’t matter too much, due to the constant button mashing that takes place in tough situations. A minor gripe is the simple fact that it’s almost harder trying to avoid hitting your teammates than it is beating them into a pulp. I found myself nearly avoiding some fights altogether, because it was more likely that I would beat up my own partner(s). Apart from those minor control flaws I didn’t have any problems at all, while playing the game.
Weapons
This topic deserves its own section, mainly due to the importance of the weapons during the game. First the selection of weapons, and their variants, are massive. Instead of listing them all, I’ll just say that nearly anything, in just about every environment, can be used as a weapon. You might even pick some weapons up by mistake, that’s how many are scattered throughout the levels. The weapons also give off a minor glow, so you know what can and can’t be picked up in some areas. Other weapons meld right into the background and really match the scenarios. I was impressed with how much of the environment you could actually interact with, it’s simply massive. This is also one of the only games where knives are extremely dangerous. One hit from a knife and you can easily take out an opponent or two, or three. But that’s not to say that the other weapons are ineffective; hitting anyone with a pipe or bat sends them straight to the ground. This is one of the rare games that take such damaging effects of bludgeoning someone, into serious effect.
Graphics
The Warriors doesn’t have the best graphics as a PS2 game.
The draw distances aren't too hot and on split-screen mode you can barely see a building or two ahead of you. And at the very end of the game there is some ocean water that looks really terrible. But at the same time, The Warriors retains an effective, visual look that separates it from a lot of other titles on the market. Some cut scenes even have an eighties screen gauze that gives the Warriors that old movie look. What takes away from the visuals would probably have to be the low polygon count, in the mid and lower bodies of the model files. But the low polygon count is a forgivable flaw, given the amount of characters who can fit onto the screen at the same time.
Characters even take visual physical damage that shows up on them, until you buy “flash” from a dealer to heal your wounds. A near unforgiving flaw was the loose camera that worked hard to get me caught by the cops, or trapped in a dead end. You can manually change the camera with the right analog stick, but it doesn’t always conveniently go where you intend it to. It’s a minor quip that can be fixed by constantly having to adjust the camera while you play.
Sound
The music is great in the Warriors. Classic tunes from the old-school, play emphatically while you race through the streets and hop fences frantically. The most impressive thing about the sound, would certainly have to be the effects for the hits and bumps. You can nearly feel every hit and knock that each character takes, whether it’s with fists or Molotov cocktails. Even if the language had been toned down, this game could have retained the ‘M’ rating for the sake of its brutishly real sound effects, which I might add, are some of the best sound effects I’ve heard for a fighting game in a long while.
Overall
This game has a ton of different things that would take ten pages to list. Really I’m not kidding: From playing king of the hill, racing wheel chairs, and playing a twisted version of capture the flag, to working out with different exercises to increase abilities. There’s also a Rumble Mode that allows you to create and save your own gang, using all the characters you unlocked. The game is absolutely jam packed. I could go on and on about the different features and play modes crammed into the Warriors. The replay value of the Warriors spans out far enough to last you until the next installment of Grand Theft Auto, and then some.
Any multiplayer mode for more than 2 players would have also been great. Especially multi-player battle royals. But the absence of a sixteen player is only minor in comparison to all the other features in the Warriors. As a fighting game, the Warriors is definitely one of the most original the PS2 has to offer. I couldn’t recommend this game enough.
| The Core Score |
Overall
9.4 |
| Fun |
|
9.8 |
| Gameplay |
|
9.5 |
| Graphics |
|
8.3 |
| Audio |
|
9.3 |
| Replay |
|
9.9 |
|
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