The Warriors

During the 80s and early 90s, the side scrolling beat 'em up was a staple of coin operated arcades and featured generously on both the 8 and 16 bit consoles. Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, River City Ransom and Fatal Fury are among the most memorable. Dozens of popular franchises including The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Alien vs Predator cashed in on the brawler treatment due to its simple yet addictive formula that kept players feeding coins to stay in the game. Many cabinets also allowed for four player cooperative play, adding a great social factor to the wallet draining experience.

So where did the arcade brawlers go? The reality is, they never completely left, we just got bored of them. Recent attempts like Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle Nexus and Mutant Nightmare have shown that contemporary gamers just aren't content with mashing the same button over and over again anymore. If they want our attention back, they're going to have to offer something more.

Much like the recently successful Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks accomplished, more is exactly what Rockstar Toronto have offered in The Warriors. Resurrecting the cult 1979 film of the same name, with all the trimmings, The Warriors tells the tale of a gang of delinquents battling for turf and reputation in an anarchistic interpretation of New York City. The movie begins with a meeting proposing unification of all gangs, but chaos ensues when the leader of the movement is assassinated. The Warriors are falsely accused of the deed and every gang in the city is out for their blood. Having not previously seen the movie, I made a point to watch it before playing and although I didn't personally find it to be a particularly remarkable piece of cinema, my following gameplay experience was undoubtedly improved as a result.

The storyline of the game commences several months before the big meeting that plays such a central role in the film, with the player assuming the role of a new recruit and an initiation process serving as a thorough tutorial. Standard kicks, punches and throws comprise the available moves, and can be served up with a variety of combos with finishers. Each character also has a special move at their disposal for a satisfying hard hit. Weapons such as baseball bats, lead pipes, knives and planks can be found strewn around levels or procured from fallen opponents but generally expire after several uses. Items such as bricks, bottles and rocks can be thrown from a distance or used in one hit melee. Sprinting will add a barge or lunge to your attack and makes for some excellent ten pin bowling style action if you can launch at a large cluster of people, which is always great fun.

The enemies you'll encounter include New York's finest - the NYPD - and the many colourful rival gangs featured in the film. Both can perform all the same basic combat techniques as the player characters, and the cops will prefer throws and holds attempting to arrest you as quickly as possible, leading to another sweet mini-game. Once a cop has you in their clutches, you'll need to manoeuvre the controller, avoiding the directions that cause vibration feedback, as failure to do this will result in steel bracelets. But all is not lost; if your partners in crime are still kicking, they'll do their best to set you free and you can similarly return the favour when they get pinched. There's a little variation with the boss types, which typically involve larger sized models or a firearm but for the most part the fights are grounded in reality and generally feel like an even playing field, ability-wise.

It's not all beatings and bruises though. To earn the cash needed for completing goals or buying health and spray paint you'll need to mug people, loot stores and my personal favourite, steal car stereos. Stealing a stereo requires breaking the window of a car then completing a screw turning task by rotating the right thumb stick. Leaving your mark is also important and often serves as a secondary bonus objective. Approaching a graffiti marker enters a painting mini-game where you'll have to trace a basic pattern to finish your artwork; straying from the line causes a pause and wastes precious paint. All these minor side tasks really help with breaking up the grind and keeping things interesting. However, there's a small dose of the dreaded stealth creeper, allowing you to duck into dark corners to hide when you're outnumbered. Fortunately this is used sparingly, with only a few missions really benefiting from taking it slow, and getting sprung is never a game ender.

Cooperative play has been handled well, allowing a second player to join in and assume control of a fellow gang member at any time, and departing just as easily. You and a friend share the same screen until someone wanders out of shot and a vertical split screen mode is activated. We found this to be annoyingly disorientating and quickly deactivated it, opting for the permanent split. However, it is nice to be given the option, and no doubt some players will find the dynamic screen switching preferable.

Other multiplayer options on offer are of the instanced action kind in Rumble mode, allowing you to create teams from any of the many characters in the game and go round for round in one on one's, capture the flag and king of the hill. The basic combat isn't the greatest for player versus player but works well when teaming up against AI rivals.

In relation to the graphics of the game, however, The Warriors is a little underwhelming. The levels aren't overly generous in size or complexity, yet textures seem remarkably low res and washed out, models appear lacking in the polygon department and there's disappointingly very little noticeable difference between the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox offerings. The visual end result is similar in quality to Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto games, but without the excuse of enormous content rich environments. These deficiencies aside, the artists have still managed to capture the style and gritty atmosphere of the movie with a great deal of accuracy.

The cinematics are a treat with solid dialogue and extensive motion captured scenes that recapture the feel of the film with eerie precision. As the storyline of the game catches up to the events in the movie, familiar scenes are played out word for word and shot for shot, only taking a few respectful liberties for the sake of gameplay. Impressively, many of the original cast even assumed the voice roles of their game counterparts, adding authenticity to the experience. Further, a vast list of people have lent their voices to the non player characters in the game, ensuring you wont just be hearing the same thing coming from every pimp, cop and homeless person in New York.

Overall, The Warriors is a worthwhile experience. The storyline alone clocks in at around 12 hours, and then there's hours more worth of auxiliary goals to challenge you on the way to a respectable 100% completion. Completing the bonus missions provides a great reward for old school gamers, which I wont spoil. Although those looking for cutting edge visuals will be disappointed, especially this late in the current console generation, the underlying gameplay is solid. The Warriors recaptures a great deal of what was great about the arcade brawler, adding enough new concepts to the genre to keep things interesting, and providing a great extension to a 25 year old tale.