Brings the brawler genre to its peak. A very faithful movie adaption, sure to entertain both movie and action fans.
Taking place in 1979, the Warriors is about a meeting of nine delegates from each of the worthwhile gangs. The man in charge of this summit and of the largest gang in the city, Cyrus, is shot. A gang, The Warriors, are falsely accused of this, and must get back to their Coney Island home base. However, the game starts off three months earlier. This expands on an already great story, but delves even deeper into who "the Warriors" are, and how they earned the respect of Cyrus' gang, the Gramercy Riffs. There are 18 lengthy core missions, but also 4 other optional missions that show how the Warriors was formed, and how Ajax, Swan, Cochise, and all of the other Warriors from the film got into the gang. These really add to the story, not only the game's, though, but also the movie's story. Even cooler is that, by completing secondary objectives, you can unlock modes, gangs, and levels for Rumble Mode(details on this below). You can also go on the streets of Coney and mug people, steal car radios, break into stores, spray paint, and just cause general mayhem. The way that stealing, mugging, and spray painting is done is through ingenious mini-games. They are implemented very well and feel natural. However, there's also some "errands" of sorts that you can run for people. Completing these gets you such things as "Hobo Allies," and even brass knuckles for the warchief(you). You can access all of this from the Warriors base, an apartment of sorts, this is where you access missions, Coney Island, player stats, replaying levels, and multiplayer.
The combat engine consists of only about 10 or so combos, but you really don't need any more. All of these combo vary in look and damage, and with real-time damage modeling on the characters, this some of the deepest combat ever in a brawler. Another intuitive feature is that of the "Warchief commands." No matter who you are or what mission you're playing, you're always Warcheif. Commands consist of "Let's Go," "Wreck 'em all," Mayhem," "Scatter," "Hold on," and "Watch my back. The A.I. for your allies is really good, and follow your orders exactly. The enemy A.I. is also really aggressive and will use the environment very effectively. With some ghetto weapons, such as beer bottles, bricks, 2x4s, baseball bats, and anything else you can get your hands on, combat is viscious and brutal. After completing all 22 story missions, you'll unlock "Armies of the Night." A 3-D side-scrolling game that uses charaters and weapons from the game. Fun, but maybe a little too long and hard.
The graphics are pretty average, but with the amount of chaos and interactivity, you won't notice some of the rough edges. This game plays really smoothly, and, from what I can remember, the framerate only slowed down 2 or 3 times when, oh, say 25-30 people crowded the screen. And the way you can interact with the environment is truly amazing. From stealing, mugging, breaking boxes so you can get a 2x4, picking up chairs, trash cans, forgotten beer bottles, bricks, crowbars, it's simply amazing.
The audio is simply breathtaking. From the superb music, both new and from the movie, to the dialog of a beat down hobo, all of it is pretty crisp and clear, and really has that 70s vibe.
The Warriors has some of the best multiplayer I have ever seen in a game. First, there's co-op. All you have to do to initiate this is select Story from the main menu, and then select 2-player, or, if you're in the middle of a game, just plug in a controller and press the start button on it. It's that simple. The other form of MP is a pinball machine in the Warrior's base. Entitled "Rumble Mode," just walk up to the pinball machine and press the action button to access a number of modes, many you have to unlock, and lots of environments and gangs from the game and movie. All of the modes are very unique and with about 10, maybe even more, you'll be playing this a LONG time.
This game has LOTS of replay value. With so many unlockables and exploration, you'll be poppin' this game for a good long while.
This is a revolutionary game for the brawler genre, and with many unique and cool features, this is without a doubt a must-have for fighting, action, and movie(The Warriors movie, not movie fans in general) fans. Snake out.