The Warriors is not only one of the best movies of the 70's, but it makes one of the best beat-em-up games ever.
The movie started off with a gang in New York City, that hail from the Coney Island section of Southern Brooklyn. A gang meeting is being arranged by a man named Cyrus, who is the leader of the biggest gang in New York City, the Gramercy Riffs. Cyrus sets this meeting up in the East Bronx, and invites every major gang within New York. There can be no weapons, only eight members of each gang, and there is a truce for all gangs. The eight that are chosen are, Swan, he is the quiet, but brutal-at-times co-leader of the Warriors. There is Ajax, who is the always brutal, horny, hothead, who is always looking for either a fight, or sex. There is Cleon, the man who is the leader of the Warriors, and is the most peaceful, but if someone messes with him or his gang, he is quick to hunt them down. There are others, but those are the main Warriors.
Now, the meeting starts off good. Cyrus speaking like the Martin Luther King Jr. of the gang members, and shouting "Can you dig it!" a few times. Unfortunately, a rival gang, a bunch of loners called the Rogues, who look forward to screwing everything up. For you people who haven't seen the movie, or played the game up to this point, although, it's pretty obvious, Cyrus is shot and killed by Luther, the leader of the Rogues. Luther immediately points the finger at Cleon and the rest of the Warriors as the shooters. Cleon, although we don't know whether or not he does, but it appears that he is beaten to death by other gangs. The premise of the movie after that, is that the Warriors must flee other gangs, and safely get back to Coney Island, and clear their name.
Now that the movie synopsis is over, obviously, you couldn't just use the two hour movie story to make a satisfying game, Rockstar's writers wrote a brilliant background story that is set in 1978-79 before the actual meeting occurred. The story is very, very well written, with such premises as, Ajax and another characters gang colors, which happens to be their vests, are stolen by a rival gang, and they must travel through Coney Island to retrieve them, and with the Warriors traveling all the way to the South Bronx, just to "wreck" a crew that made false claims against them. The story is well written, and very interesting to play through, and is quite lengthly. It also adds new gangs, and characters, while still featuring some old ones, such as the Orphans and Mercy, the hooker that tags along with the Warriors after they beat the Orphans, the Baseball Furies, and many colorful others.
The gameplay is set almost entirely on fisticuffs. Now, must games could not pull this off, but the Warriors, passes with flying colors. There are two attacks, heavy and light, which can be made into various combinations, and also a grapple button, which always the player to tackle an enemy, mount them, and beat them senseless. As you attack enemies, a "Rage Meter" fills up, and when it fills all the way, you simultaneously press the light and heavy attack buttons, and your character will launch into rage mode. He becomes stronger, and also has finishing moves, which almost always takes out the enemy. The enemies fight well, they sometimes act a little stupid, and are a little bit too easy, but, for the most part, they are challenging.
In the sound department, Rockstar has always been known to get great voice actors, and the Warriors is no different. A lot of the original actors reprise their roles from the film. The music is great also, and the sound effects are some of the best in a Rockstar game.
Now, in short, the Warriors is an all around great game. You have a great story, awesome gameplay mechanics, good graphics, great sound department, wrap all that into one, and you've got yourself a really great game. I would highly recommend the Warriors to anyone.
Warriorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs Come Out to Playyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy