The Warriors is a cult classic movie made back in 1979. It’s a film about gang violence, reputation, and what people will do when the odds are greatly stacked against them. Following the movie’s plot to an accurate degree, you’re thrown into the part of several gang members from The Warriors; a young, newly formed gang that’s looking to make a reputation for themselves. During a multi-gang meeting, one of the top gang leaders is murdered and The Warriors are framed as the killers. Now everyone wants a piece of them and The Warriors must figure out a way to clear their name and survive.

Regardless of the plot, storyline, or characters, The Warriors is a thrash, smash, kick, punch, and beat-the-snot-out-of-them kind of game. A game where you can double team your opponent, use bottles, bats, crowbars, trashcans, cement blocks, bricks, chairs, pool sticks, 2x4s, and even shards of glass as weapons. Think of The Warriors as State of Emergency but in a more realistic, gritty, and urban setting. Bottles crack over your enemy’s head in slow motion to show the painfully obvious upcoming gore. It’s easy to say that The Warriors is one of the more violent games this year; and it’s no surprise that Rockstar is behind it.

Surprisingly though, Rockstar does a good job of making The Warriors more than just a repetitious brawler without making things too ludicrous. Other nonviolent acts that your gang will perform are in the category of reputable. In order to make a bigger name for themselves to the city and more importantly, other gangs, you’ll be doing more than throwing punches all the live long day. Since you are in a gang and gangs are known for their lawless behavior you’ll have to do some store robberies and bombings. Now when I say bombings I don’t mean the C-4 type, but instead I mean spraying you’re logo on trains and walls of opposing gangs. Though they’re not the bread and butter part of the game, these two facets give you enough downtime from brawling to really appreciate a good gang fight.

Going back to the gang fights, you’ll be fighting against multiple gangs in different locals with four, five, or six members by your side. Now this might not seem like a lot, but throw in a destructible environment, weapons galore, and of course, the other gang, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a fight. The Warriors isn’t exactly a thinking man’s kind of game; make no mistake. Parents should be EXTREMELY cautious of letting any young one play or even see this game in action. Mugging a female then smashing her head against the concrete might be fun to some, it’s not exactly the message we want our impressionable minds to hone in on. That being said, Rockstar does a great job of weaving the story throughout the blood and violence. Dare I say, they’ve even made a brawling game where the story flows well enough to keep you interested.

As I said before, this game is as brutal as they come. The slow motion effects of cracking a brick over an unsuspecting gang rival is too painfully good looking to only do once. Bodies flying across a pool room and watching two gangs come together like a head on collision really shows the well done animation. Of course, Rockstar has always done a great job of realistically depicting the time and place in which the story takes place; so expect to see a bunch of afros, tight jeans, cheesy arm bands, mullets, and of course, gang jackets.

The character models unfortunately, don’t show a lot of density and at times, a little pixilated. Not horrible in the long run but the realism just isn’t there. The one thing about The Warriors however, is that it’s not based solely on beautiful bump mapping or particle effects, but instead the nitty-gritty world of gang wars. The streets are desolated and unkempt, and the atmosphere is dark and moody.

If you think that the violence is the most rude and crude thing about The Warriors, wait until you hear the type of filth that comes out of their mouth. This has got to be some of the most prolific use of expletives I’ve ever heard in a video game; and that includes the GTA series. Now I understand this is a game about gangs and I’m pretty sure gangs tend to use a lot of swear words, but even I was taken back by some the volume of cursing used. Again, just as a warning to the parents, please don’t let your toddlers near this title!

All that being said, the swear words are coming from top name actors, some who actually starred in the 1979 movie. So expect a life-like recreation of the movies’ characters into the game such as James Remar for Ajax or Michael Beck as Swan.

With a combat scheme as easy to learn as this, you figure it would lack any real competitive flare. Fortunately The Warriors features a simplistic, yet extremely fun system. Combos are strung together using the X and A buttons while you can grab and throw opponents with the B button. The real fun begins when you throw opponents through tables, and smash them into walls. Your AI partners will also tag team gang rivals as you hold them in place and they follow up with a nicely placed elbow in the skull. Though the lack of moves is evident, the surroundings, double teaming, and sheer brutality more than make up for it.

The Warriors is plagued by some camera issues. At times during all the bedlam and ruckus the camera doesn’t portray a wide enough zoom and there are some difficulties getting out of corners. This becomes even more apparent when mixed with the targeting system. More often than not you’ll find yourself beating your own gang up before you can target the correct person. Apparently the R trigger allows you to lock onto an enemy; the only problem is that enemy isn’t exactly the one I wanted to lock onto. A quick solution is to just bash everything in site. It seems to save a lot of time, trouble, and stress.

Violence, vulgarity, blood, mayhem, gangs, robberies, muggings, and who knows what else; The Warriors is a great edition to the beat-em-up genre. Sure mindless destruction might not be your soup de jour, and for those people you’ll undoubtedly stay away from this title. Those however, who are looking to kill off a little stress and get a little crazy, The Warriors is just what the doctor order. If you’re looking for a great title with plenty of action and aggression, look no further.

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