“Warriors…come out to play-ay-ay!”

Another underrated Rockstar game, The Warriors was of course based on the 1979 cult film classic by Walter Hill adapted from the novel by Sol Yurick. I must admit that prior to playing the game I had NO knowledge of the existence of such a film, so I decided to borrow it from a friend and was left a little disappointed to be honest. It was not until I played the game AND THEN watched the film though (and then played the game and watched the movie again…) that I fully realised just how bloody good it was.

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The story took place in a surreal New York city run by hundreds of gangs, 9 representatives of which were chosen to attend a meeting held by the charismatic Cyrus – leader of The Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in the state. The agenda was for all the gangs in the city to set aside their petty turf disputes in favour of creating ONE gang to rule them all, one gang to bind them, one gang to bring them all and in…oops wrong movie. As the cheers rained in after an inspirational speech, Cyrus was cruelly and cowardly assassinated by Luther, leader of The Rogues, who then frames the Warriors for the murder. A long way from their home territory and with every gang after them, the group had to find a way back to Coney Island.

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What was really special about the game was that not only did you play through the events of the movie as seen in other movie games, oh no, you also got to see what happened BEFORE the events in the film – levels consisted of taking charge of different combinations of Warriors to find out how they joined the gang in the first place, and also the events leading up to that fateful meeting. This fleshed out the characters incredibly, particular those who hardly got any screen time or only had a few lines in the film (such as Cleon, my favourite character all thanks to the game). Rockstar even managed to get most of the real actors back to voice their characters again for the game (they even got the lady who played the DJ in the film back to do intros for every level, which was a great touch), and hence it added tremendously to the authenticity and presentation of the title*. In addition, some of the gangs featured in the film similarly only got seconds of exposure (like The Boppers, who only bopped their way in about 5 seconds of the film’s intro) whereas in the game they were given so much more life and longevity. And who could ever forget THE BASEBALL FURIES, very possibly the COOLEST fictional gang there ever was, a real heavy outfit. * Nearly all of the main actors reprised their roles for the game bar one major omission being David Patrick Kelly, who played Luther in the film. Interesting fact, or at least a fact I find interesting: he was also played the character of Sulley who Schwarzenegger killed in Commando by getting dropped off a cliff in that classic “But Matrix you promised you’d kill me last”….”I LIED” scene. Someone else replaced him and just about managed to pull off that annoying whiny voice.

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A major appeal of the film for those hardcore fans were the characters. With unique personalities in the film ranging from Rembrandt the graffiti artist’s youthful shyness to Ajax’s pure bad-assedness, the game expanded upon this and then some. Rembrandt was the best at graffiti’ing (how do you spell this verb?) over rival gang tags on walls (one of the many side quests you could do, ala GTA San Andreas), Ajax was the hardest hitter etc. Here is a very brief summary of the characters and their finishing moves…please note that finishing moves differed according to whether you had your enemy standing or pinned to the ground – here are the memorable ones though.

Cleon: The leader (Warlord) of The Warriors who gets killed in the first ten minutes of the film. Umm, spoilers? He’s my favourite because he had that cool leopard skin patterned hat thing. Finishing move: Double footed stomp to the chest, plus twist.

Swan: Warchief, second-in-command and played by Michael Beck who then went on to ’star’ in Xanadu. Finishing move: Back-crack on the knee.

Ajax: The soldier, a real heavy mother. Arrogant, sexist, foul-mouthed, genuinely dislikeable and BY FAR the coolest character. Played by James Remar who I used to truly hate because he killed White Fang’s mother in the Disney movie of the same name. Umm..spoilers? In the film he looks about 18 years old, strange. Finishing move: Multiple hits to the face. Hard.

Fox: Scout and memory man. Had a white man afro and very weird voice too, just check out when he says “Ajax lighten up” in the film. It changed somewhat when they re-recorded the dialogue for the game. Finishing move: Can’t remember sorry.

Cochise: The stylish soldier of the middle who dressed in a Native American style. Finishing move: Back-crack and face hit.

Snowball: The music man. Hardly says a word in the film, but just stands there looking hardcore. Finishing move: Elbow to the gut followed by a foot stomp to the head.

Cowboy: Rock-solid supporting player. In other words the guy who wore the cowboy hat and got beaten up by the Baseball Furies and need Ajax to bail his arse out. Finishing move: Sorry I can’t remember this either.

Vermin: The bear, carries the tokens and the bread. He was probably the funniest member of the gang given the way he acted, his comical face, and chest hair. Finishing move: Nudda. I really need to play this game again.

Rembrandt: The writer, he lets people know that the Warriors were here. The youngest member of the group who could even attack by spraying paint into enemies’ eyes. He had an afro to put Fox to shame. Finishing move: Probably the funniest of the lot, a crazily animated drop elbow to the head.

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Controlled from a third person perspective as we’ve come to expect from Rockstar, you got to play as all the key gang members one at a time while the AI controlled the others. Holding the R shoulder button allowed you to issue Warchief Commands such as “Wreck em all!”, “Watch my back!”, and “Mayhem!!”, and you can probably guess what those did. Objects in the environments could be picked up and used as weapons, such as a glass bottle or brick to the face. On this note, while it is an incredibly violent game it was done in a way such that it was SO over the top that you couldn’t help but laugh…some of the “Rage” finishing moves were simply SO violent (as mentioned above) and hence hilarious. Probably the craziest move in the game though is smashing enemies heads onto walls, which then left a massive blood stain hehehe huh huh…ah, you just need to have played it. And no, the violence has not badly influenced me in any way. I just stand my ground ready to jap any boppers if it comes down to that.

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In terms of movie tie-ins I’d go as far as to say that The Warriors is one of the best there is, definitely because of the way it expands the universe and makes you more attached to the characters. For instance after playing as Ajax for so long, when it comes to the scene where he got arrested and even though you KNEW it was coming, I really did wish I could help break him out and change the film’s plot somewhat. Damn wimp cops. This game influenced me so much that I even created a Facebook Group for it: The Warriors Appreciation Society (with plenty of swearing, as was appropriate). If you have FB and are a fan of the film and game, then join! It only has, err, 15 members, pretty much all of which are my friends. “Do you SEE what you get when you mess with The Internet?!” I have totally neglected to mention multiplayer mode here where you could play through the story mode of this game cooperatively, not to mention the incredible battle options there were, so just GET THIS GAME if you haven’t already AND watch the movie. If you get half as into it as I did, you will be repeating this process many many times. F***** A. James Remar FTW!!!

Original post on 1up

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This third person shooter from Rockstar Games had all the ingredients to become a massive hit: great graphics, gorgeous environments, smooth controls, the by-now-obligatory “bullet-time” mechanics, and absolutely brilliant sound effects and music (think of that old-school “PEW POWW!” Western gunshot-ricochet-sound plus the classic Ennio Morricone theme songs with the whistling). Anyone who was into those Sergio Leone Italian “Spaghetti Western” flicks in the 60s with Clint Eastwood would love this game, yet strangely and undeservedly it seems to fall into the more obscure category of Rockstar titles (State of Emergency, Midnight Club, Smuggler’s Run… you know, THOSE ones).

Plot

Fairly typical: the “out for revenge” story you’d expect of the genre. You played as Red Harlow, a clear Clint Eastwood-inspired lead character whose prospector parents were killed by the evil Governor after the discovery of large amounts of gold. Red was meant to have been murdered too but manages to escape, and 12 years later he’s back in town for revenge. And don’t we all love a good revenge story, come on admit it, even those dodgy Charles Bronson ones.

Controls

Movement in the game was controlled with the use of the two analogue sticks: the left one to move and the right stick to aim, very simple and effective and reminiscent of the controls for the GTA games and The Warriors. The aforementioned “bullet-time” feature was called “Dead-Eye” and needed to be charged up, after which it allowed you to fire several times after quickly placing multiple targets on your enemies’ bodies as time slowed down momentarily.

Presentation

As with most Rockstar Games, the presentation of this title was top-class. The levels had you navigating through the typical environments: saloons, dead-quiet country towns with rolling tumbleweeds, mining sites, on a moving train etc. Upon completion of levels you would also receive cash rewards for gunning down wanted criminals, money which could then be spent on new weapons (of course including the classic red sticks of dynamite) and weapon repairs. Shoot-outs with multiple enemies were a lot of fun too as you dodged and rolled around trying to look as cool as possible before realising that John Woo hasn’t yet done a Western film (if he did, would that then be called a “Rice Western?”. Something to think about).

Conclusion

Perhaps at the end of the day this game suffered because of the quality and controversy coming out of Rockstar at the time: it’s release was sandwiched in between Manhunt and GTA San Andreas after all. But, like all reviews really, you simply have to play this game to get the most out of it. Try to track it down for PS2 or XBox as it should be quite cheap and, if possible, try to balance your play by watching those Leone movies A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (most memorable whistled theme song EVER) for the true classic Western experience. Clint Eastwood FTW!!