Finally, a full review of a licensed game here on these reviews. I already did a quick look at the Simpsons: Hit and Run game, but that was only a little mini review in a series of mini reviews. This time, we got ourselves a full licensed game. And probably one of the most obscure and best on the PS2. So The Warriors movie from 1979 is one of my favorite movies ever. It was a short, fun thriller about a small street gang being framed for the murder of a big crime lord and now must make it through the streets of New York back to their turf alive. It had thrills, chills, spills, and was just a good bit of early 80s fun. I loved this movie and all the weird gangs they had made up, but we only got glimpses of some of them. I wanted to see more of this world. Thankfully, Rockstar delivered in spades. Yes, that Rockstar. Back before Rockstar went on to just become part of the grand video game industry machine, they were known as the kings of quality and just making fun games, and no more ture was this than the PS2 system. All kinds of fun games came out from them. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas needs no introduction, but my personal favorite was Vice City. But we got some other bangers. Games like Bully, the greatest game ever made, fight me. Manhunt, the most controversial game ever made. Max Payne, rip in piece. Red Dead Revolver, should probably look into that game some time. It’s actually much weirder than people remember. And the Midnight Club series. I never played those games. I know they are about racing. I only ever played Burnout and Mario Kart. But there was one game that flew under the radar. Obviously, it was The Warriors video game. Rockstar was also pretty big fans of this movie. Hell, they based the cliques in Bully like Greasers and Preps and so on, off the gangs of The Warriors. So when they got the chance to make their own game based on the movie, how could they refuse. And low and behold, our wishes were granted.



I couldn't think of a good titlecard to make for this one, so here's just a screenshot of the Wonder Wheel from the movie.

This is a game clearly made by people who respected the source material that they were given. Rockstar could have made a quick cash grab off a cult classic and call it that. But, while modern Rockstar would pull that, old school Rockstar was classier than that. They had more style. And they wanted to treat The Warriors with some goddamn respect. The title screen of the game is the Wonder Wheel turning in the darkness of the night. That’s good shit right from the start. Mixed with the intro being a shot for shot redo of the film, complete with lines being read by the cast word for word, all the other gangs walking through the subways, the music that is playing. It all just feels so nice. Hell, the third act of the game is all basically the movie. Sure, some beats skipped here and there, but it pretty much hits all the great moments. The chase from the bus run by The Turnbull A.C.s. The brief street skirmish with The Orphans. The full on fight in the park with The Baseball Furies. The bathroom brawl. The stick up with The Lizzies. Famous lines and moments all here and in perfect view. But I said just the third act. The game could just follow the movie beat for beat, maybe make up some stuff, and call it there. And it does…. In the third act. But the game starts you off three months before the events of the movie. You get to play as all The Warriors, starting out as Rambrandt as he gets recruited into the Warriors. Then you get to play as all your favorites. Cleon, Swan Cowboy, Cochise, Fox, Snow, Ajax, Vermin, the aforementioned Rambrandt. all of your favorites are here. Each one of them gets a time to shine in the story, with Rambrandt’s spray paint skills, Ajax being a brawler and pretty much sex offender, Cleon leading the group, and more. You even get little side backstories with the crew throughout so that you can learn how they joined The Warriors, what they had to do ust to get in and what other bullshit they did. Like how they set a rival gang leader on fire for the fun of it. Yeah, when you watch the movie, you kinda forget that these guys you’re rooting for are still horrible criminals. They still beat people in the street, get forceful with women (Well just Ajax), and are just regular criminals. Even still, you come to enjoy and get a distinct personality for all nine of the Warriors with the added time in this game. They even all play differently. While not too different, they all have their own unique animations when it comes to brawling. No two Warriors will have the same movement in a fight. Oh, and speaking of fighting.
So remember that comparison I made to Bully before? Well it’s not that different, that game and The Warriors game. As in brawls kind of take the same approach but just with it’s own, in a sense, flare to it. So The Warriors game has a set of combos. Heavy attack and light attack and grab. Simple enough. But you can chain your heavy and light attacks into combos up to three. That includes two hit combos. So you can mix up your moves for different attacks. And in grabs, you can do the same thing. And if you want, you can get on top of them to try out other combos too. And pressing buttons at the same time allows for some extra damage. Also, when you press the button to grab in a direction, you can throw enemies. And even into walls for maximum damage. For just three buttons, the game sure gives you a lot to do with them. You can even go into a sort of rage mode for extra damage, made even more devastating when you have an enemy in a grab. And not just that, but blocking helps you out. And weapons are always around for you to use so you can deal some extra damage. And if you have your other Warriors with you, you can get them to fight with you. And if they happen to grab an enemy and you attack, you’ll do a combo move for even more damage. Yeah, this game is really all about doing as much damage to goons as possible so that you can move to the next guy and fuck him up. And it’s always fun. I thought beating up the same guys would get old after a while, but with the ever changing rival gang and the constant assortment of chaos to your movelist, I never found myself tired. It also helps that, once again, forgetting that these are violent criminals, street fights can get pretty damn brutal and hectic. You’ll be swinging away and may hit your own partner by accident. Bricks will hit you in the back of the head. Guys will just run up behind you to punch you in the back of the head or full on drop on top of you. Weapons get brought out. Groups of three will just stomp a motherfucker American History X style. But this isn’t The American History X Video Game. Not sure if I would want to play that. Like goddamn, seeing these fights actually make me get a second hand pain in my nerves just seeing a guy get stomped the fuck out. These fights are not simple little brawls you see in Bully. These are vicious and I’m pretty sure you kill half the people you fight. I assume so if you can beat them to a bloody mess, hack at them with machetes you picked up at the butcher shop, and with The Warriors having clearly murdered other gang leaders before and with pride. Again, violent gang. All those crazy quotes make you forget that sometimes. At least I forget.
It’s not all brawls though. Sometimes you’ll want to do a stealth attack on some enemies to get the drop on them. And considering your Warrior can just break a man’s neck in half… Yeah, no, straight up murder. But to be fair, you break the neck of skinheads, so… justice? But yeah, stealth in a game. You may get sick at the thought of old school stealth sections, but don’t worry, it’s only mandatory in the tutorial and optional forever. And it does help you get the drop on some enemies especially if you’re in a pinch and low on health. Plus it’s not about hiding behind stuff and staying crouched. Here it takes the Manhunt approach and has you hide in the shadows before sneaking up behind the target to do a quick smack to the cranium and send them packing. It does break up the constant brawl. Yes, I know, in a beat em up game, you want to beat up, but sometimes enemies can really overwhelm you, so you gotta think carefully. And also, when missions require you to defeat all enemies, sometimes in the chaos, they can just end up at other spots behind a wall, and get left behind, so you’ll have to do some seek and destroy just to find them. It’s not too terrible, since the streets of New York are limited to a city block, but boy does it break up the pace. But other than constant fights, there’s also just making money for yourself. Breaking into stores, which nets the most cash as well as some healing items if you rob a pharmacy. There’s also stealing car radios, a mandatory thing at times. And mugging… I rarely ever used this feature. I made more than enough just breaking into stores or beating down rival gangs. But with this comes some small minigames. In muggings, find the weak spot in a circle before your target breaks loose. With stores, pick the lock by timing the rotation right. With car radios, spin the control stick… Not that hard. And with spray painting, trace the line before you run out of spray paint. They are not that hard, but having your gang ignore enemies and letting them punch you out of it and start the mini game over again is really annoying. Especially in the train yard mission. Ya know, the worst mission. Where gang members and cops are everywhere and always spawning, and you gotta tag like six spots in the train yard and enemies are always coming at you, and even if you got a full can of paint, once the painting’s finished, you run out, so you gotta beat up goons for more paint. Yeah, fuck the train yard. Easily the worst mission in the game. But the only bad one I can think of. Other than that, this game really makes you feel like you’re a New Yorker.
Sure, the same grimy one block area of Coney Island, but it has charm. Seeing all the other shops around with characters you’ve met in the story. Seeing the multiple residents and the other crazy people running around like a skeleton man or a gang of kids with a dinosaur costume. Not just that, but hearing all the ambience of New York. The multiple chatter of passersby and people screaming from their apartment windows. The trains blaring off in the distance. And the mumbling of the drunk, insane homeless people. Because as we all know, the mark of a Rockstar game is stereotypical depictions of the homeless. Says the funny autistic faggot man. Hell, there’s tons of charm in this one spot of the game, with the side missions you can do and the people you can interact to, down to the hideout of The Warriors, seeing the major characters interact with each other, talk over the radio that plays that DJ that announces all the gang news, it all just works so well. And seeing it change at the end game really adds that touch to the game. And of course, seeing all the other gangs you fight with just brings it all home. The gang of pimps with flashy clothes, the fucking gang of mimes get a full arc dedicated to them, skinheads led be a wheelchair bound skinhead with a gun, a biker gang, a Hispanic drug gang with two giants throwing shit at you. And that’s just the gangs you don’t get to face that weren’t in the movie. The gangs you fight based on the movie, well as stated, it’s all got the classic moments that the film had nad makes it all so iconic. And of course, we get the final fight with The Rogues and their leader, Luther, the biggest bastard in New York. And uh… yeah, Bully and The Warriors also have similar style final bosses. I mean that Luther is fucking weak sauce. I mean, that’s to be expected. He brought a gun to a fist fight. And he still lost. I mean, he’s slightly easier than Gary Smith, but not by a whole margin. But The Warriors gets the upper hand because you get a mid credits scene, playing as The Riffs, as they get revenge for their fallen leader, and beat the shit out of The Rogues. Every last one of them. It’s just… fucking incredible, man. I love this game! Holy shit!
So yeah, this game slaps. It slaps like how Fox slapped his face on that train. The Warriors on PS2 is a game that is worthy of best licensed games ever. Right on up there with Battle for Bikini Bottom, Knights of the Old Republic, The Batman: Arkham games, and the classic, Shrek Super Slam. The Warriors would go on to have another game on the 360, The Warriors: Street Brawl, but that game sucks. If this review has piqued your interest, you can go and buy The Warriors on the PS4 store right now for only a few bucks, right alongside Bully, Manhunt, and Red Dead Revolver, how about that. This game is a goddamn classic and should be hailed as one of the best of the Rockstar library. So yeah. Play this game. Hidden Gem award! Obviously! Or watch the movie! Or fuck, do both. Just do it, man!