Mark comes out to play...

To some, The Warriors may simply look like Rockstar Games' latest attempt to shake up the status quo. After all, with a portfolio including Manhunt, GTA and the upcoming Bully the firm does seem to have a habit of courting controversy, with hardly a non-adult aimed title in sight. However, with titles addressing an obvious gap in the mature videogame market, and advertising pitched to the public with the right degree of sensitivity, it's hard to find fault with its approach.

The Warriors is something of a contradiction in terms for a Rockstar game. Its urban setting, violent action, bad language and adult themes are all familiar hallmarks, but it's also the firm's first movie licensed videogame, making it the first to use existing external IP. Rockstar have used this to keep the game uncharacteristically under the radar, with the usual media controversy directed at the original source material rather than at the developer themselves. And away from the public eye, it seems they've used a surprising amount of creative licence to carve a fitting tribute to one of 1970s cinema's biggest cult classics.

As anyone who read our recent preview will know, The Warriors is a roving beat 'em up set in the gang-laden streets of 1970s New York. You take control of different members of the titular group as they battle through the run-down Big Apple using a range of punches, kicks, throws and a whole arsenal of bludgeoning close-range weapons. Yet despite the game's apparently unoriginal remit, the finished package is a surprisingly wide-ranging action romp.

The plot of the movie begins at a gathering of New York gangs, where the central speaker - and leader of biggest gang in the city - is assassinated. The gang responsible blames The Warriors, and from there things progress into an exhilarating but linear chase-based narrative that follows the film to its climax at The Warriors' home on Coney Island. Not content with adhering to this one-dimensional archetype, Rockstar have instead fleshed out the Warriors' mythology to a back-story encompassing over half the game, and attempted to invigorate the scrolling fighter with a variety of playstyles to keep proceedings fresh.

If we're being honest, there are times when the game's combination of stealth, fighting, Track and Field style button mashing, exploration, graffiti spraying and item management don't quite hang together convincingly. For instance, tagging walls requires spray cans bought from a nearby dealer - but to do this you need cash, and to get cash you need to break into stores and nab loot, raid cars for stereos, or sneak up on and mug homeless people on the street. Not a problem in itself, you may think - but add rival gangs and hordes of cops to the equation, and doing all these things becomes significantly more difficult.

Then there's the problem of multi-character battles. Despite a floating player icon, it's far too easy to lose your character in an ensuing melee, and accidentally attack your dealer. It's even worse finding yourself in low health and trying to buy Flash, the drug that serves as the games health pickup, only for a stray punch to see the very dealer trying to sell you the life-giving elixir turn violent and finish you off.

Yet after a while such frustrations seem insignificant. With the game in full flow proceedings go from bitty to brutal as you explore the streets, sweeping aside waves of enemies in your march towards the next objective waypoint on the on-screen map. Few games of this type give such a feeling of solidity when a running roundhouse connects with a rival gang thug's head, or prove so genuinely laugh out loud funny as when you throw a bad guy half way across the screen head first into a steel fence. In terms of action and aesthetic, The Warriors provides a base-instinct satisfaction inside one of the most pleasingly retro frameworks seen in a modern videogame.

Curiously, such a graphic take on videogame violence never seems to cross the divide from funny to disturbing. Rockstar have again gotten it right with their controversial content by using a graphics engine that exudes the film's seventies style without being truly realistic. The characters each look like their movie counterparts, but lack detail, which gives them a certain caricature charm. Likewise, the gameworld itself is a mazy, multi-tiered environment with distinct urban grit but only a partial real-life likeness. It may lack the technical wonder of the GTA titles, but visually The Warriors' successfully adheres to its cinematic source material.

As a package then, The Warriors is far more than it first appears. Extra elements like the game's War Chief Commands even give control over the A.I of computer controlled cohorts, which serve especially well in the additional multiplayer mode's gang-based battles. Unlockable extras also feature in the game, with everything from new multiplayer maps to a side-scrolling beat em up minigame called Armies of The Night. In fact, our only major gripe would be a sometimes erratic camera. Though we could cite the game as one dimensional, ultimately that would be unfair - a degree of repetition is always expected from this type of game, and The Warriors goes out of its way to buck the trend as best it can.

So then, a movie tie-in from Rockstar that's as playable as it is controversial. The Warriors could well garner an army of admirers - and for our money, that's a gang no-one should be ashamed to be in.

GAME's Verdict

• Entertaining, laugh-out-loud comedy violence
• Excellent seventies aesthetic
• Good old retro fun

• Can get repetitive
• Lack of graphic detail
• Erratic Camera

Review by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: PS2
Review Published: 03.11.05