The Warriors (video game)

The Warriors is a beat 'em up video game released on October 17, 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is based on the 1979 movie of the same name. It was developed at Rockstar Toronto, and is published by Rockstar Games.

Gameplay/plotline

The game covers not only the events depicted in the movie, but also a precursor, establishing the Warriors' reputation all throughout New York City. Levels 1 through 13 (and Flashback Levels A through E) take place before the movie begins. After Level 13, the player is shown a CG cutscene duplicating, to an extent, the beginnings of the movie, with Cyrus's meeting. Levels 14 through 18 cover the movie itself.

Gameplay

The Warriors are based in their Coney Island hangout through the game. Between levels, a player can explore the hangout, talking with the other Warriors, completing bonus exercises, playing Rumble Mode (a mode which allows you to make your own gang and participate in single fights of various sorts, including more unusual games like King of the Hill and a wheelchair race), doing Flashback levels, or exiting to Coney Island to complete bonus missions which often benefit the player's stats. Note that between Levels 14 and 18 (the events of the movie), the levels go from one to the next without access to the hangout until Level 18 is completed.

Synopsis

The game begins with Rembrandt's induction into the Warriors, a simple couple of levels in which the player gets a feel for the controls and the environment. Once the basics have been handled, The Warriors begin establishing a reputation around Coney Island, their home turf. Cleon, the leader of the gang, sends out squads of two or three Warriors to do various tasks, ranging from beating up people that owe the gang money, to graffiti bombing trains, and even going as far as wiping out a rival gang in retaliation for the murder of one of the Warrior's own.

As the word spreads of the Warrior's deeds, they are called apon to do a favor for one of New York's larger gangs, the Saracens. The Saracens want the Warriors to set-up a rival gang (the Jones Street Boys) and the dirty cops that are running an operation on Saracen turf. On completion of the set-up, the Saracens agree to put in a good word for the Warriors to the Gramercy Riffs, the largest and most powerful gang in the city.

Cyrus, leader of the Riffs, calls a meeting of all the gangs on the Riffs' network. The Warriors are invited as well. During this meeting, Cyrus explains that if all of the gangs could uphold a general truce and work together, the police would be outnumbered 10 to 1. The gangs could take over everything. Cyrus' vision is greeted with explosive applause, but the dream is not to be realized. Cyrus is shot in the chest by Luther, leader of the Rogues. The only witness was Fox, the Warriors' scout.

The conclave descends into chaos as the cops show up. Luther begins screaming that the Warriors were the ones who shot Cyrus. The Riffs take action and immediately kill Cleon in retaliation, but the eight other Warriors who came to the meeting escaped.

Alone, scared and outnumbered, the Warriors have to fight their way back to Coney, through the five burroughs full of gangs who are all out looking for anyone in a red leather vest.

Flashback

As side missions, the player is given five different missions which explain how each Warrior was inducted. This is started off with Cleon and Vermin's falling-out with the Destroyers (Virgil sets both of them up to be murdered by another gang, the Satan's Mothers).

Swan and Cowboy, also former Destroyers, are inducted after beating a King of the Hill match in a Gun Hill junkyard. Other Warriors are recruited and tested based on their strengths. Ajax and Snow represent the muscle in the gang, hence their initiation starts with a cage fight against the current Warrior's lineup and then a journey through Destroyer territory in which the two are hopelessly outnumbered and must fight their way in and then back out again.

The Fox is the team's scout and is not especially good at hand-to-hand combat. As such, his mission teaches you the importance of stealth and finding the right opporunity to strike. If you employ one strategy throughout the entire game, you will lose fairly quickly. Cochise's initiation has you constantly updating your game-plan, moving from brawling to exploring with very little warning.

Comparison between the video game and the movie

Both the game and the movie involve the same characters and locations. The primary difference, however, is in the fact that a large portion of the game takes place before the actual movie begins (including flashback missions, which go back to the beginning of the Warriors' gang), and the events of the movie itself take place near the end of the game. The game portrays Cleon, the leader of the Warriors, as somewhat of a protagonist, whereas he dies within the first few minutes in the movie.

The game has received very strong reviews, and is seen as a revival of the old school beat em' up. Street brawls between rival gangs are the central focus, but as players navigate the urban landscape, other gameplay mechanics are seamlessly integrated, such as laying down graffiti and avoiding enemies with stealth. There is an unlockable mini-game that mimics, verbatim, the opening of Double Dragon.

The major plot points of the movie are all translated into interactive stages within the game.

Multiculturalism

On the commentary on the director's cut of the movie DVD, director Walter Hill stated the original premise of the film was to have all of the gang members be either black or Hispanic, to follow a more realistic focus, but that the studio would not permit it. The game, however, encompasses a wide variety of minorities and cultural groups, including the Savage Huns (Chinese), the Hi-Hats (Soho artists), and the Hurricanes (Hispanic). As with the film, even groups with mixed races usually have their members given the same general "uniform". In neither the game nor the film is this directly commented on.

"Controversy"

Even before this game was released, it managed to attract the attention of Jack Thompson. He has said that it should be rated AO by ESRB or he will do it himself, despite the fact that the game is based on the movie which received an R-Rating from the MPAA (An R-Rating is the equivalent to an M-Rated game, as AO is to NC-17/X). He has described The Warriors as being a "murder simulator" and that "it should not be sold to anyone under 18, or anyone for that matter." The Warriors recently received an M certificate from the ESRB for Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language and Use of Drugs and Alcohol.

External links

The Warriors

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