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Rockstar
Games have made quite a name for themselves since starting life as a
small under-funded games developer going by the name DMA Design; the
massive success of  their Grand Theft Auto series has now made
them a household name throughout the world and a lot of money in the
process. Not bad at all; and not surprisingly Rockstar Games are now
making many big-budget titles with which to WOW the huge audience
they now have. This title is no exception.
Many
people feel The Warriors motion-picture was a bit of a cult
classic, when in fact it was a bit of a massive global success. Not
many people under the age of eighteen will have seen this movie, nor
have a large selection of adults, some don’t even know of its
existence - and yet every single one of them goes around almost
quoting lines from the 1970’s gangland America that this film
depicts. The film has somehow integrated its nearly-forgotten-self
into our society, so it’s not so strange to bring back such a
distant eighties memory people had resigned to the past, kicking and
screaming into your living room today.
The
Warriors –in its videogame guise- really makes you feel like
you’re sitting in your living room watching the VHS again for the
first time – unless, of course, you saw the film before
video-players entered the market - when you first turn it on. The
Loading and Intro Screens could even have been taken  from the
original tape-edit; everything about the game is the 1970’s. You
are a bopper hanging with The Warriors living in the North
West of Coney Island, listening to that very cool radio station.
It’s all done perfectly, and even though it pulls off the whole
70’s atmosphere from the first screen right into the game play, it
looks and plays far from what a game would have looked, and played
like at that point of history.
The
game is set three months before the film and follows it right up to
the end and beyond. A small amount of artistic license has been used
to create story for the bits of the game not seen in the film and to
put in “Flashback” sequences, showing instances such as when The
Warriors first formed - but Rockstar have been gentle with their
creativity and there isn’t much content that would anger a
hardened supporter of the film. When you first start playing you are
Rembrandt, a newbie trying to gain access to the gang, you are told
you’ve proven your artistic contribution to the gang – the
ability to spray really good tags or “burners” – and now just
need to prove you can brawl. You’re then given the task of
beating-up some bums who let you kick them in for some free booze;
your introduction to the very core this game is designed on, the
fighting. It has been very finely structured, there’s a good sense
of 3D awareness  with the ability to land blows on people behind you
whilst keeping facing and focused on the person in front of you.
There’s two buttons for attacking, one for light attacks and the
other for hard attacks and if you press them both you get a brutal
attack. These can all be put into combos that can be used when
standing still, or when you’ve got hold of someone. These you
learn at the beginning and through training on a Punch Bag in the
Gym in the Hangout, where you can also get tougher by doing sit-ups,
press-ups and chin-ups.
The
Level structure is very good and new for this type of game; all of
the Levels - apart from the first two, which are training levels –
are accessed through the Hangout, which acts the HUB throughout the
title. Whilst in here, listening to the 70’s radio, you can chat
to your Gang Members, go to the Gym, check your stats, play the
Flashback Missions or play the Rumble Arena - which is a large
fighting pit where you choose the number of people fighting and even
create your own Gang. There’s also option to Free-Roam around your
area of
Coney Island
, picking-up Gang Members and completing various tasks available.
The
Story Mode is the biggest part of this game; you start each Level by
going to the Yellow Marker in the middle of the Hangout, which takes
you straight to the next
Mission
. The Missions are a complete mix of everything available - you have
to brawl so you don’t become a sucker, steal from shops, cars and
people to make your money and find and cover other gangs’ Tags to
make your mark! Every
Mission
is a decent size and you never just have one objective to amuse
yourself with, there are many bonuses to collect  en-route; bonuses
for mugging people, destroying lots of stuff, even finding all of a
rival gangs’ Tags. Every Level is re-playable, so if you ever feel
like you’ve missed something, you can just go back and redo it.
As
you can see, although Co-Operative Mode in this game was one of its
biggest features in every press release prior to release, it isn’t
one of the main features of the game - this I am rather relived
about. The game seems to be built with the Co-Operative Mode in mind
but not with it being the aim. It’s done really well, there’s a
nice drop-in, drop-out feature that allows you to press Start at any
time on the second player’s Controller to jump into the game, then
you can work together to beat-up people, rob shops and trash cars,
or if you like take advantage of the very cool Split-Screen feature,
which allows you to just run wherever you like in the Level doing
what you like completely separate from your team-mate, even to the
point of beating him up!
The
graphics are good on this title, for some reason greatly reminiscent
of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ graphics - which
really do the job, but aren’t up to the very high standards set by
other Xbox releases I’ve played recently.  The characters are very
well drawn - so well that they use in game graphics for the
cut-scenes, but the surroundings, apart from the objects in the
game, have a very 2D feel to them, taking a lot of realism out of
the game. The sounds in game are brutal, many times have I found
myself wince as I sneak up behind someone and get’em with a
Baseball Bat! All sounds have been well done, the sound of
flesh-on-flesh, wood-on-wood and teeth-on-wall really get you into
the feel of the game.
This
game is made for fans of The Warriors, there’s no denying
that - but because of the many parallels that can be drawn from Streets
of Rage and it’s contemporaries, the game is made for everyone
that likes a little violence. The story’s interesting and
understandable for everyone, plus the Co-Operative and Rumble Modes
give it an edge over the recent competition from the likes of Beat
Down: Fists Of Vengeance, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee. Those still
looking for a rejuvenation in the Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Up genre
should probably, as usual, avoid holding their breath, but the title
is a good, fun romp that will entertain a lot of people for a
long time, as nothing is done without some degree of thought. 
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