Reviewed: February 19, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Rockstar Games

Developer
Rockstar Toronto

Released: February 15, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Mature

8
7
8
8
8.4

Supported Features:

The Warriors was certainly ahead of its time and definitely set the stage for future inner-city gang movies like Escape from New York in 1981. While gangs and gang warfare were running rampant in America’s larger cities, nobody ever took the initiative to dramatize this hidden culture, at least from the gang's point of view.

Rockstar has already released The Warriors with great success on the console back in late 2005, so I was slightly concerned as to why it took this long to make the transition to the PSP, and then when I learned the game was launching at the budget price of $20 I really got nervous - that is usually the curse of death for a new title. Any new game less than $30 is generally perceived as crap by the educated gaming consumer.

Thankfully, Rockstar kept the PSP version faithful to the console original, and rather than crap, we just get a great bargain with excellent PS2-style gameplay mixed with Xbox-quality graphics. Everything you loved about the console game is back along with a few nice modifications making The Warriors the best brawler on the PSP to date.

The game, much like the movie, starts with the assassination of Cyrus, a visionary gang lord who one day realizes that gang members outnumber the cops and could easily take over New York if they could only put their petty disputes aside and work as a unified team. Somebody doesn’t agree with this new philosophy and pops a cap in his ass then frames the Warriors for the hit. The movie basically covers the Warriors hazardous trek back to the relative safety of their own turf, Coney Island, but they will have to pass through much of the city and numerous gangs, all bent on revenge.

While this would have made for a great game in and of itself, Rockstar chose to start with the assassination then transport you back in time for most of the game. In fact, only the final few missions mirror the events of the film. Once the game reaches this point then it is pretty much on autopilot and you are following a scripted sequence of events, but prior to where game meets movie, you have surprising freedom to pick and choose where you go and what you do. It’s much like a GTA world where you have this big inner-city playground and can play all day until you are ready to trigger the next story mission and advance the plot.

The Warriors initiates you into the gameplay while initiating you into the gang at the same time. You start of as Rembrandt, the youngest and newest member of the Warriors, and you will have to prove yourself in a series of several tests including brawling, robbery, boosting car stereos, tagging, purchasing drugs (which heal you), and good old-fashioned running away.

Combat is surprisingly intuitive and deceptively deep with as many fighting moves as you might find in a game like Mortal Kombat. The game mixes standard street fighting moves with grapples and throws that you might find in a wrestling game along with combos, moving attacks, and advanced multi-fighter tandem moves. Land enough blows and you can build up your Rage meter and trigger a brief period of invulnerability and extra damage.

In addition to the three fighting styles; Street Fighting, Brawling, and Kung Fu, there is also an impressive weapons combat system in place that allows you to pick up and swing or throw just about any loose item in the game. This really allows you to interact with the fully destructible environments and perform some truly spontaneous attacks.

The Warriors mixes up the fighting with some mini-game action that will have you swirling your analog sticks to unscrew car stereos or alternating squeezes of the right and left triggers to pick the lock on handcuffs. And for aspiring urban artists, there is a very cool graffiti element that has you tracing on-screen patterns with your analog stick to create works of art to mark your turf – beats peeing on a fire hydrant.

Over the course of the game you will get to take control of nine Warriors, each with their own subtle nuances to controls and abilities. This definitely mixes up the gameplay and keeps things fresh, especially when you take control of Cleon. In what is probably the most surprising and deepest elements to the game is the squad-based command system that allows you to issue orders when playing as the Warchief. Pushing Select will bring up a command menu then you can pick from one of six commands to order your men to “Wreck ‘Em All”, “Scatter”, “Watch My Back”, “Hold Up”, “Mayhem”, and “Let’s Go”.

After you have conquered the 23 story missions and made it back to Coney Island alive you’ll probably want to explore the other game modes like the fantastic Rumble mode that allows you to create and customize your own gangs then go head-to-head in a variety of game modes like CTF, King of the Hill, and even Wheelchair Races. There are also the Coney Missions and the Armies of the Night mode, which no longer needs to be unlocked. All these modes support Wi-Fi multiplayer for two gang bangers

I was amazed that the programmers were able to keep the cooperative gameplay mode for the solo campaign in the game. You can still share the main story mode with a friend who has a PSP and their own copy of the game. It's actually better on the PSP since you no longer have to share/split the screen, but you do have to setup a shared game from the beginning, and you can no longer just have a second player drop in and out when they want.

While the design elements are firmly in place the actual quality of those visuals can be a bit lacking at times; about the same quality as the Xbox version. Colors are muted and washed out, even more than the PS2 version, and there are some problems with the camera, even more so than the console version, especially in close-quarters battles where the camera can get stuck or even obscure your view with some object. Even worse, the story takes place at night and the PSP already has issues with brightness, so unless you play this game in a dark room or at least have your PSP plugged into the wall for that extra boost of brightness, you're going to have some visibility issues.

Back on a positive note, the details in the city and the characters are simply amazing, and don’t be surprised to see a lot of era-specific advertising. The animation on the characters is remarkably, with each move flowing nicely into the next for smooth series of combos that often result in blood-spraying, finishing moves that made me wince and look away.

Each of the various gangs all has their own theme and “colors” to match. And when the battles start to get really large, you’ll really be impressed at just how much action this game engine can reproduce on the screen at one time. This has all of the carnage and mayhem of State of Emergency, only this game is good. Expect a bit of slowdown on some of the more massive battles. The PSP simply can't compete with the Xbox when handling huge gang fights, but it does a respectable job.

The Warriors is fully voiced with some fantastic performances and totally authentic slang for the time. These performances really help individualize the gang members and give them their own personality.

Sound effects are powerful and subtle. You can hear the ambient noises of horns honking and sirens off in the distance (at least you hope they are in the distance), and then you have the crunches and groans of melee, the whack of a fist up the side of your head or the thud of bat slamming into somebody’s skull.

There are plenty of unlockables and bonus characters to keep you coming back, and with the cheaper price tag it might just be easier to get your friends to pick up a copy so you can experience all the excellent multiplayer modes and extend the life of this game even more.

The Warriors could have easily become just another repetitious street brawling title, but with a strong and original storyline that merges with the film plot, great combat action mixed with tactical strategy elements, and authentic 70’s style and flavor, this is one game that will keep you knocking heads for months to come.