The Warriors Preview

“Can you dig it?” That’s what New York gang-leader Cyrus wants to know when he gathers together a 60,000 strong crowd comprising members of every gang in the city. A collective super-gang that outnumbers the city’s cops three to one. A gang brought together under a mutual truce that, if sustained, could see the Big Apple’s power balance shift to the streets. Police being taxed; Businesses paying for protection; gang lords ruling all; New York under new order.

Dig that?

Unfortunately for one of the gangs, The Warriors, the crowd definitely does. Even more unfortunate, a rival gang sees a chance to dispose of ol’ Cyrus and pops a cap in his chest, followed swiftly by a police raid. In the ensuing madness the gang places the blame on The Warriors, and no one questions it. The truce unceremoniously broken, The Warriors find themselves faced with a severely pissed off would-be uber-gang, in the heart of the Bronx, behind enemy lines and 20 miles from the safety of their home on Coney Island.

The chase is on.

A cult slice of cinema history, 1979 chase flick The Warriors is perhaps long overdue for game adaptation, especially with its kinetic, action-packed plot that so obviously suits the video game medium. Promisingly, it’s GTA publisher Rockstar that’s tasked with delivering this (its first licensed title) to tie in with the film’s October Collector’s Edition DVD release. The company directors are big fans of the film, and, having had the license for seven years, Rockstar seem intent on delivering on its promise with a game that goes beyond both the boundaries of the movie, and the conventions of the game’s chosen genre.

From appearance alone, a scrolling fighter with a stylized 1970’s skin, The Warriors’ main hook is that it offers more depth and variety than any of the more recent, desperate attempts at scrolling brawlers. For starters, the combat system is surprisingly deep, with attacks ranging from typical punches, kicks and throws, to moves usually more at home in traditional 1v1 Beat ’em ups: grapples, blocks, on-the-floor scuffles and reversals all making up the game’s essential fighting fabric. State of Emergency this is not.

Fighting a group of foes has also been considered, and The Warriors offers two options. Attacks can either be directed at foes in all directions merely by pressing an attack button together with a direction, or a single enemy can be targeted with a trigger button, making fighting when surrounded a surprisingly stress-free affair.

Stress-free also describes the game’s HUD, with only a small amount of info on screen. Health, for instance, is placed in a coloured circle at your character’s feet instead of on the Heads Up Display. Enemy health can also be seen in this way, with a green circle indicating good health, followed by yellow, orange, red, and finally death.

The quickest way to send enemies into the red and beyond is by achieving Rage mode. This is activated by repeatedly hitting enemies, which fills up a bar on the HUD. Similar to the Devil Trigger in Devil May Cry, a single button press with a full Rage bar will activate a faster, angrier and more dangerous version of your character, capable of more damaging blows and certain special attacks. Specific to Rage mode, for instance, is a jarring 360 degree spin kick that floors all enemies within its radius – definitely a rewarding (if repetitive) way of disposing of enemy gangs.

During our look at the game we saw this combat demonstrated by the initiation of Rembrandt into The Warriors. In this, Rembrandt was the player-controlled character and he was fighting against other members of the gang. This is a scene from the pre-film plot, and we are told that such scenes will take up the first half of proceedings, with only the second half of the game being based on the film itself. This artistic license gives Rockstar considerable room for manoeuvre with locations and gameplay options, while allowing them to flesh out the game as a whole. Let’s face it, a violent chase film may be good game material, but without additions it has one-dimensional written all over it.

The Warriors’ hangout is being used as a pre-game hub. This seems to share much in common with the garage in Jet Set Radio, and even uses a similar map for mission selection. However, how this hub will work (and change) in the film-based parts of the game, in which the ultimate objective is to get back to that safe haven, is still unknown.

Fortunately, we did see plenty of evidence of the game in action and were left with few doubts as to how it will work. Gameplay takes place within the New York streets, which are mostly straight roads set at right angles to each other, giving proceedings a very linear sense of progression. This depiction of the largely run-down and gritty city is rendered in a way faithful to the movie’s aesthetic, but lacking a high level of detail.

The 1970s setting means run-down back streets, tramps lining the pavement and cops taking a hard line on gang culture – unlucky for The Warriors, since they’re in a gang, but hardly surprising when you think about it. This is a world in which a drug called Flash is all-important, especially as it replenishes the player’s health. To get Flash, players are required to mug, loot and be generally anti-social. Cars can be broken into and their stereos converted into cash, and this cash can be used to buy Flash from dealers. Tramps can even be paid for information, and then beaten up to get your cash back. A lot like Grand Theft Auto, then – and like GTA, we can foresee that the Daily Mail is just going to love this.

In motion, The Warriors presented a combination of different gaming styles more at home in an action adventure title than a scrolling fighter. The section we were shown involved the gang’s leader, War Chief, scouring the streets to find the other members of the gang. Fences were jumped with a quick button press without breaking stride, and finding Warriors members introduced a different game mechanic.

For starters, two of War Chief’s pals were left on the ground handcuffed by police, who had then been distracted by a rival gang. That gave the PR guy demonstrating the game the chance to swoop in and free his cohorts with some surprising Track and Field style button mashing on the shoulder buttons. Next in the demo came the ability to throw things to distract enemies. Throwing an object seemed very simple, with an arrow appearing on screen to show the arc, distance and trajectory of the throw. This allowed the gang members to stealthily sneak past the cops unseen.

And it would seem that stealth is an important consideration in the game on the whole. We saw several instances where hiding in the shadows was beneficial or just downright necessary – especially when outnumbered in enemy turf. The throwing distraction also came in handy here to open up the opportunity for Manhunt style stealth kills – though nowhere near as gruesome or graphic as Rockstar’s most controversial title.

However, as efficient as sneaking may be, there comes a point where you’re going to get caught. To demonstrate this, we saw the three free Warriors take on a group of six or seven thugs attacking another of the Warriors’ gang members. One of them was brandishing a machete, and once downed it was possible to pick up and use his weapon, carving some impressively nasty looking scars onto the enemy character models before they finally gave up the ghost and died. Other than weapons combat, we also noted the range of sound bites coming from Warriors and enemies alike – a veritable feast of trash talking that suits the urban gang warfare.

With a growing number of gang members, it was then time for us to see how the squad control works. And it’s really rather simple. As used recently in titles like Fable, followers can be made to wait or follow your lead, or be sent into a destructive frenzy with the ‘Mayhem’ command – which, in the example we saw, had the gang smashing the hell out of a nearby police car until it was a steaming wreck.

Another part of the demo had the PR team presenting some of the more stylistic aspects of the title. Tagging of walls and the use of a pirate radio station for in-between-mission cutscenes again seemed to resemble Jet Set Radio, though we were assured these elements were important in the film, and thus to the game’s stylistic integrity.

Last but not least was possibly the coolest set piece we saw. With one of The Warriors pinned down on a street below, amidst a sea of flames and the target of projectiles from rival gang the Turnbull AC’s, the controlled member of the gang was tasked with throwing rocks at his buddy’s assailants. This was a clear race against time, with the health of the pelted Warrior shown clearly on-screen in an ever-decreasing bar, and proved a compelling climax to the demo before a cinematic showed him being able to get away.

With the demo over we also had a clearer idea about how Rockstar are intending to implement the tricky proposition of a scrolling fighter with multiple main characters. Each of the film’s characters will be playable at certain points in the game, with different missions dictating the pre-determined player character, while the variety of play styles and simple-to-use command system should make progress fun and hassle-free.

What is unclear at this stage is how the backstory and the film’s linear plot will integrate, or the affect this will have on the structure of the pre and post-movie parts of the game. We’d speculate that the Warriors’ hangout that we saw acting as a hub will possibly function only for the first half of the game, or maybe work purely in an aesthetic manner as a 3D menu screen, similar to the Lodge in 1080 Avalanche or the garage in Jet Set Radio. It’s as good a guess as any, but at this point we really don’t know how close we are.

There were, of course, a few niggles. In terms of animation, there only seemed to be one stealth kill type, and enemy bodies currently disappear after death – an unwelcome anachronism from the 32 bit era. We’re hoping that this will be changed for the final version to allow downed foes bodies to remain, open to be detected by their fellow gang-members unless hidden from site. This would certainly add another layer of depth to the game’s stealth dynamic, making it more rewarding and preventing it from being regarded as a tacked-on token gesture.

All in all The Warriors is an attractive prospect. The individual elements may be nothing new, and adapted from many a gaming guidebook, but rarely have these been placed into a title of this type so selectively. With a visual flair themed on the 70s, and a series of gameplay approaches ranging from the early 90s to present-gen, The Warriors is a hybrid unlike any we’ve seen in quite a while.

On the back of the DVD release, heavy television promotion and Rockstar’s insatiable knack for courting controversy with its adult-aimed titles, it’s hard to see how it can fail. Providing The Warriors proves to play as it promises, it should fair well fighting for affection in this year’s Christmas rush.