The Warriors, hidden under the Rockstar logo, is a merely average brawler.
I am aware of the movie. But I do not think I ever actually watched it all the way through. I did not play this game, because of the movie. Nor did I play this game because it had the "rockstar" name on the box. No, I got "The Warriors" because Brawlers are kinda rare now adays. If you want to play a street brawler, your choices are kinda limited.
I tend approach games, from the ground up. I look at the basics first. How does the work mechanically. How easy are the controls, how does moving the character feel, how well does the camera work, that sort of thing. If controling the game is frustrating, I will rarely enjoy the game.
Where are the options. I could not even find an option menu.
The warrior's controls feel a little sloppy. Its very similiar to GTA or SOE (state of emergency) in this is area. The character you control is rather spastic. The problem is, the camera is very close, and its its kinda hard to keep all of your enemies in view, as your character runs around at 100 Mile Per Hour. There is a lock on system, so you can fight one enemy pretty well. But there often several enemies to fight.
You control different characters throughout the game, but they all have the same feel.
The begining of the game serves as a tutorial. They walk you through how to punch, grab, and mug people people.
There are two basic attacks, light and heavy. There is also a "grab" move. These all can be strung together into some scripted combo moves. Meaning, if you press certain button combinations you will watch a very brief a little scripted movie, where your not really controlling your character. There are some more traditional combos, like
light punch + heavy punch = a "push" move.
The attacks dont seem to "flow" well. Meaning every individual attack seems broken and seperate from the next attack. And you will be watching your man throw the same punch animation over and over. The only attacks that seem to work together are the specific combos. You cant really mix things up and put together your own individual combos.
There are alot of mini games, to mix up the action, but I did not find any of these to be worth while. Spray Painting, stealing, mugging. For example, to steal a car radio, you spin your right joystick in a counterclockwise circle. Its not really a mini game, because it does not seem you can fail. It is just something you "do".
Spraypainting is a mini game. The logo you are supposed to paint has a definate pattern (a "W") and you must follow an on screen "W", in order to pass this mini game. You dont have an unlimited ammount of paint. You have to buy cans of paint. If you run out of paint, you cant spraypaint. Mugging is similiar to stealing the car radios. You spin your right anolog stick to find a certain spot.
There are other mini games, but I found them to a waste of time, at best. And annoying at worst.
Visually, The Warriors is nothing special. The graphics are good enough, but kinda muddy and dull. A screenshot is worth a 1000 words. So, I will not waste a 1000 words.
The sound is good, if you like that sort of retro movie music. The sound effects dont really help the game much. THe sounds are not bad, its just that they dont "help" the action seem more realistic. The punchs, crashes, and yells dont really do much to help the action.
The game is confined but kinda "open". You have an area you can move around in, but it is not one big open game.
The story is the best part of the game (no spoilers). They tell the story pretty well, but the basics of game are so average, I cant recommend this game to anyone.