Don't Fight The Warriors

The Warriors (Xbox)

I've got this problem with The Warriors that will sound ridiculous until I explain it. That problem is this: it's not simple enough.

Much has been said about how the beat-em-up genre is effectively dead in the water, for any number of reasons. But if I think back to the games I did like, one thing becomes clear: they were just complex enough to have more depth than Double Dragon, but weren't trying to be anything more than a dumb, fun game.

The Warriors has its share of problems, but the main one to me is that it tries to do too many things. Frankly my problem with every Rockstar game is that it's far more fun to run around the world doing whatever you want than it is to do their 'story missions' or mini-games that give you better weapons, items, skills, stats, or whatever the case may be. The Warriors is no different. The story missions quickly become a frustrating mess which range from too difficult to needlessly complicated. One mission saw me trying to protect three different stores from gang attacks, but even with the commands you can give to your AI teammates, there is no option to post one or two of them at each store to make this easier. At the same time, one mission forces you to complete graffiti tags before other teams of gang members do--this wouldn't be a problem except that the spray can mechanics in the game are needlessly finicky and sensitive. What's more, the exercise mini-games you do to power up your characters amount to the boring "mash a button over and over" or "push the buttons to on-screen commands" types.

I like mashing buttons as much as the next guy, but only when I'm fighting someone or something

All of this detracts from the main gameplay, which is an old fashioned beat-em-up. The parts of the game that do focus on fights are fun, but they still don't feel quite right. The controls, especially for running and jumping, are a bit wonky, while the various combos you can pull off while fighting are rendered worthless because they are so difficult to connect with such that you're better off hammering A or X over and over. The large variety of weapons you can use is worth noting but other than aesthetic differences I never felt like using a brick was any more or less effective than, say, a knife.

I also have a fundamental problem with the boss fights you sometimes find yourself in because even in the world the game creates they seem absurd. Often these boss characters cannot be knocked down, so your only recourse is to either go toe-to-toe and hope your health and supply of life giving Flash drugs don't run out before you wear the enemy down OR to use scattered weapons in hit-and-run attacks, which is both boring and frustrating. This is because the manual aiming mode is awkward (basically, you hold a button and stand still while you use the stick to aim an arrow at whatever you want to hit) and the automatic aiming is just as likely to hit things you don't want to as it is to hit your desired target.

There are side missions and 'flashback' missions to do, but they ultimately amount to the usual Rockstar game design of doing things within a certain time limit ("go mug people to earn $120 in 5 minutes", say) or playing a section with irritating button press mini-games as put to better use in God of War or Resident Evil 4.

The only highlight of the game to me is the sound design, which feels absolutely true to the movie. They got almost all of the characters from the movie to do voicework for the game, which gives everything an "authentic" feel. And I especially love the smooth female radio announcer, who mocks you when you die, and can be heard talking as you're walking around your hangout between missions. That said, I can't decide if the swearing is appropriate given the source material or overdone. At a certain point, I had played the game so long that it started to affect the way I thought and acted in it. I began to mug and assault random characters just because I could, not to mention I started to think like the characters do. I was chasing some scrawny Latino guy who owed The Warriors money, and he kept getting away and causing me to fight more enemies instead of pounding his face in. I actually found myself getting angry at the game because once I finally did catch up to him, I had no satisfying conclusion because he fell off a building. "Shit, I wanted to stomp that fuck's head in!!" I shouted to no one. Anyway, at least the slang feels natural and not overused.

Fucking up some fucker who tried to fuck with the fucking Warriors (fuck yeah!!)

In the end, the failure of the game rests on the fact that it's too much like a GTA with beat-em-up mechanics rather than a beat-em-up with some ideas borrowed from the advances and innovations in game design since the early-to-mid 90s golden age of the genre. If you're a fan of the film, the game may provide some added backstory and time with these characters that you've always wanted, but even then, it's too much frivolous gameplay and not nearly enough handing out beatings.