When I heard Rockstar Games were remastering their 2005 classic ‘The Warriors’ I was emotionally, physically and literally ready to bop my way back to the mean streets of 1979 Coney Island.
I was about 13 years old spending the weekend at my Gran’s house, it was about 2am and I was rifling through my Uncle’s VHS collection when I happened upon a black sleeveless tape with a sticker with ‘The Warriers’ [sic] crudely written on it.
I was bored, my phone only had 'Snake 2’ for entertainment, there was no PornHub to occupy an evening… It was a simpler, less chaffed time.
I popped the tape in with no knowledge of what was about to unfold over the next 92 minutes. The brilliant synth soundtrack, the camp outfits, the 70’s hairstyles, it was joyous.
For the uninitiated The Warriors is a tale of gangs of New York, all with ridiculous names, tags and outfits; mimes, brawlers, baseball clad bad-asses and our pseudo heroes The Warriors a small clique from the New York borough of Coney Island. The story centres on the city’s biggest gang The Gramercy Riffs. Their leader Cyrus invites 9 delegates from 100 of the city’s most prominent gangs to discuss banding together so that they may run the city, and they’re on board.
It unfortunately goes awry when a nutjob named Luther from Hell’s Kitchen gang The Rogues shoots Cyrus and places the blame on The Warriors.
It’s then up to them to make their way back to their turf of Coney Island (the other side of New York) and clear their name, and hopefully not get wasted for their troubles along the way.
It’s very '300’; a brave few versus many, and although they’re thugs, you can’t help but hope for the underdogs.
When Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto, Read Dead Redemption, Bully) announced they were making this game, I knew we were in safe hands.
The final product was so much more than the sum of its parts. It was meticulous in imaging the dark, unforgiving, dingy streets of New York depicted in the film.
The game does more than just deliver the story, and it does deliver the story, every iconic scene gets its moment but the stand outs are the details; the cuts and bruises your character gains in every brutal bout. The game is of course a brawler, but 3rd person and semi openworld and a lot of the time there’s upwards and 15 men duking it out; throwing each other through shop windows, slamming heads of car bonnets, a real life royal rumble.
The game also has a back story, you find out how certain members joined the gang, brutal initiations and how the crew made a name for themselves.
The remaster runs smooth but still looks very similar to its PS2/Xbox original predecessor but for £11.99 on the PSN you’d be stupid not to come out to plaaaaaay!
Upon completing the game you unlock an arcade game 'Armies of the Night’ that you can play at your gangs HQ. The meta game is of course a classic side scrolling version of the film and it’s actually better than it should be.
The whole game supports 'couch co-op’ and although a dying breed, it’s a welcome return as its been criminally underused this generation.
So stick on your brown leather cut, lace up your converse and get ready because The Warriors is worth your time whether it’s your first visit or you’re looking for a trip down memory lane.
Rockstar have also remastered the brilliant Bully and Manhunt too. What a time to be alive!
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