The Warriors - Hands On Preview

In light of their previous successes, Rockstar Games is currently putting the finishing touches to a fourth title for PSP, a straight port of The Warriors, which originally appeared on PS2 and Xbox back in Autumn 2005. Based upon the 1970s cult movie of the same name, the title elaborates on the build up to the events of the film, before launching into the story of how the Warriors fought through New York's gang turf in a bid to return home to Coney Island. Responsible for Rockstar's previous portable exploits, how is the publisher's Leeds Studio working its magic this time around? TVG recently paid a visit into Rockstar turf to find out...

Beginning with Rembrant's initiation to the gang, and introducing the re-mapped combat system developed to cope with the PSP's single-nipple disability, it wasn't long before the street fighting brutality that trademarked the game's original outing showed itself. Not stopping to pull any punches, every fighting technique that made gamers wince the first time around, including the skull-crunching, blood-staining throws into walls, were there to use, from punches and kicks, to combos, throws, and weapons. Having dealt with a few Coney Island drunks, and given some of the Warriors a brief lesson in brawling, it was then time to get re-acquainted with other gang-related activities: breaking and entering, stealing car radios, and mugging the general public. Finally, re-learning how to dive through fences, jump over fences, and clear roof-tops brought an end to the early tutorial mission, enabling the story of The Warriors to begin.

We skipped ahead in the game, to a mission where the Warriors' spray-painting scribe (Rembrandt, get it?) takes part in a 'Tag-Off' deep in Hi Hat territory (the face-painted, hat-wearing mime gang in the movie). Already something of a memorable mission in the original Xbox and PlayStation2 release, it offered a good variety of gameplay that re-occurs in other parts of the game, including the tag tracing mini-games, the side-scrolling escape from the attacking Hi Hats, and the destruction of their base, a grotesque gallery of statues and paintings. The mission also allowed us to see how Rockstar Leeds has managed to incorporate the simple squad commands to the limited number of buttons on the PSP, now mapped to the Select button. From our experience with the port, it certainly seems to be shaping up to be a solid enough conversion, something that is far from a guarantee in a lot of PSP ports.

Like the original release, The Warriors on PSP will also be fully Co-Operative, allowing two gamers to progress through the events of the story via Ad Hoc Wi-Fi. It was during this demonstration that we had a run-in with the Baseball Furies gang. Cue plenty of vicious attacks with wooden bats meeting unprotected skulls, and a confrontation with the gang's triple-bat wielding leader. In the original Xbox/PlayStation2 version of the Co-Operative game, the screen would automatically split in two if players drifted too far apart, but for the PSP (for obvious reasons) this doesn't occur, leaving players a full screen at all times. By failing to add Game Sharing functionality however, it does seem that Rockstar may be hampering one of the game's stronger features, something that has hindered many PSP multiplayer modes.

Finally, we finished up with a quick brawl in the Armies of the Night, a side-scrolling brawler with more than a few nods to classics such as Double Dragon. Like the main mode, it also offers Co-Op functionality, and will be available right from the start of the game - unlike in the Xbox and PlayStation2 versions, when it only unlocked if players completed 100% of the main game. Racing against the clock like so many side-scrolling brawlers from the 8-bit and 16-bit era, Armies of the Night would certainly allow Rockstar an entry onto digital download platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Store - not that we're alluding to something. As well as that, The Warriors will also feature the Rumble Mode, which includes all of the mini-games from the original release, from Wheelchair Races to King of the Hill events.

Set for release on February 23rd, all indications are that Rockstar will be delivering a very faithful (if not a tad uninspired) conversion of the original release, with one or two tweaks helping it to be better suited to the portable platform. That said, will PSP gamers (a vast majority of whom are probably PS2 owners) feel the need to go out and buy a game nearly eighteen months old, just so they can play it on the move?