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PlayStation 2
12/29/2025
It's a shame that we'll never know exactly how the 2005 video game adaptation of The Warriors came to pass. One can imagine the pitch: "Alright boss, I got a great idea for our next title! So I was watching this movie from 1979 that was based on a novel that was based on a historical Greek text the other day, and I thought to myself, 'Wow, we should make this into a game!'" Never mind that the movie itself had a theatrical run marred by bouts of vandalism and violence, leading to some theaters increasing security or pulling showtimes entirely. Never mind that it wasn't exactly a big hit critically to begin with and only found a fair degree of acclaim decades after its release as a sort-of cult classic.
It's not the type of video game adaptation you'd expect to be made. It might be the most unlikely high-profile video game adaptation...ever? But developed and published by Rockstar (Toronto) and fresh off the heels of San Andreas, it was quite the success in its own right.There are two fundamental ways to experience The Warriors; either you've seen the movie previously, or you haven't. If you have, one of the things that jumps out straight away is how faithful this game is as an adaptation. It's very cinematic, obviously, but many movie scenes are recreated shot-for-shot in the game, and much of the original cast returned for voice acting.
It feels very much like you're "playing" the movie, which is a feat many adaptations aim for and few actually reach, and will surely impress those who are already fans. Even better is that most of the game actually takes place prior to the events of the film, and a large amount of time is spent fleshing out characters that may have only originally had a few lines. It all helps to create a somewhat compelling personal narrative. It should be said that, given the faithfulness of this adaptation, it does contain a helping of unsavory elements that were all too common in the 70s...and the 2000s.
| Played For | 14h 2m |
|---|---|
| Completion Type | 86% Completion, 28/40 Bonus Objectives |
| Favorite Gang | Electric Eliminators |
If you're going to make a game based on a street gang's 20-mile trek back to their turf with 60,000 soldiers in their way, a beat-em-up seems like the logical gameplay direction, and when The Warriors is allowed to focus on these fundamentals, it delivers some pretty excellent brawler action. Especially in larger army-on-army fights, where you can really get a sense for the mayhem. Combat is as varied as the environments, and the slightly open yet still linear nature of the levels feels a lot more like a living, breathing city when compared to a lot of other beat-em-ups of its time.
Each Warrior has their own sort of combat style, so while the inputs you'll be using won't change, there will be little differences between how each controlled character fights—most easily noticeable in the game's great split-screen multiplayer mode. It's another nice injection of personality. The game controls great, and the scores of rival gangs you'll be taking on have had a lot of life breathed into them. It's impressive what The Warriors has done with what was, in many respects, a very limited building board. It takes a lot of the best elements of the movies and expands on them in a way that feels respectful and consistent.
In fact, it’s almost too good at it. The Warriors is at its best when it is able to tell its own story and express itself fully, so it's disappointing but not surprising that the last few missions of the game—those which actually replicate the movie scenes—are the least fun. And sure, it's probably at least partially because they follow this more rigid story structure, sure, but it's more because it pushes diversity in gameplay that The Warriors didn't need.
This is a very good beat-em-up. It doesn't need stealth sections, or weird boss fights, or quick-time events, or button-mashing sections. But this is Rockstar Games we're talking about, and they are no strangers to pushing variety in gameplay, for better or worse. Don't be mistaken—there's a lot of optional activity here, and it's nice to have for those who are big fans. But for the main story? Many of the missions, particularly in the latter half, get bogged down in these ill-fitting mechanics, to the point where it feels like they were adding things just to add them.
A spiritual sequel to The Warriors, under the development title We Are The Mods, was planned by Rockstar but never made and was to focus on the Mods vs. Rockers subculture clash that occurred in Great Britain in the 50s and 60s. It's one of gaming's more niche disappointing cancellations. The team did well with an adaptation, sure, but that helped as much as it hurt. It would have been nice to see the same type of game with the reins taken off. Sure, if you're a fan of The Warriors original film, you're almost certainly a fan of the game as well. And hey, maybe even if you hadn't seen the film. It's a very good beat-em-up, a very good adaptation (and expansion) of the movie, and a pretty poor everything else.