Basic Analysis.
The Warriors video game was released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2005 by Rockstar (more specifically Rockstar Toronto). It is loosely based on the 1979 movie of the same name which was based on a 1965 Novel of the same name. I say based loosely because the video game has added original stories to fill out the game and also because the movie and novel share very few similarities and all names are mostly original to the movie.
Graphics:
The graphics are nothing special by today's' standard and even at the time weren't anything new or amazing. The game engine used was Renderware which was also used to create games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and many games in the popular Tony Hawk video game series.
(Left to right: Mercy, Cochise, Swan and Fox)
Sound:
The sound in this game was really good in my opinion, I still remember every lyric to a lot of the music used in this game because of it using very upbeat, aggressive songs to make you feel pumped to fight. A lot of the actors from the original film were used as voice actors for the Video game with the exception of a few who were either too busy at the time or in some cases had since passed away since the original movie. All the songs in the game were memorable and were never over-used to the point where you went off them, this is one of the songs in the game that I still listen to because it's such a good song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m48_b0VQa7U&t=66s
Construction of Content:
The content in this game as previously stated was taken from the original film and novel. With the addition of a added backstory that was used a sort of prequel to the movie and also each individual characters backstory which was never touched upon during the movie. The game is set out as a story and the story progresses as each level is completed. The story is really great in my opinion, I really like it because I can relate to each character of The Warriors gang in different ways.
Codes and Conventions:
Rockstar still make very similar games to The Warriors in the way of Violent and Action packed games. The early entries into Grand Theft Auto show a lot of similarities to The Warriors such as, the same engine was used to create the games, a third person view of the main character is very similar, having a mini-map at the bottom left to indicate new mission areas and bonus objectives, completing missions to progress through the story and having a free roam open world section in both games (although GTA's is a lot more expansive). In The Warriors, Once the game is finished there are extra mini-game sections you can complete, one of them is a Arcade Machine that is found in the Club Hangout that starts a Double Dragon, Side scrolling beat em' up styled mini-game called Armies of The Night where you play as Swan and have to beat each stage, fighting gangs from the game (see below). Another mini-game that can be found in the Club Hangout is Rumble Mode in which you can select any gang from throughout the game and create matches. For instance you can have The Riffs fight The Warriors in locations found throughout the game in a Arena styled match (see below). These added mini-games really make the replay-ability great, especially because you unlock Special characters to use in Rumble Mode by completing Bonus missions during the main story missions.
Rumble Mode
Armies of The Night
Narrative Structure:
The Warriors are a street gang from Coney Island, Bronx in 1979. A high profile gang named The Riffs call upon their leader Cyrus to organise a meeting with all the big gangs from the Bronx area, the goal of this meeting is for all the gangs to stop fighting one another and band together as one huge gang to overthrow the Governments and Police Force. After not being invited and feeling under-appreciated, The Warriors try and make enough moves to gain notoriety and be invited to the meeting. The movie and novel don't touch on this aspect as they both begin at the start of the meeting.
The game begins 90 days before the meeting, showing the origins of The Warriors and how they completely destroyed their rival gang The Destroyers and their gang leader, Virgil. After many missions of helping bigger gangs with errands and missions usually consisting of humiliating or plainly killing smaller gangs they eventually attract the notice of a big time gang, The Saracens who subsequently put in a good word with The Riffs and get invited to the the meeting. The game at this point follows the story of the Movie and Novel.
The Riffs Street Gang in the Movie.
Swans stare-down with Ajax.
After a gang called Turnbull AC's fail to kill The Warriors they manage to escape onto a train back to Coney Island. The train is stopped in Tremont and moving on-foot they encounter another gang who they humiliated prior called The Orphans, their leader Sully makes peace with Swan and allows them to walk through their territory unharmed, his girlfriend Mercy mocks The Orphans for being pushovers and tries to instigate a fight between the two, after a confrontation and a Molotov Cocktail, The Warriors embark on another Train back to Coney Island with Mercy following.
Swan and Mercy
The group arrive in Brooklyn Station and are discovered by the Police after a chase ensues, the group is split up and a Warriors member, Fox gets thrown into a oncoming train after wrestling with a Police Officer. Swan and three other members escape outside and a fight then ensues with a big time gang The Baseball Furies. The Warriors emerge victorious. Walking through Riverside Park, one member of The Warriors, Ajax becomes sexually aggressive towards a woman sitting on a bench. After she reveals to be a undercover Police Officer he is arrested and The Warriors lose another member.
Fox being thrown on the train tracks.
Meanwhile at Union Square, disbursed Warriors: Rembrandt, Cochise and Vermin encounter an all-female gang named The Lizzies, after following them back to their base they learn the truth about them being the suspect for Cyrus's death and The Lizzies attack them. After once again escaping near death. The separated Warriors contemplate why they are suspected of Cyrus's death and begin to doubt them ever making it back home alive.
Cochise about to be attacked by The Lizzies.
The Punks leader, Vance preparing for a fight.
The Warriors finally arrive back on Coney Island where The Rogues are waiting to fight them. Luther then admits to Swan that he was the one to kill Cyrus and Swan suggests they have a one on one fight. Luther then pulls out a gun and Swan throws a switchblade into Luthers' wrist, disarming him. Then The Riffs arrive in full force to kill The Rogues and make peace with The Warriors. Luther and The Rogues are surrounded by abundance of Riffs. The Warriors walk down the beach of Coney Island whilst a Radio DJ apologises to The Warriors for falsely calling a hit on them and claims all they can do for them is play them a song.
I think the story to The Warriors is amazing and is the main reason for my love of the game, along with how well the game plays and the solid characters, it is one of my favourite games of all time. I like the story because of how well it portrays someone who has been wrongly accused, instead of them trying to prove their innocence they accept their fate and fight back.
The major conflict in the story is set up once Cyrus is killed. Instantly catapulting The Warriors into a fight they didn't want or deserve. The way that the meeting scene is done is really captivating and you relate to The Warriors because you know the full story of what happened. It makes you really want to see The Warriors succeed to prove everyone wrong but also prove to themselves that they are a strong force.
The characters in the game are introduced as they are seen throughout the story with the game pausing, zooming into their face and showing their name on screen. (see image below)
As the story progresses more characters are introduced until they have all been introduced.
The story is moved along as the motive for The Warriors to get home increases, you as a viewer or in this case the player want them to get home so you are motivated for them to tackle any task they are challenged with. You as the player are normally the main character in the action for instance playing as Swan whenever he is available so you are the most important character in each scene. This means that you normally take control of the rest of the Warriors by using commands such as 'Wreck em' All' which gets all your gang to fight the enemy, 'Scatter' which makes all your gang split up and hide which is useful when you are being overwhelmed by enemies and 'Lets' Go' which makes all your followers follow you. By doing this you are the main character in all levels and feel the most pressure to guide your followers to complete the mission, you are essentially liable for them surviving or dying.
The conclusion is set up when The Riffs are tipped off about The Warriors not being guilty of killing Cyrus. This starts the chain of events for the gang to finally be relived of being attacked by every gang in sight. The major conflict though is the final battle with Luther, in the video game it is set up more like a boss battle with Luther having a bar of health and you having to hide whilst he shoots his gun and when he reloads you throw knives at him until his health is depleted.
Again similar to the last point, the film resolves the major conflict when The Riffs are tipped off and The Warriors aren't being hunted. They are finally back home in Coney. In the film the tip off scene is shown as a cut-scene as is the part where The Riffs apologise to The Warriors for setting a hit on them. It is quite impactful because you as a player are relived to not have to fight anymore and can finish the game.
Representation of Characters:
The main characters in The Warriors Video Game are:
Cleon - Warriors Warlord and Co-Founder
Swan - Warriors Warchief and subsequent Warlord.
Ajax - Warriors Warchief and Heavy Muscle.
Rembrandt - Warriors Graffiti Artist.
Vermin - Warriors Muscle and Co-Founder.
Snow - Warriors Heavy Muscle.
Cochise - Warriors Member.
Cowboy - Warriors Member.
Fox - Warriors Scout.
Virgil - The Destroyers' Warlord
Luther - Rogues' Warlord
Cyrus - The Riffs Warlord/President.
Masai - The Riffs Warchief and Subsequent Leader.
Mercy - Orphans Leaders' Girlfriend and Swans Love Interest.
The main Warriors characters are represented in a bad light really with the first 10 minutes of the game being a tutorial mission consisting of beating up homeless people, smashing shop windows and stealing their goods, stealing car radios, mugging pedestrians and taking 'Flash' which is a drug bought from dealers in the game is the only source of regaining health.
The whole game consists of fighting and killing using any means necessary, whether it be Baseball Bats, Knives, Bottles etc. which of course makes the game very violent from the offset. The characters in the game are quite stereotypical because they fit the common assumption that the street gangs from the Bronx during the late 70's and 80's were violent criminals.
Individually the characters do fit a stereotypical genre of category, for instance you have Ajax who's job is the muscle of the gang. He is quite aggressive towards both men and women. In the first scene with him you see him sexually assaulting a woman and later on gets arrested for again sexual assault. Throughout the game he is portrayed as the toughest member and is the only character during the distinctive Pre-Meeting scene that seems up for a fight. During the Baseball Furies scene he suggests the idea to stop running and fighting, going on to single handedly knock out 2 of them.
Another character that fits a stereotype is Rembrandt, in the game he is the newest member of The Warriors (unstated in the movie). He is hired as the Graffiti artist and is probably one of the weakest members of the gang in terms of fighting. He is stereotypical because he is often left behind or ignored in normal debate, being the youngest and weakest member this is stereotypical.
Audience/Target Demographic:
The target demographic I would assume would be adults that are fans of similar titles of Rockstar, at the time the popular games were Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and GTA: Vice City. These games are notable for attracting a lot of attention due to their graphic and violent nature and The Warriors is very similar. Fans of the movie and novel would also be targeted. The way they did this was stick to the source material and keep it as real to the movie and novel as possible. These sort of games were played by under 18's, for instance I played these games when I was about 10 or 11 and so did all of my friends. They become talked about and well known by younger audiences for showing violent material and become popular and deemed cool by younger audiences too.
In the trailer for the game it shows all of the things you can do in this game, starting off with throwing Molotov cocktails, beating people up, grafitting, walking around in gangs. Although I didn't find about this game through the trailer I know I would of been very attracted by just the first 20 seconds. This kind of violent game would of been appealing to me at that age and is one of the reasons I asked a older relation to buy it for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAvldhE4FnU
Genre Analysised:
The genre of this game is probably consider an action-adventure/beat em' up game. I would compare similar titles like Grand Theft Auto and Bully (Both made by Rockstar). The genre hasn't changed too much in my opinion over the years. The quality of the game play has vastly improved, take Grand Theft Auto V for example, the concept of the game from GTA: SA hasn't changed that much, you still play as a criminal, committing crimes, fighting, killing, stealing anything and everything and completing missions. However now there is much to do behind the scenes. The maps have become much larger and there are hundreds of little mini games such as Bank heists, Street/Sea/Air races, Tennis, Golf and even watching virtual TV. Nowadays the missions are more fleshed out and interesting and the graphics have vastly improved in 10 years. Looking back on these old PS2 graphics they look a lot worse than I remembered them, but graphics on games do age fast and rarely past the test of time, even GTA V now being 4 years since it's initial release on console, the graphics are starting to looked dated already.
I think people expect interesting characters and missions from this genre of games, these games are usually fairly long and have lots to do so you want to be enjoying the missions and liking the characters. Nowadays they expect a wide world of exploration and huge maps filled with neat little extras for you to find. When it comes down to it though, these games are similar when you strip away the fine details and fleshed out open world aspects. A series like Grand Theft Auto will always have fans and will always sell a lot of copies because of how popular they have become. I will always buy the latest release whether it's been critically hated or loved.
The Warriors is similar to this and holds up alongside the Grand Theft Auto series in my opinion. It is not as well known and compared to GTA; SA doesn't have as much open world elements to keep you playing and playing even once the story is complete. The difference is that The Warriors had source material to stay true too to. They couldn't of gone of the beaten track and added elements that may of ruined the story of the game. Grand Theft Auto is a completely original idea so they can go anyway they want to go with it and make it as interesting each time as they want.
(Left to Right: Cleon, Rembrandt, Cochise, Cowboy, Ajax, Vermin, Swan, Fox and Snow)
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