I like Rockstar. They gave us GTA, a very cool game in my opinion - even though I started to play it rather late in its development process (I started with GTA III on the PS2). Now, I don't like all games that come from Rockstar (for example I bought Manhunt and was thoroughly disappointed with it), but I think as far as developer philosophy goes, they are probably on the best track in the whole game development world.

So naturally, after reading a lot about The Warriors and having not seen the original movie - I decided to play the game. At first glance, the game comes across as a typical Rockstar game - strong mission progression aspect with the classical objectives - get there, do X of this, destroy X of that - you get the idea. It also has a free roaming mode which I never really played - I am done with the whole aspect of "yeah you can walk around and do whatever you want from these 10 (or 20ty or 30ty) things the game has" - too much playing Vice City will do that for you. I was more interested in the mission progression especially because after the introductory levels you see that you can do A LOT in this game - there are a lot of core gameplay features to take advantage of.

Now, you have seen the score - you know that I generally liked the game. I liked the environment traversal options - the jumps, the flips over fences; I liked being able to spray paint walls, rob stores and steal car radios, break locks etc. All of these are bona-fide features: if they were properly combined this game could have been legendary. Even with the not-so-stellar graphics (which I don't mind BTW - it fits the game well), this game has all the alchemical properties to become solid gold.

So why isn't it?

It's the console syndrome. Somehow, designers for consoles can't seem to be able to take advantage of the features they come up with themselves. Instead, they feel much safer giving the console gamer what they think he expects from a console game - and that is... drum-roll... button mashing. And not just combinations of buttons, but the same button over and over again. Somehow, sometime, someone decided that asking the player to press the circle button repeatedly as much as he can is some kind of gameplay mechanic. Let me end the myth right here - it's not. It's completely crappy, requires no skill (except probably the only thing that all young males are very trained in) and is very, very - and I mean very, very BORING.

In a game like this, a game that stands on such a complete and solid set of game features - resorting to special sections (like the running ones, for example) that require no input except button mashing is bordering on a crime. Let me explain why.
The characters you control in this game can lockpick doors, can climb vertical obstacles, can break through wooden planks, jump incredible distances and work in a group. Say they have to escape through some map, as a mission objective. Why limit their options - why not allow them to use any or all of these features based on the individual player skill? Why not have multiple ways to achieve this objective, maybe one would be to lockpick a door to gain entrance to an apartment complex (which gets you off the streets), or alternatively climbing some dumpsters and entering the same complex from the fire-escape? Once inside the complex maybe you would be able to jump to some other buildings and break through an apartment door on the other side to gain access to a stairway that gets you back to street level. Maybe you could spray paint a window and create a cover object from it, so that gang members arriving outside will not spot you, even though you are standing behind a window? The amount of opportunity that can be given to the player in this way is staggering. Why would anyone willingly set the player on rails if they had all these features to use all over their levels?

The mission progression is somewhat disappointing in this respect. You are expected to jump through designer hoops, and even though you can do all these cool things, you can only do them where you are supposed to. And if that's not bad enough, in some sections the whole feature set of the game is thrown out the window for the sake of some exotic camera angle chase sequence that requires you to press the same button over and over again. Truly a wasted opportunity.

Other than that, the game is quite enjoyable. The story is quite interesting if not plentiful, and the different characters give the game great variety - they are built very well throughout the game. The setting, music and environment are spot on - if only they were not so confined. I do expect something more from every new Rockstar game, and this game does not disappoint in bringing new things to the table, but disappoints in the fact that all the innovation is not used effectively in the game. Without writing ONE SINGLE ADDITIONAL line of code, this game could have been 10 times better - just through some better design choices, some more level planning and execution and with less desire to conform (at least in some way) with mainstream console gaming.