If there is one developer that gets my hat this week, it's Rockstar. Not only do they bring me enjoyment with their entire collection of games on a regular basis, but with The Warriors they have weaved arguably one of their best stories to date. The Warriors game takes place before the film, in the events that lead up to the first scene in the movie of the same name. Rockstar could have taken the easy route and just based the game on the already well-written twisted script that is The Warriors, but instead they decided to go back to the drawing board and come up with concepts of how The Warriors were formed, what they did and how events led up to what happens in the film. Grand Theft Auto games have great stories but The Warriors has sent a shiver down my sick, perverse, gore-loving spine. Of course, I'm obliged to say that, because if Rockstar are anything like the games they make, I'd be sleeping with the fishes this time tomorrow if the review was anything but complimentary!

Those people who haven't bothered seeing the film needn't worry. I have seen parts of The Warriors when I was a younger, but the story is so well written that this game is pretty much standalone. Of course, lovers of the film will get a kick out of how well everything comes together, but there's no need to be put off if you haven't seen it. The famous scene I'm referring to, the scene that you will see in game graphics before travelling back two months, is about a courageous and confident man called Cyrus. He wants an end to all the gang wars and calls upon all the New York gangs to have a big meeting. During the meeting a good majority of the gangs are cheering along Cyrus - it's the best idea they've heard all day. But then Cyrus gets a bullet to the chest while he's cheering himself. In the film, The Warriors get blamed, but in the game you're playing the events that lead up to this meeting.

A story is only as good as the gameplay though and you won't be surprised when I tell you that the gameplay here is golden. The Warriors is mostly about gang fighting. Regular missions have you and at least another computer (or human) controlled character - more often than not though, you'll go around with a load more members of The Warriors fighting close at hand. Anybody who still reminisces over that superb Megadrive game Streets of Rage will absolutely love what The Warriors has to offer.

The Warriors features some combat to die for, literally. You can use almost anything in the environment as a weapon, some you might wield, or some that you might throw somebody into. Most things change with impact, which gives the surroundings a really authentic feel. If you throw somebody into a box or kick a box down, there might be the odd plank lying around that you can then quickly pick up and use to your advantage in a long string of combos. Most wielded weapons eventually break down into dust, glass bottles normally last a few hits until they fully break, as do planks of wood and maybe even slabs of meat from the butcher. I think there's more weapons in this game that any other Rockstar title - and with all of these weapons being melee, with the odd expectation of throwing weapons like house bricks and bottles, the game really has an up-close and personal feel that money won't buy you elsewhere. The weapons feel like they're doing plenty of damage too; taking a meat cleaver to some poor sod's skull noticeably does a lotmore than a fist. The graphics and sound always compliment that weapon in hand too, sometimes making you cringe with both excitement and fear, as you hear and see the knife edge rupture a gang member - so slick and easy, like a pin would pop a balloon.

The large array of melee weapons might be one advantage but the actual fighting system has clearly been thought out well; with loads of different combo attacks, special attacks and team attacks, you can be as brutal or as simple as you wish and still feel like you're packing a punch. There are a load of combos to discover as the game goes on, thanks to onscreen tips and tricks. Moves consist of grabs, punches both heavy and light, as well as the odd combo by pressing a few buttons. Grab moves are priceless; you can do many things from a grab, such as drag people, mug people, punch them while they're held, slam them into a wall, or even double team a restrained enemy. From a grab you can slam them onto the ground and then when you're on top of them, slap them silly, or press a string of buttons that causes the camera to pan around and slow down over a truly fierce move. Punches, both heavy and light, can be combined to have any desired affect. You could go in with two light punches, before following it up with a large heavy punch for example. It's nice to experiment with various punches and combos, to see what you can come up with.

Other fighting moves are achieved by pressing two buttons together, or experimenting with things like jumps and sprints. If you have spray paint equipped, you can use one to spray in the eyes of your opponent using two of the buttons on the pad, which fleetingly blinds them. You can also carry out heavy attacks by pressing both punch buttons, which normally knock people to the ground, after which you can dive on them and let lose. Sprints can be combined with attacks to side dive at people and knock them over, which is also handy when you want to penetrate a shop window in style. Fighting like a maniac fills up a forever-depleting meter and if you manage to fill it up without it depleting, you can execute a rage power, which allows you to pull off even nastier moves. There are many other fighting techniques in the game that I'll leave you to discover.

While out and about, either on your own territory of Coney Island, or on a mission, you can do things on the side (which may or may not be compulsory to a mission's objective) such as mug people, break into shops either through the window or by picking a lock, steal car radios and graffiti the walls. Another thing key to your survival is freeing gang mates from the cuffs of justice. I can already hear Jack Thompson's fist clenching in anger! The great thing about all of these actions is that you have to complete an innovative micro task. For example, when you steal a car radio you need to unscrew four screws by turning your analogue sticks. Picking a lock comes in the form of lining holes up on a dial as it turns really fast and graffiti is cleverly (though sometimes frustratingly) executed by tracing a letter or an image with your analogue stick. Mugging people requires you finding a vibration with your analogue stick and then holding the stick in that position until it stops vibrating, after which you have to find another vibration on the analogue, similar to the Splinter Cell school of lock picking. Finding vibrations fills a bar, which is racing against the person getting mugged. Resisting arrest works in the opposite way to getting mugged; you have to avoid the cop's vibrations.

You get to play as all the important members of The Warriors, depending on the missions and what the new story throws at you. Warchief is the one you play as the most, whereas Rembrandt will probably be used on missions where there's a lot of graffiti required. No character has a real advantage or unique play style over the others, but it's nice to play as different characters, if only just for a change in voice. There are around twenty proper story missions, all of which consist of many parts. You think you've finished a mission and then someone else who 'needs taking care of' pops up. These missions are surprisingly varied and don't just involve constantly beating people up. What I love is that every mission has several parts; for example, in one mission consisting of four parts, you might have to chase somebody for a while and then maybe sneak around a complex, before moving onto a gang war and finally coming to an end with an escape scene. They don't all follow that track, but what I'm trying to say is that missions are so varied and told so well by the story that you will lose track of time when immersed in the captivating gameplay. There are even side bonus tasks to do in missions as well; you will come across hidden dealers who sell you things like paint cans and a wonder drug named Flash, which you can use to heal yourself and your teammates.

Stealth plays a significant part in the game and although it's fair to say that it's not the best aspects, it certainly adds another level of depth and another option to control the outcome of a sticky situation. There are shaded areas dotted around the map where you can hide. You might be hiding from cops or other gangs, whether they're chasing you or you are trying your best to sneak past them undetected. You can lure people to you, much like Manhunt, using throwable weapons like glass bottles and bricks. When they are close enough, if you target the enemy and then come out of the shadows while walking slowly, you can execute them. The execution is fast and obviously kills them in one go - and the execution scene, again similar to Manhunt, varies depending on what button you press and which weapon you are wielding. So if the heat's on, lose the person who is chasing you, slip into some shadows and wait for them to walk past.

How do you get the cops on you then? Well, while you're around in Coney Island, you simply won't be able to resist breaking into a shop or mugging somebody. If someone is that way inclined, they'll run to the phones and call the cops. Of course, this is preventable; either don't do the crime in the first place (yeah right) or just kill the snitch before they reach the phone. While you're walking around Coney Island there are also side bonus missions that offer rewards upon completion. Examples of side missions include raising enough money in a certain amount of time and freeing a certain amount of criminals from their cuffs, amongst other things. Completing the cuff-freeing mission in the time limit unlocks quick keys that allow you to free your gang from cuffs without having to participate in a micro innovative task - providing you have a key handy, of course.

As you complete the main missions you'll unlock side missions that appear in Coney Island, as well as new 'Rumble mode features' and then bonus missions too. All of these features can be accessed in The Warriors hideout, as well as having various methods of workout at hand to improve your stamina in San Andreas style exercise tasks. The bonus missions are all about how The Warriors came together, following each character before they became a member - and they play just as well as the main missions. There's no doubt about it, you get a lot of value for your money here. Rumble mode contains many side modes to play, with or without mates, which include co-op fighting missions and even a capture the flag with a girl mode. I'll leave these games as something for you to unlock and discover yourself though, but they are a lot of fun.

While you're out and about with your gang, you can give them commands such as follow, stay, attack and mayhem, which makes them trash the area you're in - amongst a few more irrelevant commands. In Streets of Rage style, player two can press start and join in the action, helping you double-team those punks! Co-op story mode adds depth like no other. You can go around together on one screen like State of Emergency, or if you decide to split up then the screen splits and you can both go your separate ways. There were many times where I could have used a friend to go somewhere else and complete another part of the mission while I did another part - and for this, the co-op shines. Co-op was a late discovery for me. I already loved the game before I discovered with mode, but it really makes the whole package complete.

At the risk of dragging on too much, I'm going to close my comments on the gameplay and how good it is by giving one final note to those anti-violent gang members out there. When I'm taking a wrench to someone's forehead, groping somebody for cash, or bashing a big cheese's head against the wall, I feel no remorse. I think the reason for this is that The Warriors have their fair share of crap - they're mostly seeking revenge for things that they've suffered. So while slicing an opposing gang member's throat, I smile to myself, for I have avenged my late fellow Warrior - or when I'm trashing a shop, or breaking another gangs sports car, I smirk in the knowledge that revenge is so sweet and they shouldn't have thrown a Molotov Cocktail through our window in the first place. You're overcome with a sense of satisfaction as you eliminate your rivals.

The graphics in The Warriors are good, if a little on the dark side. They come in just below San Andreas graphics - good but not excellent. Facial expressions don't make much of an appearance, unless you're watching a video, but even in a video the lip sync is a little on the dodgy side. With that said, the game's graphics are more than functional and really portray that gritty feeling. With a combination of the graphics and the sound, one looting shop mission where the town was full of looters really was impressive; background characters smashing windows, pinching TVs, glass flying everywhere, street lights flickering - there's a lot of good here to outweigh the small niggles.

I think the sound more than makes up for those niggles though. In Rockstar tradition, the sound is superb. Fantastic voice acting for the main characters in the story, licensed old music playing on the ghetto blasters scattered around levels and loads of ambient music playing in the background, which dynamically changes depending on what you're doing, whether sneaking, fighting or committing crimes. The music sometimes peaks if the cops are on your trail and as you slip away into the shadows and your wanted rating drops down, the music uses loops and samples that really hit my warm spot. There's even level specific music; there was a lovely Mexican piece of music when we went face to face in a massive gang war. Ace music, great voice acting and lots of perfect sound effects for every weapon, smash and scream in this fantastic game.

The Warriors is near perfection. It offers a compelling single player action adventure game that can become a two-player affair at the push of a button. It has plenty of comprehensive things to unlock and the feeling of freedom to just walk around Coney Island at will - then when you're bored of wandering, you can go back to base and get cracking on the next excellent mission. An online co-op mode could have worked very well indeed, but the game is still wonderful without it. The Warriors should be played by anybody who enjoys a great bit of gaming violence - which is the majority, isn't it?

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).