the Warriors It became a favorite among movie fans and hobbyists, and now the 1979 movie has been brought to the tabletop world of Funko games in The Warriors: Come Out To Play. Players will take control of The Warriors as they try to make their way through the city to their native land, but things will get suspicious along the way, and you’ll need to choose your battles, add to your arsenal of cards and weapons, and work together as a real crew to get there. You can feel the excitement of the movie in the show, and players have more control over the pace of the game, which makes for a more personalized experience despite the linearity of the adventure. The Warriors keeps the battles coming without being too late, and fans of the cult classic will enjoy their time in the world.
The Warriors has 2-4 players making their way from The Bronx through enemy territory as they make their way to Coney Island, and as you make your way you’ll have to face seven other gangs in a variety of locations, culminating in a final battle in Coney Island. During your journey, you will enhance your deck and arsenal by landing in certain spaces, and you will also need to rest and move cards from the trash pile to your hand to ensure that you can survive the journey.
Most of the strategy lies in how you approach your journey through opposing neighborhoods to your final destination, where you can try to speed things up or slow things down, each offering their own advantages. Some will try to avoid unnecessary battles and skip the spaces that make you draw extra Bopper cards, which will bring the battles at a fast pace. Others will face whoever challenges them, and these players will also likely want to take advantage of every space on the board to build their options in battles. There is a balance to be struck between the two, and this ebb and flow is part of what makes navigating the direct route through the city fun and challenging.
The spaces on the board allow you to do things like pick up war cards (other warriors with different abilities) and weapon cards, which can be things like Knuckles, Chains, and Switchblades. You can also return a card from Discard to your hand, which will need to be weighed against taking a full rest. Again, strategy comes into play here, taking a break lets you return all the discarded cards to your hand but you can’t move, while finding the Discard space moves you forward on the board, although you can only return one card from Your discard to your hand.
You’ll also encounter fighting icons at key points, which are battles that are unavoidable and must be completed to move forward, although they’re not as organized in the style of Boss Fight as you might expect. Instead, these are just normal battles chosen at random by the gang you pull and the location you pull when you start the fight, although there are some variables to be aware of, and they liven up the fights enough. For example, if a gang is higher than you in the reputation path, you will need to cover one additional spot on the location tiles, and each gang also has its own unique ability, which changes your style. Some will make you discard cards while others will only allow you to roll a certain amount of dice in that confrontation, and if the numbers are a little higher on the cards, you may find yourself in a severe challenge.
However, most of the challenge in Warriors doesn’t come from one-on-one battles. Instead, the challenge is a byproduct of the scale of the battles. When you move somewhere or take an action (such as a rest), you will need to draw 1 to 2 Bopper cards. Some of these cards don’t affect you negatively, but others will have a range of negative effects, and once you draw the third threat card you will follow the text on that card and then you will be challenged to a fight.
Strategy and gameplay become important at this point, as you can battle it out or escape (except for some threat cards). Running away allows you to avoid the fight but you lose reputation on the path, and if you fall below 7 on that path you lose the game. However, if you fight each battle individually, you may find yourself not advancing across the board too fast and low in the cards because you don’t take the opportunity to regroup and reload your hand with Rests or Discard spaces.
Each warrior also has unique abilities that you’ll need to take care of and maximize, which can help mitigate damage from enemies, give you extra dice to roll in battles, help your teammates reload their available hands, and more.
The fights themselves are relatively simple, you discard the cards and roll the number of dice indicated on the card or depending on certain abilities. Each gang and location card has points with a number and a picture of weapons on it, whatever you roll and your weapon choices will determine if you can cover one of the spaces on that board. Everyone advances in turn until everyone has been kicked out or all required spaces on the gang card are covered and completed, so while it’s not overly complicated, the system is easy to learn and fun to participate in. Another element of depth was welcome, but I still enjoyed how quickly the battles progressed.
The painting itself looks great and the miniatures are solid, although the final battle was a bit unclimate. Make sure that the difficulty is a little higher and in the end you try to make sure that you get as many of your cards available for use as possible. However, it wasn’t different enough to feel distinct from the other battles along the way, and perhaps a few additional elements made it feel more special.
As for the cards themselves, the artwork looks authentic to the movie and the components are well made, although the deck of each character could have used a bit more character. Each character has one distinct ability, while the other cards are associated with their starting weapon and allow two dice to be used instead of one and the ability to use your weapon to cover any weapon space. Aside from that one card, there isn’t much to separate the characters in terms of gameplay, and one or two additional ability cards would have been welcomed to add more options to the turn-by-turn mix.
The Warriors is an exciting, energy-saving experience with recurring battles and an accelerated pace. Battles become second nature sooner rather than later, and while the unchanging nature of those fights may bore some, others will love how quickly you can speed up how the game works and how to maximize your character and hand during casts. Fans of the classic movie will enjoy this retro world and momentary action, and Funko Games impresses with its implementation of the movie’s theme and overall aesthetic. If you’re a fan of the franchise, this is an easy recommendation, and for those looking for a game that allows both seasoned and new players to get started, this is your alley.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Posted by: Funko Games
Designed by: Prospero Hall
Art by: Henning Ludvigsen
The Warriors: Come Out To Play is now available.
Review version provided by Funko Games
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