With its irresistible mix of colourful New York gangs, fiercely protected territories and head-smashing violence, 1979 cult movie The Warriors offers a rich-picking of source material, tailor-made for Rockstar's notorious portfolio of games.
A recent visit to the publisher's London office revealed that while the game focuses on the bare-chested, leather waistcoat wearing band of brothers from the title, it further elaborates upon the plot of the movie.
The events of the film will effectively make up the second part of the game and - judging by the level we were demoed - remains faithful to the movie's premise, following the tribulations of the Warriors who, after finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, must fight their way across New York and back to their home turf in Coney Island.
At its core, The Warriors is a bloody exercise in street brawling and features an 18-rated roster of testosterone-fuelled acts of violence. Moves are animated with awesome brutality and particularly nasty physical assaults are complemented with a close-up camera angle.
The combat promises to be more intricate than just brainless knuckle-scuffing, however. There will be weapons (baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire anyone?), combos, reversals, team-up tandem moves, snap attacks (hitting enemies behind you) and special 'rage' assaults to master.
Additional muscle comes in the burly shape of your accompanying homeboys and, at full strength, there will be nine Warriors rolling together. Each homey has their own fighting style (although these all looked like variations on street fighting to us) and will all be playable at scripted points.
Your crew of bad boys is ordered about using 'war chief' commands and the usual selection of basic squad-style instructions - such as 'let's go' and 'hold up' - are bolstered with more gang flavoured orders. 'Mayhem', for example, gives the crew the nod to trash a cop car or fly fists-first into a rival gang.
In addition to street brawling some stealth elements also feature, although thankfully these look far less laborious than they could potentially be - there's no need to hide bodies and the pitter-patter of running feet doesn't alert enemies.
As far as the first section of the game is concerned, the sneaky peek we were given showed a selection of criminal distractions and included looting shops, mugging and robbing car stereos, but exactly what it will entail beyond this is still a mystery.
The Warriors' hang-out also features and acts as a hub where side-missions can be found and other areas of the city can be accessed via a subway map, although we can't see how this will be incorporated into the latter section of the game considering it's the very place that the Warriors are trying to reach.
We're intrigued as to how all the sections of The Warriors will fit together and, while it certainly looks like a worthy homage to the movie, just how Rockstar can keep the action engaging and varied for the duration of what, essentially, is an incredibly simple premise remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, we have high hopes for The Warriors and we'll be keeping a close eye on it over the coming months, so stay tuned to gamesradar.com for the latest info.
The Warriors will be released for PS2 and Xbox in October
