Introduction:
Bad voice acting, check. Cheesy plot with lots of swearing, check. Big huge explosions, check. Hordes of enemies, check. If you have been watching a lot of Breaking Bad and want to get in the DEA action fighting off against the cartel drug mobs, I would say that Narco Terror could give you a run for your money deciding between the rerun of season 5 or playing the game.
Narco terror is a simple twin stick shooter with some multiplayer coop action thrown in. This is a score attack game with bonus points for blowing stuff off the screen and keeping that kill streak going.
It follows a linear storyline to tie in all the different levels and upgrades keeping a steady pace throughout the game. With an achievement option in the main menu it makes it very clear that the game is an Xbox 360 port. The plot is almost laughable with cheesy dialogs and lots of swearing. But when the story tried all efforts to take itself seriously, you can’t help but shake the felling that it was lifter from a summer popcorn flick 10 years ago.
You follow a DEA agent whose daughter has been kidnapped by the cartel in an attempt to disturb your focus while they make a big drug shipment. Turns out that was enough motivation needed for you to hitchhike a ride on a helicopter, armed with a pistol and shotgun to take out the entire drug mafia. You travel around jungles and factories to find and kill members of the cartel while trying to keep a high score for both killing enemies and keeping your combo going. The environment is littered with explosives that may make your job easier or cause more problem than initially anticipated.
The Good:
The combat while mostly repetitive, does get varied up a bit with some mini games. Be it a jumping platform where you are racing fire from one side of the screen or the airplane Shoot Em Up mode where similar to the classic Space Invaders or the recent Sine Mora. Then of course there are the turret sections. The variety in the enemies is satisfactory with enough to keep you invested in jump dodging and killing thousands of them per level. But the environments seems lacking. The game does try to make up for this with some lighting effects which for the most part are well done for a budget game.
The explosions are fun and take up half the screen in colourful delight. There are no severed limbs or headshots featured so you can say that the violence does seem toned down for a broader audience (which seems strange as it is rated M in USA).
The camera is what makes or break any such bullet hell game and I am happy to report that this works wonderfully well here even I coop as the entire level seems to push you forward and there is almost no backtracking and very minimal exploration. The biggest fun factor in the game comes from the ability to play multiplayer, but to be honest everything is more fun with friends. There are not many games out there for the PC with local coop so this will serve a fun time if you are looking to kill a few hours waiting for steam to update in the background.
The Bad:
The gameplay itself while solid technically lacks any memorable art assets. Everything looks so plane and generic. For a game whose major focus is on shooting there is a lack of power ups and weapon variety. Sometimes enemies do drop certain pickups, but I am nearly 80 % finished and still don’t know what they do. Cause they don’t seem to add any active and noticeable change to my firepower.
The guns while fun to use are certainly lacking in variety. You have your standard pistol, shotgun and machine gun that can be upgraded for money; which for some strange reason is gathered by destroying the environment and not by killing mobs. The weapons variety severely lacks and that is one of the biggest issue I have with the game. The game does tend to thrown in a few situational weapons but they fell far too little influential and significant. The graphics are nothing to brag about with the brown and green jungle mafia hideout domination the majority of the game seeming dull.
I managed to complete the main campaign in 5 hours, on normal difficulty. That makes for a short game.
Conclusion:
This feel like an old school action film filled with guns, grenades and drugs and just like the movies. If you set your brain to OFF mode, you are going to enjoy the ride. There seems to be a sense of variety lacking in the game but what it does it does well. Did I finish the games yes, did I enjoy the game, yes, Is it memorable No. You will probably forgot it a week after you played it but if you do find it on sale somewhere, That should be reason enough to justify the purchase.
