Welcome to our review of Narcos: Rise of the Cartels, a brutal turn-based game where you become part of the war on the drug cartels!
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a brutal turn-based action strategy game based on the hit Netflix TV series.
Welcome to Colombia, 1980’s – the fires of El Patrón’s empire have been lit, its influence spanning borders, and expansion unabated. Influence and corruption is rife; cops, guards, politicians and those in between are falling into the pocket of the Medellín Cartel, and after years of production, America is finally taking notice.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels tells the story of the hit Netflix TV series, of the rise and fall of El Patrón. Choose your side and ally with the DEA or conversely side with the Narcos. Explore recognizable locations from the show and take a role in pivotal world-altering events and battles that will define and shift the war on drugs.
Form your team from a variety of class-specific roles, join leading characters, upgrade your skills and take part in brutal turn-based combat, where your actions will have consequences.
Plata o Plomo?
I admit to loving the Narcos series on Netflix. The amazing pace to tell the stories as they unfolded. The intrigues, the DEA, the cartel, … Everything was all about how a man was so brilliant and brutal at the same time. The series almost idolized the man himself. In this game, I got to relive big parts of the series. Knowing nothing about the game when I got the review code, I went in with very low expectations. The usual elephant in the room is that movie/TV-based games are usually mediocre at best and mostly for casual gamers and fans. This game is an exception to that rule.
Playing surprisingly well, this turn-based action game is basically X-com with cartels and the war on drugs as the red line. Imagine Mario and Rabbids but suddenly ‘shit got real’… It is also very realistic in the way that when someone dies, they are gone from the game. In my third “fight”, I lost a cop due to my carelessness and I had to rehire another one. Being able to earn money and hire new cops, it sure gives a whole new and serious impression on the game.
If you are familiar with X-com games, you know what to expect, turn-based action where you try to take out the enemies before they succeed in taking you out. In Narcos: Rise of the Cartels, you got a lot of things to look at, numerous attack options, your health bar, being able to do a surprise attack, performing killshots and so much more. I am going to sound cruel, but killing a bad guy with a shotgun… Those one-shot kills are satisfying.
But there is more, your team can only make a certain amount of moves, meaning it is possible that just one of your guys can move and the others, if not under proper cover, they can get taken out. The amount of planning needed is actually a lot higher than you’d expect of a TV series turned game. This game is very high end, to say the least.
Having loved Mario and Rabbids as well as the DLC, I am actually highly amused by the added realism and the need to maintain my team. Whether it was letting them rest often to regain health or sneaking in on enemies or even use my entire team to hunt down one enemy at a time, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels was a lot of fun and very intelligent.
Now the big question remains. As this is a highly tactical game, it might not be as much for the casual gamer and more for the avid lover of the genre. While I am a lover of the genre and I do love the fact that everything needs to be planned, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels did feel overwhelmingly complicated at first. It is very important to keep your eye on the ball and play this game with the intent to keep everyone alive. Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a love song to the series on Netflix and a more than a decent game as well.
In conclusion, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels may be the best TV/movie turned game I played in a very long time. I consider it to be detailed and highly intricate in its design. Keep your head cool or your team will take some hits though…
