Narcos: Rise of the Cartels Reviews
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...
If you’re looking for a Tactical RPG game which stands out with unique features, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is for you. Having the ability to only move one unit at a time both increases the difficulty and strategic element of the game, forcing you to think ahead and plan your moves effectively if you don’t want to permanently lose the units you’ve been training up. Similarly, the manual Overwatch ability ensures that if you miss during a crucial pre-emptive attack, it’s most likely down to you and your ability at being accurate and fast. The game will clearly appeal to fans of the show, but newcomers are also welcomed and kept well informed as you proceed through the story. It’s certainly a game which all TRPG fans should try out.
While making a few adjustments to a tried-and-true formula, Narcos: Rise of the Cartel is a surprisingly enjoyable tactical strategy game that does its job well with the Narcos license.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a credit to its namesake, despite not offering significant challenging AI. The game aims to please a broad audience, and more importantly, to bring new players into the strategy genre.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a decently executed turn-based strategy title. Sure, sometimes it's a bit too easy, but when the enemy moves efficiently it become a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Just be warned that you'll grow attached to your squadmates, and hate if you lose them. This is for you, Ruiz!
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels doesn't really offer anything new in the turn-based genre, but it's still a polished good time.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartel is a solid turn-based strategy title that fans of the show and fans of the genre in general will enjoy.
Narcos is a simple "tactics" game, which some fans of the Netflix series will enjoy because of an interesting use of the official license. After a few hours it gets repetitive, because of its lack of different maps.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels offers some unique strategy mechanics to help distract you from the game's slow nature.
A fun, but simplified take on the turn-based strategy genre, think "baby's first XCOM" and you're on the right lines. Its flaws are obvious but easily overlooked for newcomers to the genre. If you're a die-hard strategy fan, consider giving Narcos: Rise of the Cartels a pass, it won't have much to offer you.
Licensed games still get a bad rap these days and Narcos: Rise of the Cartels probably won’t convince the naysayers. But buried beneath the murky graphics and presentation is a pretty decent and entertaining turn-by-turn tactical game.
Turning the Netflix series into an XCOM clone is a bold choice, but the dumbed down tactical options and lack of polish are destined to disappoint fans of both franchises.
An inadequate tie-in game for the Netflix series Narcos that pales in comparison to its source material.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a very playable game, there is a desire to get to the next level with as minimal casualties as possible and it does turn what should be a deadly shoot out into a bit of a sneak around to avoid dying. The unrealistic nature of the gameplay was a real downer for me, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels should have been right up my street, but it falls short of my expectations on so many levels it was disappointing. Without the Narcos endorsement, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels should probably retail for less than the £29.99 that is being asked. I have awarded Narcos: Rise of the Cartels a Thumb culture Silver Award.
A game that is aimed at the most fans of the series, since we will have the original voices and will present different sections of it. The pity is that at the strategy game level it falls short and the targeted manuals, one of its defining characteristics with respect to other games of the same style, are not satisfactory enough for the lover of shooting games, and appear too many times for the lover of pure strategy.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Without sounding cynical, ‘Narcos: Rise of the Cartels’ suffers from the same curse that looms over most video games that derive from TV shows and movies.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a strategic turn-based combat game that simply doesn't work. Despite a high-sounding name, the managerial part and the strategic depth are lacking; moreover, the variants to the classic X-Com gameplay are strange and poorly designed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Considering how integral the back-and-forth tussle between El Patron and DEA is to the show, recreating such a violent game of chess in 'tactics' form seems like a match made in heaven. But even with some welcome gameplay twists – namely those real-time Kill Shots and Counteractions – the slow nature of its single-unit turn mechanic and the totally unremarkable AI makes this generous offering of missions far less exciting than it should be. As a genre, a turn-based tactics setup really suits the cat and mouse nature of this real-life-inspired cartel war; it's just a shame certain elements let it down.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels was shaping up to be a fascinating advert for Netflix's hit series, but the overall quid pro quo bend of strategy ultimately makes it the shallowest of tie-ins. This is one Search Bloc party that you can count me out for.
The successful Netflix series becomes a video game. However, the final result is certainly not the best.
Review in Italian | Read full review