NARC

"Will you walk the line, or will you snort it?"

Hello, I go by ExiledChild, and I like many games, so I'm pretty open-minded and unbiased. This is the first review I've sent in, but not the first I've written. The thing that compelled me to write this is the fact nobody else has written one and it's been out for two freakin' weeks. Anyways, this review is about the very controversial, very cheap game called Narc. The main reasons you may pick it up is because of the drugs you can use, the very good price tag of $20, or you may choose it because you liked the old school Narc. Well, just so you know beforehand, this is NOT the old Narc. It's less anti-drug. On to the review..

Gameplay: 7.5
The game play is pretty good. It has a nice amount of weapons, everything from duel pistols and revolvers to rocket launchers and flame throwers. You also have a choice of five.. well.. six drugs. You have marijuana, which slows down everything except your gun movement (pretty much fine aim). You also have Quaaludes, which put you in first person view and allow you to zoom in and out, as if you had binoculars. One of my personal favorites is speed, which speeds up everything, but if you're being timed, the timer still goes regular. The next drug is LSD, more commonly known as acid, which is pretty useful as well. It makes criminals have devil heads and innocents have jester heads, allowing you to determine who to arrest faster. The second most addicting drug of the bunch is crack, which gives you crack shot, allowing you to make one-hit kills with weapons. The last one is a needle, but no, not heroine. It's a new drug called Liquid Soul that makes your physical damage do much more. All of them impair the screen a little and the camera wiggles when you turn. Notice that I've only named five of the drugs. The last one I'll say in a minute, after I cover addictions. If you take a drug a certain amount of times, you can get addicted, which later leads to withdraws if you don't do it before your addiction meter fills up. Incase you do get addicted to a drug, there's a purple pill (not Nexium) called protodone. All it does is cure you of your addictions. The missions are very fun and creative, and the arresting system works fairly well. If you're looking for a GTA look-a-like, this isn't your game. You do walk around and shoot things and stuff, but you don't drive or anything, and the controls are totally different. If you're not into doing drugs, you don't have to. It's totally optional. This game really emphasizes Good Cop, Bad Cop choices. You can choose to kill the enemies or arrest them, help innocents or walk away, take drugs or deposit it as evidence. Of course, bad cop is always more fun. Lastly, you have a badge rating which reflects how you are as a policeman. Do bad deeds, you can eventually be put down to beat cop, and eventually fired completely.

Controls: 5
I don't really like the controls for this game. I'm not used to them. It's a third person shooter with first person shooter controls (i.e. R1 = shoot, you use two analog sticks to move, you use the D-Pad to switch between weapons, etc.). I like the GTA controls, but you do get used to these.

Story: 7.5
The story is actually not bad; better than True Crime, no where near as good as Grand Theft Auto. You play as two characters, Jack and Marcus. Jack used to be on the force until he got deep into drugs and was booted off. His ex-partner Marcus was always the goodie and followed the rules. A classic Good Cop-Bad Cop partnership. You alternate between characters, and each character maintains his weapons, drugs, and badge rating, even after you switch. Pretty cool.

Graphics: 6.5
Not the best. A bit better than, or even on par with GTA graphics. The characters aren't very well done if you look up close and, like GTA and many other free roaming games, the same skin is used several times, to the point you know how a criminal dresses and acts as opposed to a civilian. A major downfall with the graphics is the fact the car windows look like crap. It's a kind of dark game, whereas the more recent GTA games are more light. So if you're into that, they're not bad. However, when they do try, the graphics are pretty good (in cut scenes).

Sound: 6
The sound isn't the best, but not bad. Some of the songs on the soundtrack suck, some are good. The same goes for voiceovers. The main characters and a few side characters are well done, while some other voices and civilian's voices aren't too great. The main problem I had with the sound is the fact the protesters and civilians don't have many different lines to say, so they get repetitive and the music doesn't play then fade away after awhile.. nope. Instead, each part of town has it's own song, so if you leave, it automatically stops or goes to a different song. That can get very annoying. I think they could've done better on how the music plays, but the overall music is pretty decent and the VO's are half and half.

Playtime/Replayability: 7
Well, I haven't beaten the game yet, but I've been playing for seven or so hours. It's only $20, so that's not bad at all. If a game costs me $50, I expect it to at least last 20 hours or have high replay value if I want to get the feeling I got my money's worth. This is less than half the price, and some $50 games are only 7-10 hours. I feel this game, considering the price and how long I've been playing, has decent playtime.

Final Score: 7 (not average)

Final Recommendation: Rent or Buy? This is tough. For me, this is definitely a $20 well spent. However, if it was $50, I would've been ticked off. There are a few reasons you may want to check out this game.. If you like the concept of the game about the drugs as power ups, if you want the classic Narc game and a spinoff for your PS2 but don't want to buy Midway's Arcade Treasures 2 for the old school game, or if you want a pretty well spent twenty dollars, buy it. If not, but you're curious, rent it. If you rent it and don't like it, you saved yourself $10-15. If you did like it, you just cost yourself an extra $5 at least. Plus, for $20, who cares if you don't like the game? Just sell it to that younger kid around the corner for $30 and say it costs $50. Eh?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/05