Review: Narco Terror

Dishing out justice, one grenade at a time! Narco Terror combines the good of the old and the amazing of the new in an action-packed twin-stick shooter about an over-the-top one-man war against a drug cartel.

Pros:

• Twin stick shooter genre with simple fluid controls, enabling maximum enjoyment.
• Gameplay is straightforward and simple, No checkpoints needed due to the nature of the way levels are designed.
• Graphics are very modern and crisp in appearance with a great attention to detail. Shooting stacks of tyres causes them to roll around, crates explode under gunfire. The back drops of levels have things going off, You can see people running around or helicopters flying over. Shadows are of a high standard and look great.
• Isometric view that changes while playing. This shows off the background action more and gives a bit more atmosphere. The view as said changes and in co op it will follow player one.
• Collectibles are all over the levels and offer score and cash bonuses.
• Earn cash from blowing stuff up, killing enemies, more money and score is given for getting high multiplier kills or streaks as you were.
• Use cash to upgrade weapons such as increased range, a flashlight and higher damage etc.
• Drop in/Drop out co op that works really well. When some one joins there is no loading screen or please wait notifications.
• EXPLOSIONS! There is a huge emphasis on explosions in the game. They are everywhere and look so bad ass and over the top, our feel like you are in a proper action movie. Chain explosions, void explosions, destroy barrels and use thee to rack p huge multipliers.
• Some gorgeous levels can be unlocked, From jungles with huge waterfalls and hidden villages to an all out brawl on a portside dock.
• Vehicle mini games break up the shooting and for instance the first one is a plane one, Here the game turns into a bullet hell shooter with objectives. The change in pace is welcome and adds to the experience and story at hand.
• Each gun has different ammo types like flame bullets, bullets that deal electricity damage to ones like being able to shoot through walls. Ammo is collected from dead enemies and is limited.
• Co-op has clear indicators on who does what damage and each player has a seperate multiplier,score and cash amount. You will be glad to hear you cannot shoot your team mate by accident. You can revive your team mate with a simple button press. Reviving your co op buddy lets them come back with full health where as letting them die bring them back on half health.
• The main character is very much a clone of Duke Nukem, with his bad language and no nonsense approach to violence.
• The game has a lot of 80s/90s cheese within its ranks. The text for example is very retro with it going down a huge pixelated route. The jungle level feels very Rambo in places.
• Leaderboard support

Cons:

• Story is a stale one but fun in places. You are sent to rescue a girl from the bad guys and must destroy anyone or thing that gets in your way.
• Camera angle can make seeing enemies difficult in places. In co op its a bit more likely that the camera will annoy than help.
• Shooting guys high up is very hit or miss. Yes that’s a pun but it makes sense. To hit a enemies high up, you need to get close but with some you only need to be near them. Later levels these high up enemies have better guns and grenades meaning you need to take them out quickly.
• Saves can get confused after co op play. By this I mean playing co op wont update your single player save and instead you need to hit level select instead of continue and it works.
• Any game of this type is bound to feel a bit repetitive, Long periods of play will cause you to feel this.
• Can take a while to upgrade guns, especially as when dying you lose a chunk of money you earned just before death.
• As said the main character is very duke nukem and in yo face. Not everyone will like the crude language and actions of the guy.
• Slowdown and screen tearing is a common theme in the game and only increases in frequency when a large amount of enemies are on screen.
• When you die and restart a checkpoint you start with the same amount of health you hit the checkpoint with. So hitting a checkpoint with only a slither of health is not going to be fun.
• Difficulty spikes through out the game. New enemies will be introduced and you need to quickly work out how and where to kill them.
• In cut scenes during co-op the second player doesn’t show at all and is never mentioned.

In summary, Its a solid shooter and a lot of fun to play. co-op doesnt feel like an after thought and works really well. The story wont take long to finish, usually around 6 hours solo and maybe half that in co op. Twin stick shooters seem to be dying down in their frequency but this brings the genre back with a bang. People who love huge explosions and chaining kills together will love how the game delivers these. Harder difficulty levels are available and the trophies are easily obtained generally with a few hard as nails ones. A patch could easily fix many of the little niggles I had with the game. Overall it was a lot of fun to play and will continue to be a good pick up and play title.