The hit Netflix show about Columbian drug dealers is turned into an XCOM style strategy game, but was that really a good idea?
As you may have noticed, the quality of drama on television has increased so much in recent years that it often rivals the best of modern cinema. So if the number of licensed movie tie-ins is on the rise then it only stands to reason that TV show tie-ins would be as well. Although the trouble there is that video games based on TV shows have an even worse track record than movies, and while it has good intentions Narcos does little to change that perception.
Whatever you were expecting from a game based on Netflix’s drug cartel-themed crime drama we doubt it was a turn-based strategy, but for whatever reason that’s turned out to be a surprisingly popular way to adapt action properties lately. Unfortunately, this is no John Wick Hex though, in terms of either originality or overall quality.
Despite the vastly different settings the tactical combat in Narcos is as close to XCOM as it can possibly get without having drug dealers zooming around on jetpacks. Inevitably the meta level strategy elements are much simpler though, with the game instead offering up two separate story campaigns, one for the DEA and one for the Medellin Cartel.
The game takes place during the first season of the TV show and forces you to play as the DEA first, before unlocking the second campaign. As with XCOM, when someone is dead they stay dead, with no chance to revive them, but in Narcos you also lose the game automatically if your leader dies. This small difference has a number of negative consequences though, not least that you’re tempted to level them up as much as possible and ignore all their other, more disposable, underlings.
Whoever you’re playing as, and despite the different names given to them, the five different classes of combatant are the same for both sides and range from scouts to heavies to demolition experts. You can take any combination of five with you on a mission but where the game deviates from XCOM is that you, and your computer opponent, can only move one per turn. This has presumably been done to simplify things for a TV audience, but it seems wholly unnecessary and just ends up with you focusing even more on just a couple of characters and often leaving the others trailing behind.
As in XCOM, the basic controls are very simple, as you click where you want your character to go and then who, if anyone, you want to shoot. This drops the game into a third person view, which is perhaps the most brazen steal from XCOM, where you get to choose whether to take the shot or use any specialist equipment or abilities you might have. Unlike XCOM there is the chance to take manual control of aiming in this view during reaction shots, but we’re not sure why as it adds nothing to the experience and the controls are very imprecise.
Where the game also differs from XCOM is in the lack of a strategic overview. There’s, obviously, no dissecting alien corpses or researching sci-fi technology in Narcos, just picking missions from a map and recruiting new characters as needed. Story missions do need to be unlocked though, by playing more generic support missions which have a small range of different objectives, such as assassination, rescuing a hostage, or collecting evidence. There’s a decent variety though and unless you want to purposefully grind for money and experience you don’t have to play them too often.
If you’re waiting to hear about some headline error that explains the game’s relatively low score it isn’t really like that. As XCOM fans will know the whole game is precision balanced, where you constantly feel on the edge of disaster in both individual battles and the wider strategic conflict. It’s a game that always feels harder than it actually is in, in terms of the tension attached to almost every decision and move. But despite everything else it copies, Narcos never comes close to that same feeling.
Once you have a grip on the, somewhat fiddly, controls the whole game is strangely easy, with so much money and experience doled out for completing missions that even most of your squad getting wiped out is only a minor inconvenience. The artificial intelligence is also really bad at playing the game, constantly running around out of cover or failing to take advantage of obvious opportunities. And that’s despite magically knowing where you are at all times, since there’s no real stealth element.
Whether some of this is intentional, in an attempt to ensure the game is as accessible as possible for people who have only come for the Netflix connection we don’t know but if you’re going to have that little faith in the concept and your audience then why make it a turn-based strategy game at all?
Part of the problem is clearly the budget, with low-tech visuals and poor sound quality, but that would’ve been a lot easier to forgive if the gameplay had been stronger. It’s not awful, and is a reasonable gateway game into other, better games, but the obvious danger is that if you’re unimpressed by the flawed experience of Narcos you might be even less likely to try out XCOM. And since nobody really expected a game based on Narcos to be any good, that would be the real tragedy here.
Narcos: Rise Of The Cartels review summary
In Short: 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.
Pros: A decent facsimile of XCOM’s turn-based combat, with well-designed levels and plenty of options and class types.
Cons: Controlling only one character per turn is unnecessarily restrictive, as is losing everything if your leader dies. Poor AI, low budget presentation, and a general lack of depth. No meta strategy level.
Score: 6/10
Formats: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC
Price: £24.99
Publisher: Curve Digital
Developer: Kuju
Release Date: 19th November 2019
Age Rating: 18
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