Narcos: Rise of the Cartels

 Switch
User Score
3.3

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 16
  3. Negative: 11 out of 16
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  1. Frank447
    Nov 25, 2019
    7
    In a nutshell, XCOM with a Latin American drug war wrapper.

    Pros: 1. Graphically, it's pretty solid. 3D isometric with rotatable field of view during the combat phase, and the story interludes are interesting enough to sit through and watch instead of skipping ahead. 2. Sound. Again solid. Latin American background music plays during the combat phase. The voice acting is    In a nutshell, XCOM with a Latin American drug war wrapper.

    Pros:
    1. Graphically, it's pretty solid. 3D isometric with rotatable field of view during the combat phase, and the story interludes are interesting enough to sit through and watch instead of skipping ahead.

    2. Sound. Again solid. Latin American background music plays during the combat phase. The voice acting is pretty decent.

    3. Play. It plays similar to other X-Com games with some notable exceptions (below). You either are a fan of the play style or not.

    Cons:

    1. Lack of 2 player competitive - DEA agents vs. Narcos seems to be tailored towards 2 player competitive action.

    2. Lack of destructible backgrounds (building walls, etc.) is disappointing.

    3. Unlike other X-Com style games (Mario vs. Rabbids, Mutant Year Zero), in this game each turn only allows one character to perform an action (unless a character ability is used to grant additional actions). It makes sense from a game balance sense - a squad of 5 characters all having first action has a massive advantage when they are first to act.

    The problem is strategically it makes sense (for the player) to probe and retreat using one or two team members leaving the others behind. There is no overriding sense of team strategy. This can make for prolonged (though successful) missions. A time / turn limit on mission objectives would speed up the action (see Mario vs. Rabbids) by forcing the player to engage on multiple fronts to finish a mission.

    Though I agree that movement / firing should be restricted to one player per turn from a game play balance standpoint, I don't understand why the other characters aren't able to heal / reload weapons / activate special abilities / or just plain rest when they are not moving / firing. Again, this would speed up the action.

    Final thoughts:

    In the vast wasteland of real time strategy games for the Switch, this stacks up pretty well with the other two titles I mentioned above (Mario vs. Rabbids, Mutant Year Zero). The game action does play slower than the other two and so the score reflects that.    … Expand
  2. JoOc85
    Jun 11, 2020
    7
    It is a game that for those who, if they follow each movie or series, for example on Netflix, will get their attention a lot, for those who like it, I like the games, it may be better, bad or not so good, it is history...

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
41

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5
  1. TheGamer
    Dec 14, 2019
    20
    The only silver lining of Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is that the game itself is such a disappointment in what it sets out to do that few people will play it in the first place.
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  2. Pure Nintendo
    Dec 13, 2019
    65
    Overall, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels offers some unique strategy mechanics to help distract you from the game’s slow nature.
    Read full review
  3. Digitally Downloaded
    Nov 27, 2019
    20
    There's simply no reason to play something so utterly bereft of thought as Narcos.
    Read full review
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