Narcos: Rise of the Cartels

 Xbox One
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
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  1. Generación Xbox
    Nov 29, 2019
    72
    Four years after its premiere on Netflix, we can finally enjoy Narcos : Rise of the Cartels, the first title set in the successful series that allows us to experience the events of the first season as members of the DEA or members of the Cartel. A great work done by the small British studio Kuju Games.
  2. Screen Rant
    Nov 19, 2019
    70
    Despite these often vexing issues, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels' dozen or so hours of content (depending on how the game is played) remains polished and fun enough in its execution to be recommendable. It obviously never captures the sleekness or brilliant writing of its Netflix counterpart, but considering how often games based on popular movies or shows completely bomb at every level imaginable, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a breath of fresh air by comparison.
  3. GameGrin
    Dec 30, 2019
    65
    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.
  5. SomosXbox
    Dec 4, 2019
    64
    Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a game for lovers of the series and criminal stories, it fails to reach excellence in any of its points staying on the road in terms of the depth of management at the base and being little brave about tactical action. The failures of enemy artificial intelligence will remove the most experienced in the genre of turn-based tactical action from the title, but it offers a formula that, despite its shortcomings, manages to be entertained in the 10 hours it will take us to complete its two campaigns. Its history and its full use of the Netflix Narcos series license are probably its biggest attractions, but the fact that this is already known by the majority of the public does not make it a priority game in the current launch landscape.
  6. Xbox Tavern
    Nov 24, 2019
    61
    Narcos is an OK game with few new ideas brought to the turn-based action strategy genre. But unfortunately, without difficulty tweaks or in-game saves this game starts off tough and just gets harder from there. When you can’t be too cautious or throw caution to the wind it really limits the strategy element and instead means the game relies on luck and repetition to progress.
  7. XBLA Fans
    Dec 11, 2019
    60
    There’s a lot of good but sometimes the bad can outweigh it. This can be an extremely difficult game only because of the seemingly unfair advantage your opponent has. The upgrade system can be annoying especially when someone you invested in gets wasted. Is it fun? Yeah, but a lot of games do it better. This is for fans of the series for sure, and if it didn’t have the show giving its appeal, then this would be a poor entry into strategy-based combat.
  8. TheXboxHub
    Dec 5, 2019
    60
    A proper storyline from the perspectives of both the DEA and Narcos could’ve elevated the base game into something far more sumptuously involving too, but what’s here is serviceable and will readily satisfy anyone who wants to sink their teeth into a quick-fix strategy game.
  9. Impulsegamer
    Dec 2, 2019
    54
    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. Say what you will, but I’ve seen way too many games like Kung-Fu Panda, Spider-Man 3, and even Transformers all miss the mark. Unfortunately, ‘Narcos: Rise of the Cartels’ is no exception and while a few changes to the HUD and combat system would make this game fantastic, I can only review the game I have in front of me and not the game I know it could be. However, all is not lost. The game does offer a decent amount of replay value and the controls are simple enough that even a non-gamer can easily pick up this game and play it.

User Reviews

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User Score
2.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 7 out of 10
  1. Xbox_Alive
    Nov 25, 2019
    8
    Narcos: Rise Of The Cartels - Netflix has produced many hit shows over its existence but there is always one TV show that sticks out the mostNarcos: Rise Of The Cartels - Netflix has produced many hit shows over its existence but there is always one TV show that sticks out the most for me, and that show is Narcos. From start to finish Narcos always seemed to keep me hooked throughout and to say I binged through it would be a massive understatement. As you can imagine then when I first learnt that there was a game coming out on consoles with the Narcos theme I was very interested and thankfully Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is actually pretty decent even if it doesn’t get everything quite right. This game is about the first season of the show which happens to be my favorite (many times this is the case in any franchise), because after all there’s no one as famous as Pablo Escobar when it comes to the drugs industry. You get to play as the Cartel as well and this is a nice twist on things because it’s always fun to experience both the good side and bad side and you can do both in this game. For me this was a very good idea from the developers because it makes the game feel very much like the TV series because we get to look inside the minds of both factions so to speak. Basically this game is all about strategy and whilst the strategy elements are a little on the simple side I often found them to be executed extremely well. I would however recommend that you play the game in short bursts though because it can get repetitive quite quickly. Thankfully though when played for short amounts of time you’ll often find that deploying your units in the various missions is very fun to say the least and in the end you do get quite attached to the events that are occurring whether your a good guy or bad guy. Like I said earlier the gameplay can be a little too repetitive for its own good at times, which may be off-putting for some. This however isn’t the biggest problem in my opinion because that has to be reserved for the AI. You expect the enemy you face to be realistic and smart but quite a lot of the time you find the enemies in this game to be dumb which makes the game less challenging than it should be. This in turn then makes each win feel not as important as it should which unfortunately was a little disappointing. There have been many games over the years that I’ve tried to capture the TV or film magic that the original managed to capture but ultimately failed and whilst Narcos: Rise of the Cartels does feature some of them issues I wouldn’t call it a failure by any means. In fact I would go as far to say that this game has managed to capture the true essence of the TV show extremely well and if you go into playing this game expecting some sort of limitations then I definitely guarantee that fans of the TV show will throughly enjoy Narcos: Rise of the Cartels because I certainly did. So if your a fan of the show or the genre I would definitely suggest you check it out for your Xbox One!… Full Review »
  2. jkss97
    Nov 25, 2019
    0
    This is one of the by far worst games ever done, you play 1 player out of 5 the rest of your squad just watches you die as the enemy hasThis is one of the by far worst games ever done, you play 1 player out of 5 the rest of your squad just watches you die as the enemy has supernatural speed.....it makes no sense. how can anyone sit there and play this?… Full Review »
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