Back in 1988 Midway released a game called NARC. The premise was simple, get on the street, arrest or kill as many drug dealers as possible. This was a pioneer of violent games before Mortal Kombat. The narc of today is way different from the one you played 17 years ago. This time around you play as Jack Forzenski and Marcus Hill. Jack is your run of the mill, ex junkie wise guy, and Marcus likes to play it straight. The game is set at a few different locations all over the globe. This is a pretty nice idea due to the fact that the levels are very small. If you have played GTA San Andreas, you will almost feel claustrophobic, the levels are that small. Everything including the graphics make this game feel gritty. This game uses the State of Emergency engine, so some of the way the game looks will feel and act the same. The game play is a little hard to get used to at first. Dealing with the controls can be a chore for the first hour, then become second nature. Things like arresting a perp is pretty simple, and just dealing with a meter at the feet of the person getting arrested. It kind of feels like you are about to swing a golf club in a Tiger Woods game. If you choose, you can beat anyone senselessly. You can tackle anyone and beat them while you have them pinned, or even beat them after you have slapped the cuffs on them. This of course doesn't come without consequences. If you beat someone who hasn't done anything, you have what's called a "badge rating" and this will drop. If your badge rating drops enough, you will be busted down to a beat cop who wears the blue uniform, and if you continue to do dirty deeds, you will be kicked off of the force, and walk around town as a civilian. If you manage to bust drug dealers, hookers, graffiti taggers, robbers and so on, you can take the evidence back to the police station and bring your badge rating up and make your way back up to NARC. Unfortunately, there is no way to continue the story of the game if you are a beat cop or civilian, so you will want to keep your rating up. Keeping the rating up is important, but what, besides beating someone drops it? Drugs. When you arrest someone they will drop all kinds of different drugs, each is usable by your character. The game originally sported the "Just say no" logo, but it seems that the new narc seems to be "say yes if it's needed." Each drug will give you a certain ability that will actually help game play. Weed will slow things down in the game, LSD will alter your view so anyone who is good have huge jester heads and enemies have huge devil heads. Then there is the fictional made up drug called liquid soul. Liquid soul makes you invincible and makes you strong enough to kick the head off of anyone you run across. The drugs come with risk though. It is possible;e to become addicted to any drug you take, and with liquid soul, it's almost every time you use it. Overcoming the addiction can go one of three ways. First there is continuing to feed your addiction, take the drug and feel good for a while, overcome it physically, which you will grab your head and have to take control of a meter to keep within boundaries, otherwise you black out and get robbed, or take some medicine and get rid of the addiction straight off. Of course, if you have some money, you can always run up to any dealer (conveniently marked by a white drug icon above their head) and purchase your fix. If that isn't enough, you can equip the drug in your inventory and you can run around and ask people if they want to get high, but be careful, you never know when you are selling to an undercover agent. The sounds is defiantly one of the games selling points. The music is great. Old school tunes such as Pusherman or Golden Brown, or new upbeat rap plays, it adds to the mood of the game. Not to mention when high on weed "Hits From The Bong" plays. Another reason the sound is good is the voice actors. Jack is played by Michael Madsen, Marcus is played by Bill Bellamy, and Capt. Kowalski is played by Ron Pearlman. The only downside is a few cheesy one liners, with a dash of bad writing. It's not all lost though, cause with these voice actors, they give the game characters some real life. The game is being sold for $20 and if you like games like GTA, True Crime, or State of Emergency, then give it a shot. It also includes the arcade version of NARC if you can find all of the "secret stashes" in the first level, and that alone is pretty much worth it.
NARC is a 3rd-person action game featuring two Narcotics Officers in a NYC kind of setting. There is Marcus Hill and my favorite Jack Frosenzki. They are voiced by Bill Belamy and Michael Madsen. Overall, NARC is a prett... Read Full Review
the review deck says it all, but let me elaborate: NARC is a game where you play as a very easily corruptable undercover narc. The trick with the game is that you have the option to use the drugs you attain from drug ... Read Full Review
