Not a bad Police game and a good follow up to the 1988 classic.
Now almost sixteen years later, a follow up has emerged from developer Midway and Point Of View. The premis of NARC is that you play two NARCO cops on the case of some new mystery drug called Liquid Soul. The plot starts out pretty basic but eventually leads us further into the past lives. There are also some very interesting plot twists, as well as decent dialogue to back it up, though its pretty much your B 80's action movie stuff, it works well.
The Gameplay mostly consists of either two button hand to hand combat, or massive one way gun massacres. (which kind of ruin the Police Officer concept) You take on a series of missions that range from listening in on conversations to taking photos to raiding a secret Meth lab. Since NARC is afree roam game, you can explore the two cities of Brooklyn (I think) and Kaloon (which is Chinese) Theres actually lots of fun things to do on the city streets including arresting various criminals (Dealers,shop lifters,car radio thieves,Gunman,Jumpers,Graffiti Artists, and others. You can also play dice and card mini games you will find at various places on the street.
A big part of the exploration is finding the hidden drug stashes littered throughout both cities.
The Graphics do a fairly good job of portraying the gritty ghetto streets. Though there are some serious Graphical flaws. enimies will sometimes simply vanish for no apparent reason, you will sometimes phase through parts of the enviroment, and other strange things will happen. When you are stoned on any of the drugs you confescate (only if you take them) then everything will get pretty trippy and surreal, which can look pretty cool. The character animations are okay for the most part, but some of them look blocky and reminicent of a PSone game.
The sound is possibly the best part of the whole game. There is a fully liscensed 70's R&B and rap soundtrack that sounds great. You'll hear lots of songs from your favourite Blues artists and your favourite rappers as well.
The soundtrack is easily the best part of the game. The same can't be said for the other sounds though. Voices arent too bad and are your typical 80's action movie fare. But sometimes they will loop over and over while in gameplay and can be infuriatingly annoyng. Gunshots don't sound too bad, honking horns and sirens actually sound quite good
In the end, NARC is a pretty good Police Action/Adventure game that despite having a few flaws, if definately worth it. Even simply for the soundtrack alone.