Narco Terror is a twin stick shooter developed by Keen Software. It has a really cool 80’s film aesthetic and does a pretty good job modernizing the arcade style shooter. As I was playing the demo, it reminded me of the old Midway classic, NARC but not quite as over the top. With that being said, this game is still pretty crazy and fun.
The game starts you off with a cutscene of the main character punching the helicopter pilot through the window and seeing it crash as you fell off. The goal is to get to the pilot to see who stole your daughter (from what I could tell.) The story is clearly action film inspired and that’s okay with me. The real selling point is the gameplay. Like most twin sticks, all you have to do is point in the direction you want to shoot people with the right stick and you will shoot. You can switch between a pistol and a shotgun in the demo and their strengths and weaknesses are easily observable. The camera is pretty far out making it easy to see the short range of the shotgun and the noticeably longer ranged pistol shot. I was also able to use a rocket launcher for a limited of time and was able to man a turret that had a cool down which was a little too quick for my tastes. You can also throw grenades that have an unknown trajectory which is frustrating because you never know where they will land, especially since the camera is so far out and the grenade is so small.
Some minor additions to gameplay Narco Terror added were the ability to jump and use melee. Jumping was used to go up small ledges and melee was pretty useless. There was never much of a reason to use melee because you never got crowded in this game. The most enemies on screen would show up when their was a turret where it was most obvious to use that.
The most satisfying part of Narco Terror is how easily things explode in the environment and seeing all of the numbers float above objects and enemies as you shoot them down. It really makes you feel like you are really good at the game. These colorful numbers combined with the 80’s filtered graphics make the game a pleasure to look at and the music and sound effects fit the mood perfectly. The game also has two player, drop-in/drop-out co-op which sounds like a blast too.
Twin Stick Diaries 