NARC

[Cheebs]

Apparently the drugs have negative side effects, so they aren't completely glamoried.

1UP Link

From the article linked above:

"You can use drugs like speed to make you run faster, LSD to make enemies appear with devil heads, and marijuana to put you in "weed time" (which is a slow-motion mode that lets you aim easily like "bullet time" in Max Payne). Each lasts for about 20 seconds and enables you to play differently. To show that these are not meant to simply be power-ups, the developers made certain that each drug has significant negative effects on you as well, such as losing points on your police rating. So by the end of the game, players will have a realistic understanding of what effects drugs like these have."

PR bullshit of the year right there.
The player's "realistic understanding" of marijuana includes the ability to dodge bullets and a lower "police points" rating. Just like the real world.

[Mzo]

That sounds, to me, like the Worst Thing Ever.

[Tracer]

The old Narc is dead =(

[Regus]

Narc rules, State of Emergency was alright, so although I'm skeptical, I'll definetly play this. I like the idea of using drugs, then randomly having cravings and withdrawl.

[JM]

I have to agree with Mzo. This does sound like the worst game I have ever heard of. It's bad on so many levels. How could any publisher greenlight this shit? (I know, dumb question, but really)

JM

[gameoverDude]

Why in the hell would they make drugs have even any positive effect? This is- uh, I mean is SUPPOSED to be Narc. Weed-time? Please. This is a big fat obnoxious mistake for the developers. Midway shouldn't have handed it to the State of Emergency team.

Pot would probably keep you from shooting straight. What happened to "Say No... Or DIE!!!"? Now they're changing it to "Say No... But".

At least Spike "Hypoman" Rush in the original game saps your energy with whatever that junk is in his hypodermics.

What we're getting now is so profane.

[Tracer]

Yeah, I was hoping for the Say no or die thing... that was so rad. Breaks my mighty heart.

[Joust Williams]

Is Midway involved in anything that doesn't suck anymore?

They tried making their sports games more realistic, they keep making MKs, they do this...

[Agent X]

I was interested in this one until Gamespy did the feature on how you can power-up your character by doing drugs, thus glamorizing the whole thing. It's not like I have some moral opposition against this (Well, I do but not in the way, say a Joe Liberman would. I think it's bad but hey, so is Manhunt), but it's definetly one of those things I would rather see Midway avoid to NOT give a worse name to video games as is.

I agree with everything you said above. The idea of being able to sell or consume confiscated drugs is all the more controversial when your character is supposed to be a narcotics officer. It's especially odd when you consider that the original game had a strong anti-drug message (although blowing people into pieces with rocket launchers isn't exactly acceptable, either).

Midway is trying too hard to be like Take-Two Interactive right now; that is not the direction they should be going.

So at this point, I'm more excited about NARC being on the next Midway Treasures.

Me too.

[NoFace]

That sounds, to me, like the Worst Thing Ever.

Sounds about right.