Ever since Grand Theft Auto emerged on the scene many years ago, there have been several types of knockoff games letting you walk the fine line of the law, giving you the opportunity to either cross it or follow it and see where your fate takes you. But it's with a strange sense of irony that the likes of Narc would ever fall into the same category of Rockstar's legendary series. But it has- what was once a full-blown, take-no-prisoners assault on dealers, dopers, and all sorts of hellacious druggies has become a third-person cop tale, one that lets you either "walk the line or cross it", as the advertising so blatantly puts it on the back of the package.

Narc tells the tale of two different men- a DEA agent and an undercover cop- who are thrust into the corrupt city, where they'll encounter all sorts of different characters who are somehow influenced by the city's rising drug trade. You'll run into snipers on the roof, typical punks who get their kicks stealing purses and starting fights, and the occasional nutcase who's popped himself so full of illegal goodness that he's practically invincible. You're introduced to this type of character right from the get-go, as the DEA agent finds himself facing a lunatic who's just gunned down an entire police squad while taking bullets like they were nothing.

Narc does not possess the most moving story, that's for sure. It plods along like some kind of bad cop film, with all sorts of selective dialogue that tries to pepper itself with plenty of expletives and threats. The actors involved, including Bill Bellamy and Tarantino favorite Michael Madsen, read the lines off as they should with style, but it still sounds rather hokey, coming across as forced rather than something you'd normally hear from an undercover cop. Fortunately, the sound is backed up by a stellar selection of tunes, from old songs like "Pusher Man" and "That Smell" to new stuff from Cypress Hill. The game promises customized soundtracks, but fails to deliver. Too bad.

As far as the gameplay goes, it's your typical variety in terms of the way you handle shooting enemies and fighting them. With weapons, you have to manually aim with the right analog stick in order to lock an enemy in your sights, and then blaze away with the right trigger button. Unarmed, you can fight bad guys with your fists and with kicks, and get into grapples that allow you to throw them or set them up for an arrest. The more arrests you make instead of kills, the higher your badge rating gets. If your badge rating drops too low, though, you're back on patrolman duty, working to get back up to stature.

The interesting item here with the gameplay is the ability to use drugs themselves to help enhance your performance. Taking "crack", for instance, will make you a crack shot, killing enemies with one bullet instead of the several they usually require. LSD gives you the ability to tell good guys from the bad by seeing little smiley icons over their heads. Pot goes into a slow-motion phase, while your skills remain at normal speed. And Speed, surprise, gives you a power boost. However, if you take too many drugs, you'll find yourself knocked down quicker than the criminals you're trying to apprehend. If you're short on cash, you can even try to sell some of these drugs. But, again, run the risk too much and it's back to foot patrol.

It's just too bad that the general controls don't come together like they should. Aiming can be a bit of a hassle, especially when you're trying to gun down multiple enemies who are wailing bullets into you. And when you're trying to take out distant enemies with a grenade launcher, the aiming system that locks on can be terrible, as you make a shot that's a guaranteed hit- and miss them. The hand-to-hand stuff is alright, especially with the grapple-and-arrest system, but is nothing really innovative. In fact, after your 20th arrest, right man or wrong man, it gets old.

The graphics are another department that could've used some boosting. This game has been in development for over a year, so you would think that Point of View would be giving Narc an appearance of true disgust. Instead, it's a typical city design, with the ability to just run over regular animated folks with weird body structures. Some building details do look good, but they're set back by some strange glitches in the game, like characters who suddenly juke out of nowhere and run off. Some more time getting this game put together would've really done it some good.

The game really lacks in longevity as well. It's a solo player effort, and there are only so many missions and special assignments you can complete before you find yourself at game's end. Fortunately, as a neat little extra, Midway's thrown in the original Narc arcade game, so you can blaze the dopeheads old-school style. And the $20 price tag doesn't hurt either.

Narc can't come fully recommended, because, aside from some appropriate soundtrack choices and the ability to use what you fight so hard against throughout the game, it really doesn't offer anything new. If you're looking for a quick fix to get you by between your sessions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, give it a rent and see what it does for you. Otherwise, you might consider just saying no.