The ‘Narcos’ Mobile Game Will Let You Live Like Pablo Escobar

Selling drugs in video games isn’t a particularly new conceit, from the turn-based strategy of the 1980s-originating Drugwars to the freewheeling open-world mayhem of the Grand Theft Auto series. This isn’t stopping FTX Games, though; Variety reports that the game publishing company’s teamed up with Gaumont Television for Narcos: Cartel Wars, a mobile game based on Netflix’s drama (which Gaumont produces) that focuses on notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar’s rise to power while attempting to evade the long arm of the law.

According to Variety, Narcos: Cartel Wars will allow players to assume the role of a cartel lieutenant as they build their own drug-trade businesses from scratch—in other words, imagine a version of Simpsons: Tapped Out where the donuts are made of pure-cut cocaine. “Narcos: Cartel Wars is about a lot more than violence, money, and power,” Aaron Berndtson, the head of business development for FTX Games, told the trade rag. “We wanted to explore the moral ambiguity from the show, where right and wrong are subjective. We’re very excited to put these choices into the player’s hands.”

Those last two sentences are, at the least, intriguing—chiefly because they make it sound as if Narcos: Cartel Wars players will have the option of choice in charting their rise to drug-lord infamy. If the developers actually deliver on this feature, it will surely separate the game from the legion of Farmville knockoffs that clog the market, as well as add an RPG-esque wrinkle into the format. However, given that such games often thrive on regular updates and micro-transactions—the latter practically existing as the video game world’s own profitable narcotic stimulant—will the power of moral choice expand the gameplay possibilities of the simulation genre, or will it just result in more unwieldy clutter for mobile players?

Either way, we’ll find out on September 2, when Narcos: Cartel Wars drops as a free download—the same day as the premiere of the second season of Narcos, naturally. If Escobar were alive today, maybe he’d smile on the marketing coup—or maybe he’d be glued to Pokémon Go like the rest of us. Who knows.

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