Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour has a decent B-movie momentum. You are thrown into an investigation of an LAPD bombing, handed a three-person undercover unit, and sent toward gangs and cartel connections with permission to make a mess. That is a more energetic starting point than a routine mission briefing, and the decision to let you pick Ben McCall, FBI agent Kim Evans, or DEA agent Eddie Guerra at least gives the campaign a small reason to be replayed.

What starts to click is the team structure. Each lead brings different weapons and special abilities, while the campaign keeps pushing the group through shootouts, car chases, hand-to-hand scraps, and forced entries. The moments where one character must stay back under suppressing fire while the protagonist pushes forward give the action a welcome sense of movement. Optional objectives also make the co-op emphasis feel more purposeful than simple drop-in target practice.

The frustration is that the game leans so heavily on familiar shooting while constantly changing the wrapper around it. A chase, a breach, or a short fight can break up the rhythm, but none changes the central fact that you are repeatedly driving through armed opposition. If you have co-op partners, the shifting objectives and three-character setup are easier to enjoy. Solo, the underlying routine has far less cover.

Graphics

The move from the series’ Western associations to a contemporary North American crime story is visible in the cast and locations: Ben is framed as the closest thing to an old-fashioned Western ideal, while Kim and Eddie belong to an FBI-and-DEA investigation that runs through gang and cartel territory. Car chases and close-quarters breaches at least give the action more to look at than a single stream of on-foot gunfights.

Story

The plot has a clean, usable crime-game engine: an LAPD office is bombed, three agencies pull together an undercover team, and the investigation points from local gangsters toward the Mendoza cartel in Mexico. It is direct enough that you always understand why the squad is being sent into danger.

The more interesting wrinkle is the team itself. Ben McCall carries the closest connection to the series’ Western-minded attitude, while Kim Evans and Eddie Guerra bring FBI and DEA roles into the same operation. That mix gives the premise some friction and keeps the game from feeling like a generic one-man revenge story.

Its undercover angle is also unusually aggressive. Early on, the team tries to provoke a gang war by destroying one gang’s drugs while posing as the cartel. That is a sharp premise for a loud shooter, even if the game’s action-first structure means the investigation mainly serves to propel the next confrontation.

Overall Experience

The Cartel is most enjoyable when you treat it as a rough co-op crime shooter with a pulpy setup, not as a natural continuation of a Western series. Get two friends involved, choose different agents, and the optional objectives can turn ordinary combat encounters into small coordination tests.

There is enough variety in the mission-to-mission action—shootouts, driving, fighting, and breaches—to prevent total monotony. But variety is not the same as depth, and the core shooting has to carry more of the game than it comfortably can. The result is a playable but uneven detour.

Give it a chance if a three-person undercover campaign and a bargain-bin crime-thriller mood sound entertaining with friends. Otherwise, start with the earlier Call of Juarez instead; The Cartel’s modern setting and co-op angle are interesting experiments, but they do not add up to a strong recommendation.

Retro Replay Score

5.3/10