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DEA AGENT, TOMMY CRUZ goes in pursuit of a Mexican drug cartel to prove once and for all that his father, also a DEA agent, was murdered deep in the jungle of Mexico. What he doesn't bank on is breaking his leg. Unable to walk, Tommy calls on his twin brother Ramiro. The black sheep of the family, Ramiro is let loose from prison by DEA and becomes an undercover agent. Ramiro is tasked with trying to infiltrate the drug cartel and track down Papa Muerte, the drug lord Tommy believes is behind the death of their father.
Total Overdose brings to you a gaming experience similar to the infamous GTA series, but with a lot more blood and gore, and with a Mexican flavour. Ram has a number of missions to choose from, with the aim being to improve attacking skills, increase the ability to carry more ammo and gain an ability to use two hand guns at once. On completing each mission, new ones will appear depending on how well you scored. The storyline doesn't have to be followed continuously so you can take on missions purely to get a better feel of the game or simply just to get more ammo and explore the city's dark side.
You can explore the city by any means possible, from cars, vans, trucks, motorbikes, climbing buildings, sliding down zip lines or even taking a folklift. You can even use the vehicles as weapons; drive into enemy road blocks and dive before impact. Like a scene out of a Hollywood movie the game goes into slowmo as the car explodes on impact. To boost you can even shoot enemies as you are jumping out.
The weaponary Ram can pick up along the way varies in effect. You can pick up rakes, baseball bats or machetes, but these are more useful on civilians than the cartel as most carry handguns or grenade launchers. You will be best served using shotguns, grenade launchers, machine guns and rifles. For heavier arsenal, you can also call on your loco weaponary. This is gained by executing co-ordinated moves as you take out the cartel. The loco weaponary varies from the "Golden Gun" that takes out enemies with head shots, to the exploding piñata which (when thrown) draws enemies and explodes.
Total Overdose has a R18 rating and it is fair to say that this is justified by scenes of exploding bodies and blood spattering out as people are being shot. You can also celebrate "The Day of the Dead" where everyone around you turns into skeleton clad lunatics and attack you all at once.
Total Overdose shares many similarities to the GTA series but offers more diversity in terms of attacking styles and how you can go about exploring the city. Although full of action, Total Overdose still has a lot of imperfections, like invisible enemies you can't kill or - if you are lucky one shot will kill two enemies at once. Total Overdose also suffers from horrendous loading times; you may even find it so bad that all want to do is explore the city as much as you can without triggering a load or save.
Putting the imperfections aside, overall Total Overdose definitely has the potential to be a good series. It is a fun filled Mexican gun slinging adventure with Hollywood scenes similar to those seen in Antonio Banderas' Desperado. The scenes/layout are perfectly set and the variation of attacking styles will without doubt keep you entertained for hours. |
