Reviewed: November 18, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Eidos Interactive
Developer
Deadline Games
Released: September 27, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature
9
8
9
8
8.9
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
I remember seeing Total Overdose: A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico for the first time at a behind-closed-doors viewing at E3 earlier this year and I was hooked from the very first scene. Perhaps it was the expert presentation by the two guys from Sci Games, or perhaps it was the extremely polished gameplay for a game that wouldn’t hit shelves for another four months, but for whatever reason, Total Overdose offered a totally unique approach to the entire Grand Theft Auto game design.
Total Overdose starts off with a strong storyline that follows the adventures of Ramiro Cruz as told by his twin brother who is laid up in a wheelchair after an unfortunately hand grenade incident (that you get to play), but even before that you get to play as the brothers’ father in a brief interactive tutorial that ends with dad skydiving without a chute. So within the first 20 minutes of the game you get to play as three unique characters, at least until the game settles into the main story.
With the one brother incapacitated he is forced to get he rogue twin released from jail to continue his undercover operations into the drug cartel that killed his father, and let’s just say that Ramiro’s no-nonsense approach to law enforcement is hardly what most would call undercover.
Ramiro boasts more firepower than Rambo and more vehicular destruction than GTA, and with time-altering moves that would make Max Payne envious, he is more than equipped to infiltrate the Mexican crime syndicate. Plus, the story-driven gameplay is enhanced with a totally free-roaming city of massive proportions. So put on that sombrero and stay awhile.
At its core, Total Overdose might appear to be very similar to GTA but only on the surface. Personally, I found the gameplay to be a bit more diverse and slightly more fun than my recent GTA exploits. One of the nicest additions is the scoring feature that, while unrealistic with purple numbers floating all around the city of Los Toros, is still a great incentive to explore every nook and cranny, both high and low.
And if you think those hidden packages in GTA are a worthy collectible just wait until you start trying to find all the white and red blood drops, weapon skill icons, combo timer extensions, body armor, health boosts, rewinds, and more. Many of these icons, like the weapon skill, add incremental boosts as you try and find all 100.
When the game starts you find yourself outside the city limits with a nearby car ready for your first jacking. Your radar shows points of interest like Challenges, Story Points, and in this case, your first stop, the tutorial. The tutorial is pretty extensive and features several areas, each with numerous lessons to master. By the time you leave this location you should be an expert in all the physical moves, gunplay, combos, and the awesome Loco moves.
Back out on the street the gameplay follows the predictable pattern of performing various missions to earn points and the right to continue the story. Unlike GTA, Total Overdose requires you do to several of the side challenges before making the next story mission available on the map. This keeps gamers from ripping through the story in 6-8 hours then complaining about how short the game is.
The best thing is just how fun Total Overdose is even when you aren’t following the story. I played this game for nearly 12 hours, just exploring the city and collecting points, practicing my driving, and doing the various rampage missions. The great thing about the rampage challenges is just how much authentic Mexican flavor they managed to incorporate into the game.
One icon will put you in the costume of a traditional masked Mexican wrestler and all of the nearby citizens will also morph into wrestlers for a short period of insane combat with bats, rakes, or just old-fashioned wrestling moves. All the while you have some crazy music and some sports announcer-like guy yelling in Spanish.
The Day of the Dead rampage mode is a bit more sinister and the screen turns blood red and everyone morphs into these creepy figures in black leotards with white skeletons on them. You then try to kill as many of these guys with your loco moves as you can before the timer expires. What’s really eerie is that when the time is up and everything reverts back to normal, all of the dead bodies are still lying around and everyone you didn’t kill reverts back to street clothes and walks around like nothing happened.
Combat is a blast with more than 15 weapons that can be fired, thrown, or wielded in hand-to-hand combat. You have an adrenaline meter that fuels your Shootdodge (bullet-time) for some really impressive moves unlike anything you’ve seen in an action game. You can actually combo moves off of walls for midair flips or kick off a wall for a slow-motion reversal. And if you don't like the way something goes down you have the option to "rewind" the action and try something else, provided you have collected a rewind icon.
You have flick-targeting to cycle through multiple targets and you can fine-tune your aim for headshots and instant kills. This allows you to throw explosive items or grenades then quickly switch to a firearm and detonate them in midair. You can also aim independently with the right stick while zip lining down the numerous wires in the game.
Of course the highlight of the combat is the Loco moves. These are special moves that you earn then select with the D-pad for quick bursts of supercharged combat. Golden Gun executes flawless headshots each time you pull the trigger while Tornado has you do a slow-motion twin-gun spin followed by a series of snapshots of each target hit within the firing radius. El Toro turns you into a raging bull (figuratively speaking) and you run around body slamming people and El Mariachi whips out the twin guitar cases and has you unloading rapid-fire death. Mad Wrestler spawns a burly guy in full costume to beat down your enemies with a bat, the Piñata make a great distraction for groups of enemies, and the Sombrero of Death unleashes massive destruction.
Driving is a huge part of Total Overdose, and if you thought the unique jumps in GTA were fun; just wait until you explore the multi-tiered jump “puzzles” of Los Toros. You’ll jump from an alley to a rooftop then find another ramp to jump to a higher building across the street, or you might need to spiral up a parking garage then jump through several score icons floating high above the city.
One of the best parts of jacking cars and trucks in Total Overdose is that the original owner seldom leaves the car. Instead, they stick around for some of the best random dialogue in car-jacking history. Plus, you have to love some of the insults that Ramiro delivers as he is stealing these rides. “Did you really pick this color?” There is a great selection of cars and trucks and even a massive semi-tractor that you can take on a city rampage.
The challenge missions are pretty straightforward, usually kill this guy or group of guys, or smash this burrito stand, but when it comes time to do the story missions you will find them quite involved, often with multiple objectives that can take upwards of 20-30 minute to complete. As these milestones are checked off you get to explore more areas of the massive city.
Los Toros is huge and while you could explore the city on foot you’ll likely want to jack a car or even hail a cab. Unlike GTA where getting into a cab means you are driving it, here, you are presented with a menu of the various sections of town. It’s a great way to get around town quickly.
Each part of town is coded with an icon and when you get new objectives or waypoints they are coded with that same icon so you know where to go to do that particular event. When you are driving around and come to a load point that leads to multiple destinations you are given a menu of possible sections leading to that part of town.
Total Overdose has a distinct flavor to its visuals that pays homage to the high-intensity light and color of GTA: Vice City with a lot of oranges and reds, bright sunsets and high-contrast shadows. The game looks dusty and hot. There are plenty of special effects above and beyond the lighting and shadows. There is excellent smoke, dust, and fiery explosions. Plus the screen-altering effects when you go into the rampage modes or Shootdodge is excellent.
The city is surprisingly detailed considering just how massive it is. You’ll see repeating structures, signs, and textures if you drive around long enough, but there is plenty of original architecture in each section so you don’t get lost in a maze of identical buildings. Each section has several key features to set it apart like the factory and loading docks, or the giant bull-fighting arena, or the massive city dump.
Character modeling is simple but the animation is outstanding, especially for Ramiro who can twist and turn and leap and arc through the air like a professional gymnast. There are all sorts of subtleties thrown in, especially during the slow-motion sequences like shooting a guy then running under his hat so you can wear it. And don’t even get me started on the chickens. They have a mind and personality all their own.
The cutscenes use game graphics and this is where you see some slip in the character design, that is, unless they were going for an intentional exaggerated comic book style. It’s almost two-dimensional at times, but still maintains a consistent feel with the main game.
The cars all have distinct models and there is a good damage system in place that shows various levels of destruction until the thing blows up into a smoking mass of metal. I’m not sure if they are poking fun at Mexicans or what, but all the cars have For Sale signs in the window.
I simply loved the soundtrack in this game. There are nearly 30 quality tracks of Mexican flavored pop, rock, hip-hop, and cantina-style tunes that will have you thinking your Xbox is tuned to Radio Tijuana. I would probably never listen to this music in my normal life but it is the perfect ambience to the gameplay in Total Overdose.
Sound effects are pretty standard with unique sounds for all the weapons, car engines, metal scrapes, glass breaking, fire, explosions, and some funky time warping noises when going in and out of rampages and Shootdodge. The sounds are enhanced with a great Dolby Digital surround mix.
The dialogue is spot-on with all the necessary and appropriate stereotypes, accents, and slang. All of the actors deliver their lines with great skill and the appropriate ammount of "cheese", so the entire game plays out like a Mexcian action adventure movie that is poking fun at itself or at least the genre.
Even with the requirement of performing various challenges before going on to the next story mission you can still rip through this game in 10-12 hours, but for those that lose themselves in the city, you can play Total Overdose for upwards of 60-80 hours, especially if you want to find all the score values and other collectibles.
There is no multiplayer and no real reason to play the game after you have completed it the first time, but there is a big difference in finishing the story and finishing the game. Plus, the game is just so much fun to play, even if you are mindlessly driving or walking around town.
I’d probably bring down some serious heat if I were to say Total Overdose is a better game than San Andreas, so I will just say that I had “more fun” playing Total Overdose. There is so much to do that I never felt trapped in the story or in some scripted sequence of events. I was free to explore and hunt down items, perfect my fighting skills and accumulate massive combo strings.
But the biggest achievements in Total Overdose is the designers’ ability to fuse what has become a very stereotypical genre with some authentic Mexican flavor, both visual and audio, that on more than one occasion had me convinced I was actually south of the border. It was like going on vacation…only with lots of guns...gun and cars.