This review is for the PC version. After the suspicious death of a man, one of his twin sons gets a job for the DEA like the father had, goes undercover(which is an... interesting choice, and obviously a completely unbelievable one, because every male in the family leaves a trail of extreme demolition and death wherever they go) to try to determine what actually happened. Well, he becomes indisposed, so what to do? Bring in the second one, who they have to release from prison to have him work for them, and I swear that he was doing time for making the wimpiest sound ever to be heard when jumping and the like, and, far more importantly, for every single thing he says being incredibly stupid, poor attempts at jokes and/or at sounding "hip"(granted, almost every line in this is, in general, but his are the worst). Personally, I'd have put him away for life, in solitary with no windows, visitors or possibility of parole for that slap in the face, but I'm not authorized to sentence fictional people, and perhaps that's for the best. He begins infiltrating from where his brother left off, and that's where the plot, which is a veritable Frankenstein's monster of "been-there, done-that", and by that I mean that this is quite literally stitched together entirely from age-old clichés. The characters have no personality, and the world presented here is entirely black and white. There is no drama and no emotional impact. Apart from what I've already mentioned, this just has a tendency of not being terribly original, with a couple of definitely noteworthy exceptions. This is a Grand Theft Auto clone. They add some Max Payne, as well. And they swipe the wire-riding(OK, that one, I will say, is less of a sure thing than the others) from Splinter Cell, and the Rewind feature(that, trust me, can almost completely and always keep you from dying, thus eliminating most of the excitement that the threat thereof produces) from the recent Prince of Persia titles, only it limits it to right after you're killed, though it would be useful at other times, too. Yes, the don't even get the things as good as the games they get them from. GTA has bigger cities(the one here isn't downright bad, only small) is longer(this is pretty short, frankly), and, as also goes for MP, with much more story, and you get into it more. This is almost invariably one-note, and there are only a few places where the game-play varies from the 50% shooting(with occasional protection duty), 37,5% racing, and 12,5% fork-lifting(!). Yes, you read that last one right, and trust me, if they were going to put that much of that(I'll grant them this, I haven't seen it elsewhere), they should have made the picking up less inconsistent. This does have a greater amount of freedom outside of the car than aforementioned franchise, if it is also fairly linear, overall. You can also leap out of whatever you're driving very easily. This tries a little too hard to be cinematic at times, putting cameras and slow-motion in several places where it isn't necessary, and risks cheapening the times where it does fit. They were also *really* scared of people thinking this was too slow, because you can use Taxis to instantly teleport to the different areas, and you can choose the Missions from a menu(each time you beat one, it disappears from there, though completing this will get you a full Selector), each, without moving to where they occur. There are two types, the ones that move you forward, and the ones that are about doing well enough to get rewards(including unlocking levels). In addition to what you can find and pick up, you get extra stuff when reaching certain amounts of the points that you can earn. Attacking civilians and randomly destroying won't do anything, neither negative nor positive(there is no police response whatsoever). Why does this, in some areas, try to be "safe"? It's gory, bloody, violent and the body count approaches that of genocide. This plays like starring in an exploitation flick set in(and perhaps also made in) Mexico. The majority of this is spent in gun-battles, and that is where this has some new to offer. Dodging can be used to execute cool acrobatic ways of stylishly blowing away foes that get your score up, and you can rack the number up by being fast enough at taking out a high number of enemies. The Loco Moves are nifty, as well, 7 types of power-ups that you can unleash upon opponents. Melee is cool, no matter the angle, you can attack, if you're close enough to hit them directly, without firing, then you will, no matter what you have in your hands at the time. This can be intense, energetic, high-octane fun, though I would say that this needs more and other things, because you're likely to get tired of it before you're done playing. The graphics are reasonable, and the animations are smooth. This has a well-done engine, and there are only few glitches and bugs, such as the occasional sticking to stuff, floating goon and such, you seldom come across show-stoppers. I'd say this isn't terribly tough, though do not let this be your very first VG, have the reflexes and motor(pun not intended) skills before you try your hand at this. The Headshot Targeting is nice, holding down the Right Mouse Button will activate it, and then you have to time it perfectly to get one, and this can be done at nearly any time, provided you're armed with something where it makes sense that you could aim that carefully with it. Saving is done by checkpoint. The weapons are mostly standard stuff. Some can be dual-wielded. This has pretty bad-ass music. The finale is rather satisfying. Sound is well-done, voice acting is fine. I recommend this to anyone who mainly is looking to play around in a non-committing game. 7/10
Total Overdose: A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico
(2005 Video Game)
Total Overdose, indeed
2 August 2009