A Tequila-Filled Action game!

One of the worst things you can do to a videogame is release it too early. Plots feel unfinished, gameplay winds up unpolished, and the incomplete package ruins what could have been a stellar game. It happened to Knight of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and it has happened with Total Overdose: A Gunslinger’s Tale in Mexico. Like KOTOR II, the basic gameplay is phenomenal. This makes the unfinished features all the more criminal and begs for a sequel when the development team has had enough time to finish their work.

Taking elements from Max Payne, Desperado, and Tony Hawk games, TO: AGTIM follows the story of the Cruz family. When the patriarch, Ernesto Cruz, is killed by a fellow DEA agent on a dangerous mission in Mexico, his ‘good’ son and fellow DEA agent Tommy Cruz goes undercover to find out who betrayed him. Unfortunately, on his first mission he gets caught in an explosion and winds up confined to a wheelchair. Scrambling to save the work that went into this mission, Tommy reluctantly agrees to allow his twin brother, the ‘bad’ son Ramiro, to take his place. Sent to jail for being too violent, Ramiro is reluctant to help the DEA. Until he finds out that it was some DEA traitor that killed his father. That’s it in a nutshell, though the thin plot is just an excuse to send Ramiro (‘Ram’ to his friends) from one violent and crazy mission to the next. Every type of cinematic insanity that you can send an action star through, Ramiro will attack with gusto; whether it's blowing up a cargo freighter, destroying marijuana fields, or surviving an ambush in a meat factory.

But it’s not all missions. Deadline Games has managed to throw together a fairly convincing free roam city akin to that of Grand Theft Auto 3. Packed with life and teeming with secrets, Ramiro can explore this city to his heart’s content. Pick up the numerous power-ups everywhere you turn. These range from health boosts to adrenalin power-ups (to boost his Shootdodge ability), to weapon skill points (which give him things like dual wielding pistols or unlimited ammo). Unlike GTA, however, it’s more like Prince of Persia where you know where you have to go, but you need to figure out how to get there. This is actually more rewarding than say, graffiti tagging or horseshoe collecting, as figuring out how to reach a distant skill point (which allows you to wield two hunting rifles) isn’t tedious and requires some thinking.

There are also other pickups to try out. The ‘Dead of the Dead’ turns random citizens into skeletons with weapons and allows you to go on a rampage trying to earn bonus power-ups. Another one you can find briefly turns you into a masked wrestler and encourages you to pick fights with passer-by for bonus points. Each of these missions adds to your global score and when you reach milestones with that, you gain even more special benefits. Add all of these together and you have a lot fun little playable things to try out during your visit to Mexico.


There's no long-term car leases in this game.

Ram can travel on foot or by car, and this is where the first SERIOUS problem of the game sets in. Cars feel like you're almost permanently driving around on ice. More to the point, they get hung up on scenery for no reason and some of the more unique vehicles (like the forklift) require ultra precision driving to use. With another three or four months of development time this issue could have been resolved and made the game substantially better. Thankfully, Ram doesn’t fight from cars like the stars of the GTA games, as the only thing he can do is leap out of the vehicle at high speed (though there is a reason for that as well). The only saving grace is once you beat the game, motorcycles will pop up around the city for you to find and use. These are tuned well and don’t suffer any setbacks, although there is only one type of bike.