Total Overdose review

Comparisons eh? For most of us, they’re a bit of a pain in the neck. We’re all a little on the thick side when compared with Einstein. We’re all a little ugly when compared with Hollywood hyper-celebs, poor, when compared to Bill Gates and to Michael Schumacher, we all drive like blind grandmothers.

Painful as comparisons are in our human struggle to be the best, few of us have it as bad as Total Overdose – a game that tentatively tries, but at the same time doesn’t try, to take on the gaming tour-de-force, that is, Grand Theft Auto. Unfortunately things don’t start well. The opening gameplay sequence is followed by what we can only assume to be a witty ‘opening twist’ that sees your character shift, from the heroic, multi-talented policeman to his ‘off-the-rails’ brother, Ram. Hardly the stuff of classic literature is it?

Vehicular troubles

To anyone who’s played even a small amount of the game commonly known as GTA the biggest problem posed by Total Overdose is the driving. Vehicles, including cars, tractors and trucks, casually make the way around the city your missions take place in and, familiarly, you are able to commandeer them to make your way to your destination a little more quickly. You may, however, want to spare yourself the disappointment and walk.

Very few models of vehicle exist which makes for a less convincing city and means you’ll soon tire of the selection. The vehicles’ handling is also dire – there was little apparent difference between a tow-truck and the omnipresent 4-door saloon. Adding to the already unconvincing experience, engine-sounds are poor and appear only ever to suggest that you’re travelling full-throttle.

There’s certainly little pleasure to be had from driving cars that lurch in one direction with even the lightest touch of the analogue stick. The ability to have Tommy lean out of the car, poised to jump out, kept us entertained for all of 10 seconds, until we realised he’s somehow invulnerable to lamp-post collisions, which should, at the very least, send him back into the body of his car with a bump.

PSX on steroids?>

Much like the game itself, graphics within Total Overdose are quite a mixed-bag. There are moments in which the game looks genuinely attractive with bright and attractive visuals portraying the Mexican locations in a refreshing fashion. However, this is counterbalanced by some truly dull and lacklustre textures, especially when it comes to vehicle models. These sometimes look more like the kind of thing that would fail to push even the original Playstation’s hardware, let alone the PS2.

In fact, we wouldn’t be overly surprised if we found Total Overdose was running on a slightly beefed up version of the engine that powered a certain PSX title by the name of Urban Chaos. The gameplay certainly felt surprisingly familiar as, distressingly, did the visuals.

Death by comparison?>

Of course, it’s hardly fair to judge a game purely on its failings when compared to games that do better in a particular aspect. Total Overdose, despite its numerous shortfalls has some upsides. The soundtrack, for example, is a generally impressive compilation of Mexican-style music and, most interestingly a Mexican-style hip-hop track that made navigating the well-designed and attractive menus a little more enjoyable.

Perhaps Total Overdose’s greatest redeeming-feature, perhaps even saving-grace, is its combat system. This is traditionally an area where similar games have fallen down with clunky controls and a real lack of variety. Happily, combat is certainly varied. Max Payne’s bullet-time feature has essentially been unceremoniously ripped-off and dumped within the game, but it works well nonetheless.

You’ll even need to keep the kills coming to keep the energy meter topped up. Stylish fighting, making use of moves you’ll have picked up in the training stages, is rewarded with points that make ‘Loco moves’ such as the ‘Mariachi move’ which equips Ram with two machine-gun guitar-cases. Oh yes, this game doesn’t just borrow from the gaming medium – the film world has been raided for ideas too.

Total Overdose is an unpretentious gaming experience, unashamedly providing an arcade-style mish-mash of many of the better features of a number of successful games. Although, more often than not, these ‘borrowed’ gameplay elements are poorly implemented and tiresome, there’s a surprising amount of mileage within the game. Those looking for a game that doesn’t aspire to provide much depth in terms of plot or a truly involved gaming experience could do worse than to opt for this title. That said, if you’re a fan of the GTA series there’s little that won’t leave you making comparisons – and, as we all know by now, that’s no good thing.