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Good: Solid gunplay, some cool moves

Bad: Repetition, annoying music, unbalanced 'Loco Moves', fairly short

RIYL: Max Payne, but wish it were set in Mexico and let you throw exploding piñatas

Had enough bullet time yet? Since The Matrix came out in 1999, we've seen it in a ridiculous amount of action films and videogames, and now we can add Total Overdose to the list. While it's heavily influenced by Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto, it adds enough of its own style to make it worth trying out.

The story is largely inconsequential, and is just about as stereotypical and unnecessary as possible. Ramiro Cruz has been recruited by his injured DEA agent twin brother to go undercover in Mexico to find out who really murdered their father. Being the twin with 'attitude', he deems it necessary to constantly spout extremely cheesy one-liners and act like a general idiot. Cutscenes in Total Overdose are bad to an embarrassing degree thanks to the awful voice acting and unbearable storyline.

Like countless recent games, Total Overdose attempts to implement a free-roaming system similar to GTA. All the typical copycat mainstays are present: optional side quests, hidden items scattered throughout the city, and the ability to steal cars. Unfortunately, the various areas are visually uninteresting and feature almost no creativity in terms of layout. Side quests are similarly bland, and almost always make you kill a large number of people or blow up a bunch of burrito stands in a limited amount of time.

Gunplay is the games strongest suit, although it controls almost exactly like Max Payne. "Shoot dodging" is identical, and lets Ramiro dive in super-slow motion, cranking out rounds the entire time. He also has the ability to dive out of a moving car in slow motion and shoot at the same time. This is performed by holding L1 while driving, followed by R1 to make the dive. Out of all of the available moves, this is easily the most satisfying. One mission involves blowing up a silo while it's surrounded by enemies. It was a blast to drive a truck full speed towards a ramp, and then dive out in slow motion shooting enemies. While all this was going on, my truck still continued on its course, crashing into the silo while I pumped round after round into my adversaries.

By completing side quests or satisfying certain criteria, Ramiro can acquire 'Loco Moves'. These are all absolutely insane, and can easily clear out every enemy on the screen. 'El Toro' basically turns you into a bull, and allows you to kill enemies by running into them. 'El Mariachi' is straight from Desperado, and gives you dual guitar cases to spew automatic rounds from. Most of them are just ridiculous, such as 'Sombrero of Death', which spawns a sombrero-wearing skeleton that runs around shooting people for you. My personal favorite was 'Piñata Boom-Boom', a move that assumes that all Mexicans absolutely LOVE piñatas. It gives you a piñata that you throw like a grenade. Once thrown, all of the onscreen enemies shout "Ayyy!!! Piñata!!!" and crowd around it. As the name of the move would suggest, it then explodes, sending bodies flying everywhere. The problem with these special moves is that they're way too powerful in terms of fighting bosses. Any boss character can be taken down in about 2 seconds with a Loco Move, which really takes away from the challenge and fun.

Vehicle control is extremely underdeveloped, and there isn't much variance in feel between the different cars. Cars are jacked exactly like in GTA, by approaching them and pressing triangle. One thing I appreciated in Total Overdose was the fact that it omits the time-consuming carjack animation. In GTA, it eventually got annoying to have to watch the same animation time and time again. While unrealistic, Total Overdose simply shows Ramiro entering the car and immediately driving away. Granted, it's weird to see him get in without throwing the driver out, but it ultimately saves time.

Graphics are technically unimpressive, but the style fits the game well. Textures are very basic, but all colors are bright and vivid. The soundtrack is truly a mixed bag. There are some very good mariachi tunes, but just as many terrible Mexican rap-metal songs. Sound effects are typical action game fare, and certainly nothing noteworthy.

Total Overdose delivers a somewhat solid action experience, but it's truly the definition of a 'rental game'. Under no circumstances should it be purchased for the full $39.99 MSRP, but it might be worth the Blockbuster rental price for action fans. It may be short (around nine hours), but it delivers enough explosions and shootouts to satisfy hardcore action fans.

Graphics: C

Sound: C-

First Play: C+

Last Play: C-

Gameplay: C

Overall: 77% C