Total Overdose is a third-person shooter and adventure game developed by Deadline Games, released in 2005 for Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC. Players control Ramiro Cruz as he navigates the criminal underworld of Mexico's drug trade. The game centers on an combo-driven combat system that rewards chaining attacks together for escalating carnage, with a wide arsenal of weapons and a set of exaggerated special moves contributing to its frantic pace. The open sandbox structure encourages experimentation and replay, with the combo system providing an incentive to revisit encounters and push for higher scores. A Latin-influenced soundtrack accompanies the action throughout. The game draws clear inspiration from stylized action cinema, emphasizing spectacle and excess over tactical restraint, and situates its over-the-top gameplay within a Mexican setting that informs both its visual identity and its music.
The year is 1989 and deep in the sweltering heat of the Mayan jungle, camouflaged among the Inca ruins, Ernesto Cruz catches his breath for a few moments and admires his handiwork, bodies strewn across the temple ruins, as he makes a last gasp effort to board a DEA plane to take him to safety. He never made it home, the tragic victim of an alleged 'overdose’. Two weeks later, Ernesto's son, Ramiro Cruz is hauled out of jail by the DEA to be told his twin brother, Tommy, works for them as an undercover agent and has some new information about their father's death. But, Tommy has had an accident with a hand grenade and now Ramiro must take his brother's place in an undercover operation closing in on the ruthless drug cartel overlord Papa Muerte.
