Upon the arrival of Rockstar's legendary Grand Theft Auto games, you knew the clones would be pouring in. A number of game companies are out there working on urban clones of the San Andreas chapter, eager to cash in on its bloody success while delivering a few twists of their own. But it's Eidos' latest effort, Total Overdose: A Gunslinger's Tale In Mexico, that seems to be a real attention-getter. That's because it doesn't quite follow the familiar pattern we're used to seeing. Sure, it feels like GTA all-in-all, but the game takes us to a whole new territory we haven't seen much of in gaming- Mexico.

The game puts you in control of the younger kid brother of a DEA agent, who works alongside his kin to shut down a number of drug cartels and crime syndicates in order to make his territory a safer place. He works alongside a girl interest, Angel, in finding bad guys who seem to have an armada of soldiers and some well laid-out territory, ranging from anything such as a car dealership with a big inflatable dummy on the roof to a bullring with snipers taking pot-shots everywhere to a cornfield where a main container is fueled by different natural tankers, scattered throughout the terrain. As you proceed, a mystery begins to unravel, as you try and seek out a dangerous criminal known only as "PM".

The story's not much, really. It's just a structure to hang the action scenarios off of. But they're a grand number of scenarios, both mission related and non-related. You'll make your way through a number of cities strung together throughout Mexico, from some seaside ports where your shady cousin likes to hang out to a nearby suburb of Los Angeles where people are no doubt trying to jump the gates. Missions are indicated on a meter in the lower left corner, and if there are no current missions to be completed in the area, you're given an icon that shows you just where that particular mission could be.

I explained in my breakdown that the missions vary throughout Total Overdose, and they do. There's main missions that relate to the story and get you that much closer to the crime syndicate. There's side missions where you must drive around from checkpoint to checkpoint before time runs out. And then there's some quirky stuff that breaks up the monotony, like Day of the Dead, where you battle as many skeleton-dressed men as possible to rack up a high school, and Mexican Wrestler, where you get into the shoes of a Luchador and knock down as many poor souls as possible. It really adds a bit of diversity to the game.

And it needs it, too. As huge as the levels are in Total Overdose, the main story mode can be completed in probably under 20 hours. That's not to say it isn't worth going through, and there are some points that it can be incredibly challenging, like taking on a boss who seems to take countless hits or trying to keep yourself alive on your last bit of health bar as you're surrounded by gunmen who just keep on coming. It's just that you'd expect some more mileage out of a game like this, aside from trying to reach some well-hidden icons and collecting so many enhancement tools to help your performance get even more crazy.

But at least the ride is a good one, thanks to Deadline Games including some great tweaks on the general GTA gameplay. When you're riding around in a vehicle (which doesn't have the greatest of physics, especially when drifting), you can actually poise yourself to get ready to leap out of the car and turn it into a speeding missile, where it explodes with a mighty impact when it strikes its intended object. Furthermore, as you exit the car, you can slow things down and shoot at your desired targets as well, adding a little insult to injury. I liked that.