It is action gameplay at its finest combined with a great artitic design and a laughable cliche story.
Total Overdose combines open-world gameplay and slo-mo tricks. It sounds good, but the mixture could've been executed better. The Gta-like part feels really unnecessary. You constantly feel that Total Overdose doesn't really need to be a sandbox. While different fun minigames are spread all over the city, there is really nothing to do apart from the usual (though very entertaining) challenges.
The challenges that the city offers are quite interesting. Apart form the usual "kill 20 enemies in a minute" stuff, there are absolutely hilarious parts, like the undead-shooting minigame.
The Max Payne part is executed in a much better way. Slo-mo jumps are as intuitive and fun as ever while the game offers a lot of fun bonuses for different jumps and kills. That's why the gameplay feels fresh and exciting until the end of the game. There are different powerups that are really funny though not very necessary.
As for the design, it is just great. The atmosphere is nearly perfect, the whole game feels like a 1970's B-Movie about Mexico and the fact that it is so cheeesy only makes the game better. Also, the surroundings, the desert, everything feels really natural.
The storyline is so cliche it is realy entertaining to follow. just imagine - a brother of an FBI agent who just got really injured is caught by the cops and has to accomplish his brother's work while trying to find the man responsible for his father's (also a field agent) death. The plot is awesomely retarded, capturing the old B-movie style.
The graphics could've been better but then again, they do not really matter in a game which is all about fun. And that's what Total Overdose is - concentrated mindless fun.