GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City is a package of both Downloadable Content Episodes available from Xbox Live. Both can still be downloaded separately and should be done if you’ve already downloaded The Lost and Damned. As such the review is split into two segments. Like the sound of one but not the other then download that one and not the other. Like the sound of both of them then get the disk. The disk does come with one extra, a new radio station that plays 80’s music.
The Lost and Damned
The Lost and the Damned is the first DLC to come out for GTA IV and has been out to sometime but assuming you’re thinking about picking up Liberty Cities you haven’t got it yet. You play as a biker called Johnny Klebitz, Vice President of a biker gang “The Lost”, your first task in the game is to pick up your newly released leader Billy from the jailhouse.
The story is predictable with Billy having outdated ideas, Johnny having a taste of command and problems with giving it up. The game throws out any subtlety and screams at you everything isn’t right within the gang. Coupled this with the love interest on drugs Ashley which provided a will they won’t they story line which you’ve probably seen before; you’re not really going to get much of a story. That said voice-acting is superb, Rockstar have once again got some fantastic voice talent in which is only matched by the in-game dialogue. There are a couple of segments that link Johnny to Niko’s story which can be quite nice to see from the other side and see minor characters you may not even have noticed have their own motivations and vices.
Gameplay is basically GTA IV, nothing wrong with that, still set within Liberty City most of the game takes place in areas where you as Niko rarely set foot. These were the least interesting places however; industrial areas and rundown neighbourhoods, so if you weren’t a fan of the bland “realism” of GTA IV you’re not going to get much rest bite in the locations of TLaD. The areas do however seem fresh and you’ll rarely find yourself running over old ground apart from missions which overlap with Niko’s story.
The major change to gameplay is the bikes; they handle so much better than in the main GTA IV story. Less realistic but that’s what I want damn-it, if you bump into something you won’t come off, drive off a ramp and don’t ace the landing, don’t worry. Took a hard corner and end up spinning out, well Johnny has a fantastic grip. The bikes handle better too, sticking to the road and having better cornering. It’s a good thing too as pretty much every mission involves bikes and they do become a joy to ride.
TLoD has pretty much no tutorials so from the moment you turn up missions are hard and fun, the only new thing you have to learn is that you can call on your gang to help you out and they upgrade after each mission (provided they live). Missions become more extravagant quicker seeing you have massive fire-fights and chase missions throughout the game, providing a good 10 hours extra to GTA IV on missions alone. Another addition is that retry spawns are generally in the middle of a mission meaning if you die in a fire-fight and then retry via text you won’t have to go through cut-scenes or drive to the location again.
For those that aren’t all about the main storyline there are couple new weapons; the grenade launcher, a few new shotguns, pipe bombs and the brilliant automatic pistol. New radio broadcasts, websites and TV shows. New bike races and biker gang wars, more vehicle theft missions (well it is called GTA) and some new mini-games.
GTA IV: The Lost and Damned may not push any boundaries but its good fun with an uncomplicated storyline and some challenging missions.
The Ballad of Gay Tony.
The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second and last DLC to come out for GTA: IV completing the GTA IV trilogy only available on Xbox 360 which I’m sure most PS3 owners are quite aware of. You don’t take control of the titular Gay Tony but instead Luis Lopez; Tony Price’s driver, bouncer, partner, go-to-guy and when needed, disposer of hostile gang members.
The dealing with the whole “Gay” issue is surprisingly well done and mature but still manages to have fun with stereotypes, bigots and the completely platonic relationship between Tony and Luis. The story is a lot more compelling than the Lost and Damned story and you won’t be able to predict it quite as accurately as Johnny’s quest for control. Tony and Luis are owners of two nightclubs who have fallen on hard times; Tony managed to get in debt to two different sets of mafia, Italian and Russian, and then later pisses off the Chinese, while getting caught up in the diamond chase that links all the stories together. All this while trying to keep the ailing businesses afloat. Add dealing with Tony’s drug addiction and Luis’ dodgy past it’s a much richer tapestry with many more colours than Eastern European brown or 50’s era Biker black.
That is what the expansion feels like too, a lot more vibrant and off the wall. TBoGT is still set in Liberty City but most of the game focus on the downtown areas meaning more opulent surroundings, more decadence and more crazy rich folks wanting to give involved with the darker side. Be it relatives of previously established characters, Russian mafia bosses or Oil rich Arabs Luis will visit a side of Liberty our previous characters Niko and Johnny would never be able to get to.
Not to say that Luis is above previous characters, no he’s still dragged down into dealing with drugs, cage fights and trying to make his mother respect him. He also rubs shoulders a couple of times with Niko and Johnny and we finally get to see the game from each side of the story. Voice acting is again superb and top marks go to Omid Djalili as Yusuf a crazy Arab with solid gold Uzis and a penchant for stealing things that aren’t for sale.
Sticking to the same gameplay TBoGT turns it up to eleven making missions a lot more wackier, surreal and humorous. This feels like a proper old GTA game before a little thing called “realism” came into play. I don’t want to spoil any missions for you but they’re a lot of fun with many shouts to previous games; most notably San Andreas. More weapons are included like automatic shotguns with explosive shells, new mini-machine guns, sticky bombs and quite a few more. There are new music on the radio stations, a couple of new cars (including a “tank”) some new websites and I’m not sure about the TV channels.
Missions are tough and only the bare amount of tutorials before you get thrown into the action head first and like TLaD, TBoGT will restart missions midpoint when retrying, so no more annoying drives to get to the location. Plus it scores you at the end of each mission, complete a set number of tasks and make sure you get plenty of head-shots with good accuracy to score 100% on each mission. Then the game allows you to reply missions after you’ve completed the game allowing you to try to beat your old score. Then there are new mini-games like dancing in clubs, drinking, base-jumping with parachutes (naturally), drug missions and triathlon races spanning air, water and land. None of these are going to hold your attention for too long but are a welcome addition to help lengthen a game that already hits the 10 hour mark just on missions alone.
The Ballad of Gay Tony doesn’t really deviate from the solid gameplay of the original game but because of its attitude it breathes fresh air into it and makes it a must buy to those who enjoyed GTA IV.
Sometimes the best is left for last.
Red Dead Undead Nightmare was pretty good, and usually Fromsoft do good expansions. Apparently The Witcher 3 has as well.
Yep, From Software and CD Project Red and also Techland with there Dying Light DLC.
