Just the PS3 and PC versions for this one please.
Check out the user reviewers guide for more details.
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Just the PS3 and PC versions for this one please.
Check out the user reviewers guide for more details.
Bit long this one, was struggling to cram both games in but there you go :)
Those aren't specifically subheadings btw, just put them there for the sake of convenience
Platform: PC
Intro
Contrary to the media fervour, and contrary to my own expectations, I wasn’t blown away by GTA IV. Technically it was a stunning achievement – with more depth than any game I’d played before –but to my surprise, the content was a real letdown.
Beyond the notorious “cart friend to venue, rewatch same nauseating act” routine, Niko’s personality was on a par with Claude’s; the storyline and characters were largely forgettable; and much of the humour and features from previous titles were missing. With an opportunity to build on the successes of the engine, with new storylines and characters, how does the DLC fare?
The Lost and Damned
In The Lost and Damned, you play as Johnny “The Jew” Klebitz, vice-president of The Lost motorcycle club. Early on, the club is thrown into turmoil by the return of president Billy Grey, who soon begins risking lives in thefts, gunfights, and drug deals, and the theme continues right through the game. Over time, the Lost become embroiled in an endless spiral of mistakes and internal conflict, as Johnny desperately tries to resurrect what’s left of the Lost.
Not content with just providing a new story, TLAD also presents some new game mechanics. It’s much easier to stay on bikes now – even during high-speed collisions. And in the event that you’re involved in a slightly higher-speed collision, you’ll take less damage when flying off them. Unrealistic? Maybe. But when Johnny and cars are so diametrically opposed, it’s a vital tweak, allowing fast-paced chopper pursuits without the crippling fear of bollard-instigated-death.
Additionally, there’s a revamped follow mechanic. If Billy isn’t around, your bike takes lead position, whilst the others spread out behind you in a V-formation – it’s both visually impressive, and highly immersive. Disappointingly though, at high speeds the bikers aren’t actually much good at following, and routinely crash into lampposts. The game employs ridiculous catch-up logic so they can make up the distance, but it’s usually out of sight and doesn’t particularly spoil the fun.
Most importantly, the “friends” feature has been cut down – and it makes a lot of sense. Johnny needs a gang of hardened allies, not drinking buddies. You can still ring a mate and play pool, but you’re far more likely to start a turf war, hopefully giving your group the vital boost in readiness that might just tip the balance in the next mission. Equally though, they can be killed, so you have to watch their backs, and you feel a real sense of loss when one of your long-term allies doesn’t make it out alive. Naturally, you can still be the traditional GTA one-man army, but it’s a welcome addition – at least “social time” actually counts for something now – and gunning down rival bikers is far more entertaining than a cut-scene of a burger.
There’s only one major downfall with the game, and it’s the result of the gang-based theme. You might expect some drunken brawls, perhaps a few thefts, and at most a hit on a particularly troublesome individual – instead within minutes you’re hurled into enormous shootouts, leaving scores of bikers and police dead. It’s fairly evident that if this was standard fare, The Lost would have been wiped out years ago, but more importantly you lose the context of your actions. Rather than having the tension and craziness slowly build as the situation becomes more desperate, everything starts insane and finishes in similar fashion.
The Ballad of Gay Tony
The Ballad of Gay Tony follows a similar route – you play as Luis Lopez, manager of Tony Prince’s nightclubs – a good job, were Tony’s business empire not slowly sinking into the mire. As an ever-widening array of criminal underworld figures appear, asking for their money back, the responsibility of fixing everything falls on Luis’ shoulders. And if that wasn’t enough, his old friends from Northwood want his help to make it in the drugs trade.
Again, Rockstar have introduced some welcome additions to the game. After a brief hiatus, parachutes make a welcome return, enabling base jumping from buildings and helicopters. And best of all, they are extremely well implemented in the missions as well – so you’ll be gliding onto roofs for stealthy entrances, and jumping out of skyscraper windows for dramatic escapes. There’s also a new Cage Fighting club, with a championship that will seriously test your unarmed combat abilities, and finally a long-awaited “Replay missions” feature, enabling you to go back at the end of the game and replay any of the missions, trying to improve your scores. Whilst it seems a bit unnatural for a GTA game to have scores and trophies, the replay feature is definitely welcome – no need to start from the beginning just to play through the best missions again!
Not only that, the follow system from TLAD is back again. Whilst helping your Northwood friends in their new business venture, you’ll notice that despite there being three of you, the 4-door car restriction of old has gone. Instead, whoever is left behind will grab the nearest suitable mode of transport, and follow you to the destination – it comes with the same caveats as in TLAD, but it’s a great feature that works tremendously well – tearing into a drugs deal, guns blazing, before fleeing in a pair of their Banshees with angry gang members in hot pursuit is brilliant.
All-in-all
All of these additions make the DLC more enjoyable than GTA IV to play, with less irritation and more freedom to do as you wish, and much more interesting protagonists. Despite Johnny’s “nasty piece of work” character, it’s hard not to empathise with him as he struggles to retain his grip on the world, watching his past and future being ripped out from under him. And as Luis watches Gay Tony’s empire collapsing around his ears, his loyalty always in conflict with Tony’s repeated mistakes and poor judgment, again it’s hard to feel completely detached.
The concurrent storylines approach also works very well, lacking the contrived feel of typical “What happened next” expansions, and it means that along the way you’ll bump into Niko, Johnny and Luis, and various acquaintances, through cross-linking plot-points that reveal what was going on behind the scenes of some of the most memorable scenarios in each of the three games.
Whilst they are short, by their very nature, they ultimately represent everything that GTA IV should have been. If you loved GTA IV, you’ll love this – and if you didn’t, you might just find yourself being dragged back into the fold.
9/10
Cheers Jim excellent read. I'll get this up on the site on Monday.