Upon loading the game, players will have access to both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony from the outset. Both stories are self-contained within the Liberty City of GTA IV, so you don’t need to have played the original though experience will help. Both DLC episodes assume that you’ve already played as Niko, given they both skip through a lot of tutorials that were so carefully spelled out in GTA IV, both through gameplay and story. On the plus side, it means that you’re pretty much in the thick of things from the get go.
Here we go again...
The Lost and Damned has you playing as Johnny Klebitz, a senior member from the bikie gang, ‘The Lost’. Johnny’s story revolves around the growing instability of Billy, the enigmatic and almost psychotic leader of The Lost, while Johnny tries to make sure that the gang and club are still functioning. The Ballad of Gay Tony, puts you in the shoes of Luis Lopez, the right hand man and cleaner to nightlife tycoon, Tony “Gay Tony” Prince. Luis’ story revolves around the debts owed on the clubs that he runs for Gay Tony and how they’ve jumped in bed with the wrong people.
While both tell a good story about moving forward with past baggage and 'all in a day's work', neither of the episode stories contains the sombre karmic undertones from the original. However, the real beauty behind the stories is how they all come together with Niko’s story, and in particular, how some of the things you did as Niko were set up or followed up by either Johnny or Luis, particularly the ‘diamonds’ and the museum mission. Unfortunately though, a lot of these references will be completely lost on those who haven’t played through GTA IV. And unless you’ve got a superb memory, some references are difficult to pick up two years down the track, even if you have played through all three stories.
Both the Johnny and Luis arcs skip a lot of the formalities introduced in the Niko arc that revolved around ‘building’ the character. Johnny is already firmly entrenched as a bottom feeder, while Luis will spend time in slightly more illustrious company. The presented contrast between all three is quite interesting, but TLAD does the best job of really providing a contrasting experience from both a story and gameplay perspective. As Johnny, you really feel like you’re part of a bikie gang. TBOGT on the other hand is probably a bit too similar, as it only does more of what Niko didn’t do very often, such as riding in helicopters and Luis sometimes feels too much like the lackey that Niko often was, despite being one of the more likeable characters.
Luis has you in his sights.
Since both of these stories are building off the original game, most of your missions are pretty nuts from the get go. With Johnny, you have all your contacts already in place and you’ve got missions that allow you to take gang members to help you out. With Luis on the other hand, you do stupid things like steal a military helicopter, tank and a subway cart. The handiest addition to both of these is a checkpoint system that doesn’t require players to restart from the beginning of each mission. TBOGT also adds a score to the end of each mission, which can be improved upon once the game has been completed. Each story has its highlights and each of them will take about 10 hours to complete. As such, you’re pretty much getting around 20 hours of story-based gameplay from this entire package.
Of course, the story is only part of the game, as both Johnny and Luis have brought some extra tricks to the party. In TLAD, you have races (where you can belt other riders with bats), gang wars and stealing custom bikes. Furthermore, there have been a handful of new and thematic multiplayer modes, ‘Witness Protection’ and ‘Chopper Vs Chopper’. The latter has one player on a bike and another in a helicopter. In TBOGT, you have a golf driving range, nightclub dancing, drug wars and cage fighting championship, as well as the welcome return of parachuting and base jumping, to both single and multiplayer. Some of the other diversions are pretty worthless though, such as the night club dancing which is very easy to stumble through and get the ‘reward’.
Most DLC is released very close to the original game, but releasing these episodes so late hasn’t been the most favourable move, namely because most mere mortals are unlikely to remember much of the finer story details. Furthermore, while GTA IV had some impressive improvements over it’s predecessors, a lot of people got too excited about it at time of release and as such, the fundamental flaws of the original were not critiqued as they should have been and stick out much worse two years down the track. And since DLC is based off the same game, there is no room for improving these fundamentals. So while new players lose out on the story, veterans often have to put up with an exacerbation of gameplay faults.
Oi! Can we jump yet?
In the two years between now and the release of GTA IV, the faults are much more grating. Whether it’s a case of the original’s design being better or the mechanics were simply not up to scratch, the tradition of failing missions because of the poor controls and a lack of luck rather than skill still infuriates. All three protagonists are way too clunky in their movements, the cover system only works well in set pieces and gets confused more often than not, enemy AI is very erratic in their skills and the targeting system is borderline on busted in firefights of more than a few enemies. Why these faults weren’t highlighted upon the game’s original release, we’ll never know. The PlayStation 3 version thankfully doesn’t suffer from the visual deficiencies of the Xbox 360 retail disc, making it a technically proficient port, but the trophy design is similar to the Xbox 360 achievement design, woefully lazy.
Six months later, PlayStation 3 and PC owners now have the chance to finish off the story that was started in GTA IV. With two streamlined stories, the value of the package is undeniable. However, who is still able to remember the details and intricacies of the story two years later? While inclusions such as checkpoints are heaven sent, playing the game now that the wonder of the city’s scope has subsided, makes you question why distinctive faults such as the controls weren’t rightfully criticised at the time of release. Thankfully, the PS3 version has much less evidence of being a rush job, as it is much more technically proficient than the Xbox 360 version. As far as a package goes, it’s all here and all has the potential to provide a riot of a time but Rockstar would do well to get their mechanics up to scratch once the production of GTA V gets under way.
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