The Ballad of Gay Tony follows on form the release of The Lost and Damned earlier this year. Both are available to download for 1600MS points, but for those who don’t have access to Live, both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available on a disc, without requiring the original game to be played. A full review of the disc version will be up in due course. For those doing the maths, it’s cheaper to buy the DLC separately rather than on the one disc, but not everyone has the option to download - then there's always the cap factor.
This party is just getting started!
After a brilliant opening scene, The Ballad of Gay Tony has you playing as Luis Lopez, the right hand man to Tony “Gay Tony” Prince, who is the owner of the biggest gay and straight nightclubs in Liberty City. Having taken up some bad debts, Luis is forced into action to clean up Tony’s numerous monetary indiscretions by taking up jobs for Liberty City’s slimiest. The best part of the story is how well it ties into the narrative not only for Niko in GTA IV but also for Johnny in Lost and Damned. However, the story itself is too well tied in, because its references require you to remember something obscure and it’s hard to remember these 18 months down the track from the original release. Uncharacteristically, a lot of the social jibes are no longer really relevant and all three are ‘set’ in slightly different periods despite being tied to the same story.
The Ballad of Gay Tony probably has the smallest but most intimate core cast of a GTA game. At least a third of your missions come from Tony himself, while the rest are spread between the Russians, the Italians, your old neighbourhood, a crazy Arab entrepreneur and a few more. The main twist added to the missions is that each will now be ‘scored’. So completing the mission in a good time frame and with certain optional objectives will give you a better score. Upon completion of the game, you’ll be able to replay the missions and attempt to get a better score. While this will give some an incentive to keep playing, such as achievement hunters, the problem with this structure in a GTA game is that often, your missing an objective has more to do with a lack of luck, rather than lack of skill.
Something about fish and barrels is coming to mind...
The Ballad of Gay Tony had promised to go out with a real bang. And while a couple of the missions and the poignant finale live up to this billing, there is a distinct feeling through out the play time that the developers have reached the bottom of the creativity barrel. TBOGT almost overuses the things that it’s brought into the game. For sure, a lot of the missions are still enjoyable and the mission checkpoints are like mana from heaven. However, having played through the entirety of GTA IV, TLAD and now TBOGT, the game really struggles to stay fresh. While Luis’ character is very well fleshed out, just as well as Niko, his missions feel too much of an extension of Niko rather than the contrast that Johnny provided. Not that you’ll care too much as you take out military choppers with explosive tip shotgun shells but one of the stand out aspects of TBOGT is that it doesn’t manage to distinguish itself as well as TLAD did.
Of course, it wouldn’t be GTA without some fun diversions. Among the club management (which includes 'helping' celebrities), drinking games, golf driving range, the nightclub dancing, drug wars and cage fighting championship, you have the welcome return of parachuting and base jumping. Being able to look over the entirety of Liberty City is quite a thrill and has even spilt over to the multiplayer. Being able to play multiplayer matches involving parachuting and helicopters could get interesting, both o-operatively and competitively. Otherwise, some of the other diversions are comparatively weak. For example, the night club dancing is very easy to stumble through and get the ‘reward’ afterwards, while the golf game is very basic as well. The weapon additions are rather sparse as well, with only the new shotgun and sticky bombs being noteworthy and present. Other additions to the game include three new radio stations (Vice City FM is a great add), along with newly recorded audio and song additions for existing stations as well as additional TV stations, for those who prefer to watch rather than play.
Don't break the cord now.
So as a piece of downloadable content, The Ballad of Gay Tony is definitely up there. In comparison to other DLC released, it’s easily among the most substantial and along with The Lost and Damned in terms of what they each add to the original game. So even though it seems like the imagination well is running a little dry, the game’s faults are not really in the content itself. In the 18 months since the release of GTA IV, the world hasn’t got too much substance left, the formula of driving places and the mechanics behind moving, shooting, targeting and cover feel sterile and dated. Fighting the controls and your luck rather than a lack of skill is particularly detaching when you’ve already played a game for upwards of 40 hours.
If you’re still a fan of GTA IV, enjoyed The Lost and Damned and the aforementioned faults don’t mean anything to you, then The Ballad of Gay Tony is pretty much a must-download. You’ve got an action packed 10 or so hours worth of well-intertwined story to get through, and while the diversions are on the weaker side, the parachuting and base jumping make up a little bit for it. The final bang that was meant to be the last foray through this story isn’t quite as big as it was promised and the faults are more grating 18 months down the track. If you’ve had enough of GTA then it’s best to steer clear. Otherwise, it’s time to catch the bus and go for a ride through Liberty City one more time.
Worth buying? Yes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloadable content ratings system
We've given a 'buy' rating of 'Yes', 'Maybe', or 'No'.
Yes means that the content is either great value or brings some substantial additions to the game, or possibly both.
Maybe means that the content may be fun while it lasts, but may either be too short or not enough to fully justify the price tag.
No means that we don't recommend downloading this insubstantial content.
Loading...
