GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned Review

In this age of gaming, we can be guaranteed of several constants. One: the popular games will almost always come out during the holidays. Two: any new game will spark a debate regarding which console it looks best on. And finally: you can expect a game's life to be prolonged through DLC. Such is the case with Grand Theft Auto 4 with the release of the first of several DLC episodes "The Lost and the Damned" available only via Xbox Live Marketplace. What separates TLAD from other DLC packs out there is that the experience doesn't feel like just some tacked on missions to get some more play time out of the game. TLAD offers a completely different perspective of Liberty City that is definitely worth experiencing.

Those who have gone through GTA 4's main story might remember a certain biker who appeared throughout Niko's story. TLAD puts you in the shoes of that biker: Johnny Klebitz, vice president of motorcycle gang The Lost. Johnny's story begins with his gang's president, Billy Grey, being released from prison. Naturally, Billy wants to stir up trouble with rival gang The Angels of Death just like the old days much to Johnny's chagrin, as it would be bad for business. What follows is a tale that touches upon themes of greed, friendship and loyalty in an ever changing world. Along the way you'll meet up with the usual GTA lineup of drug dealers, gangsters, and corrupt politicians, while meeting a few familiar faces, including Niko Bellic. My favorite aspect about the story is how it seamlessly ties into GTA 4's story. You'll experience some of Niko's missions through Johnny's perspective and you'll see other ties that clarify some loose ends. Remember all those missions as Niko that had you killing bikers? You'll now know exactly who those guys were. Remember those diamonds that caused so many problems for Niko? Well, now you'll find out how they affected Johnny. TLAD story parallels Niko's story flawlessly, adding so much more depth and enjoyment to an already deep and enjoyable story.

Gameplay is for the most part unchanged in TLAD. The interesting thing about Johnny is that he's not just Niko with a new skin; he moves and fights differently, even his cell phone is different, which just goes to show the effort Rockstar put into this DLC. The motorcycle handling is a thousand times better than in the main game. No longer will you fly off your bike after hitting something that in the real world would not send you flying. Turning and manuervering through traffic also felt a lot smoother and I was able to recover a lot faster when I was knocked off course. Johnny has a few new weapons available for him including an automatic pistol, a sawn off shotgun (which you use while on your bike), an automatic shotgun, a grenade launcher and pipe bombs. All of the new weapons are fun to use and I found myself using them whenever possible.

Aside from the story, there are a few other new things you can do in the city. You can do gang wars throughout the city, which consists of hitting a rival gang locations and eliminating them. Fortunately you can call for backup two of your gang members to assist you. You can also do this while doing main missions as well. Using them not only takes the burden off you, but also builds up their toughness, allowing them to become better fighters. You can also build up their toughness through riding in formation with them. While riding with them, the gang logo will appear on the road. Keep up with it and you'll build ther toughness and gain health for youself. Building them up proves very useful for the story and during these gang wars. Also available are numerous bike races which allow you to assault other racers with a bat. Coming from someone who hates racing games, having this option makes doing these races just a bit more tolerable. There are also some more assassination missions, bike collecting, a few more random character encounters, some added multiplayer matches and even some more birds to shoot. There are some more minigames added for when you go out with friends including air hockey, arm wrestling and cards. Fortunately, you won't be constantly spammed by friends who want to do things with you like in the main game. In fact, throughout the entire game, I was only called once to do something.

All of these new features are great, but pale in comparison to the best new feature of this game: a checkpoint system. Now during missions the game saves your progress during mid mission cutscenes, so if you die or fail the mission you can just load from that checkpoint instead of having to do the whole thing over again. It makes for a far less aggravating and cumbersome experience, though it's only available during TLAD and not the main game. The missions themselves are not too frustrating though some have their moments. Added up, the story is a third of the length of GTA 4's story, and you can probably get through the story alone in about eight hours. There are a lot of really memorable missions in this game including hijacking a prison bus, escorting a drug mule to safety, riding the back of a motorcycle blasting cop cars with an automatic shotgun and an epic final mission that I thought was a lot better than GTA 4's final mission.

Graphically, the game looks no better or worse than GTA 4. This is certainly not a bad thing as GTA 4 looked great, but it has been almost a year since that game, so you would think there would be some more improvement. The same goes with the audio. The voice acting is once again top notch, and all the characters from GTA 4 you encounter have the same voice actor which is good for consistency. Rockstar has even added some new songs for the radio stations that are more fitting with the biker theme. Most of these songs go incredibly well with the game. Going through a high speed chase/shootout with Deep Purple's "Highway Star" on the radio is an experience like no other. Running from the cops with Styx's "Renegade" on also makes for a great experience. There are also some more radio chats and TV shows that are also available for your viewing pleasure.

There are only a few flaws I found while playing. The first of which is with the map. Mission markers are colored very darkly which makes finding them on the map frustrating. I spent a good five minutes trying to find the next mission logo because the marker blended in too well with the black background of the map. Also, the mid mission checkpoints are a life saver, but I found it kind of annoying that it doesn't remember that you had armor or backup during the mission. Meaning that you'll have to call your backup again, and you have to tough out the rest of the mission without some armor, which seems impossible in certain missions. I also thought that Johnny took way too long getting on and off a motorcycle. This is usually not an issue most of the time, but when time and speed count, it becomes noticable. These are all just minor flaws in an otherwise excellent add-on that do not spoil the gameplay.

The Rundown:
Concept: Experience Liberty City in the eyes of a biker gang.

Story: Delivers a whole new story that perfectly synchs up to Niko's storyline as well.

Sound and Music: Great voice acting, great audio and some great new songs to listen to.

Controls: Unchanged from GTA 4. It's the same here as it was there, so if you didn't like them then you definitely won't like them here.

Graphics: Looks just like GTA 4, which isn't bad, but maybe a slight improvement would have been good.

The Verdict: TLAD stands out greatly amongst other games' DLC. The amount of new features Rockstar added is very impressive, added in with a brand new story that is just as engrossing as the main game. This feels more like a new game than just DLC, and it is well worth the $20. So if you're a fan of GTA 4 and have it for 360, buy it now.

Score: 9.5/10