GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

In today’s gaming industry, downloadable content (DLC) has become a way of life. It’s the developers’ way of offering tit bits of new content for a smaller price in the form of new missions, multiplayer modes, weapons, characters etc. to us paying customers. With their first batch of DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV - exclusive to the Xbox360 - Rockstar has taken the term “DLC” to the next level by offering an entire game for just 1600 points (it’s no surprise they’ve done so since Microsoft paid them nearly $50 million for this Xbox360 exclusive content).

Unlike most DLC that continues with the original protagonist, TLAD introduces a whole bunch of newcomers to the foray all of which are interesting in true Rockstar fashion. You have the new protagonist, Johnny Klebitz (who’s not new to the GTA IV universe by the way), an old school chopper riding, leather jacket toting badass and the leader of the Lost MC (motorcycle club), Billy, who’s a tad more complex and screwed in the head than him. Both Johnny and Billy are faithfully followed by the entire LMC who don’t stand out in any particular way but are fine as the supporting cast.

Then you have Johnny’s love interest for dramatic effect who’s desperately trying to kick her nasty drug addiction while proclaiming her love for him in hopes that he’d take her far away from her miserable existence. And then you do have certain recurring characters as well like Ray Boccino, Elizabeta Torres and of course Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman who sadly are pretty underused.

As far as the plot’s concerned you’ll have no trouble getting immersed in it since all the voice actors involved in this project have done a bang up job of things. Even though Johnny is more of an a**hole than Niko, you’ll slowly but surely be rooting for him by the end of the game. Billy is a nut-job but he’s got an enigmatic quality that you just can’t ignore and like I mentioned earlier, the other cast members don’t stand out but are quirky and amusing in their own way.
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TLAD takes place in Liberty City itself which is a good as well as a bad thing. Good because you don’t have to waste time figuring your way around town but bad because there’s nothing new to look at. One aspect of the game that’s been tremendously tweaked is bike control and it’s nearly as good as it was in San Andreas (that aspect alone made me fall in love with this DLC immediately). No more do you feel like your bike’s gliding on ice; floor the pedal and weave in and out of traffic with minimal effort. Next up you have newer weapons like the grenade launcher, automatic pistol, sawed off shotgun and - my personal favorite - the automatic shotgun. New stuff aside what impressed me the most was the fact that TLAD actually played better than GTA IV because (1) It’s smaller in scope which means a tighter mission structure (just like Crysis Warhead) and (2) Rockstar seem to have taken a teeny cue from Saint’s Row 2 making missions seem a lot more action oriented and over-the-top. On the flip side, certain missions are a bit on the tough side and some of them are downright annoying. Luckily we have a brand new mid-mission save to minimize frustration.

Not content with providing players with nearly 9 hours of gameplay, Rockstar has even thrown in some new multiplayer modes for you to tinker with. The first one is Race that is exactly what it sounds like; only difference is that players now have a bat at their disposal with which they can whack their opponents off their rides. Next up you have Chopper vs. Chopper – a one on one duel of sorts where one player commanders a helicopter mounted with a machine gun while the other has to ride his bike through various checkpoints while avoiding the incoming fire. Next up you have a co-operative mode called Club Business that’s almost the same as GTA IV’s Team Mafia and finally you have Lone Wolf Biker and Own the City – both of which I couldn’t try out due to time restraint.

If you haven’t got it by now, TLAD is solid value for money. It costs 1600 MS Points (worth nearly 800 bucks) and offers gameplay far superior than most stand alone games. Add in side quests like gang wars and bike races and you’re looking at more than 15 hours of gameplay. Add in some multiplayer and you’ll begin to understand how Rockstar has raised the bar for DLC everywhere.

NOTE: To play TLAD you need a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV in your Xbox360.