In Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, the player is presented with two separate stories that tie into the original game. While both episodes help develop Liberty City as a believable locale, they differ in quality so vastly it's hard not to compare them against one another.
The Lost and the Damned opens with a gang of bikers rolling along the Liberty City streets, generic rock music in tow, for literally five minutes. No dialog, nothing of real narrative importance, just hairy man on motorcycle action. Two minutes in it became quite comical, but 30 seconds later I found myself wondering if it was ever going to end.
Beyond the opening scene, the first thing that really struck me about The Lost and the Damned was the voicing for the main character, Johnny. I'm not sure if it's just bad acting, or if the voice just doesn't match the player model, but something is definitely off. I struggled with this throughout the majority of the 20 hour experience, but it diminished as the game went on. Personally, I found Johnny to be the least likable character in the GTA franchise, serving as a moral anchor for the rest of his crew and just being a buzz kill in general. He can get very preachy regarding matters of drug dealing and cop killing, which for a GTA game, is a bit hypocritical.
Missions in The Lost and the Damned are fun and challenging, but all involve Johnny, a motorcycle, and guns, which may leave the player wishing for more. The only diversions from the standard story missions are motorcycle races and gang wars, both of which can only be started while on a bike. Thankfully these are only a phone call away for just such an occasion. I completed all twelve optional races, hoping I would be rewarded with a new bike for the story mode or something else of equal awesome, only to find that I simply receive an additional 00 per race instead. I was more than glad to move on to the next episode.
The Ballad of Gay Tony is refreshing in its cinematic opening, and really sets the pace and demeanor of the entire episode. The protagonist, Luis Lopez, strolls the bustling streets of downtown Liberty City on his phone, and it's clear that he's a no nonsense kind of guy with everyone's best interests in mind. I honestly don't think I've been so captured within the first five minutes of a game.
The Ballad of Gay Tony excels where The Damned fails, and not a single character disappoints in regards to believability. Luis simply blows any previous protagonist away with his likable personality and steel bravado. He lives by his own rules, and has a clear and defined set of morals that he sticks to throughout the episode, without ever expecting anyone else to do so. He's loyal to his friends, and respectful of his debts, but still not above banging some bitch in a nightclub bathroom. This is a masterpiece of a character and is deserving of additional entries in the series.
Gay Tony takes care to provide the player with nothing but action packed fun, and it's a beautiful thing. The player will find themselves primarily running around downtown, in some of the coolest cars, bikes, and helicopters the game has to offer. Throw in a parachute, and you're just a grapple hook away from Just Cause mobility. One of my favorite character's in the episode is Yusuf, the son of an Arabian billionaire who is just as goofy as he is charming. He provides a slew of gold plated mission rewards that are all immensely satisfying and well worth the effort. Side missions have Luis inciting drug wars with his childhood friends, or base jumping onto moving vehicles from the tallest buildings in LC. I literally had to tear myself away from the game for things such as sleep, work, or food.
Where GTA IV tried, and failed, at presenting a persistent world through the use of the in game cell phone, Gay Tony perfects it. While Roman called fifteen times because he really wanted to go to the strip club, I was trying to concentrate on the high speed chase I was involved in. I never experienced such grief in Gay Tony. When I received a call from Dessie about picking up a shift at the club, or from Michelle just wanting some late night booty, I was glad to have it, and it never felt invasive or distracting. The Damned never reaches this level, and I can't remember receiving a call in that episode that did not directly pertain to the main story.
I was disappointed in the original GTA IV as it could never seem to decide on ridiculous humor, or brutal realism, and suffered from countless technical flaws. I always seemed to die to a bug, instead of an actual enemy. After thirty or so invisible ramps flipping my motorcycle end over end, I found that The Lost and the Damned suffered from the same issues. The Ballad of Gay Tony however seems highly polished in this regard. Apart from the occasional texture not loading, every death was a result of my own suck, which I was glad for.
Overall, The Ballad of Gay Tony is Rockstar's shining example of how DLC should be done, but I can't say the same for Episodes from Liberty City as a whole. The Lost and the Damned is absolutely forgettable, but the additions, characters, and polish added in Gay Tony will have me coming back again and again.
GTA IV - Episodes From Liberty City Review
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