The Lost and Damned

Considering Rockstar hadn’t exactly delved into the world of DLC prior to The Lost and Damned you’d be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft’s $50 million deal for 2 exclusives was some what of a gamble. The big question is has it paid off ?

To be quite honest it’s hard to see how anyone could class it as a failure. With the 1600 MS points needed to purchase the extra content (equivalent of £13) you’ll be hard pressed to find a full retail game that delivers what TLAD does.

The extra content focuses around Johnny Klebitz and other members of Liberty City’s biker gang The Lost. The story starts as Chapter leader Billy is being released from rehab and you as Johnny along with the rest of the gang are riding out to pick him up. In Billy’s absence Johnny has tried to run the gang sensibly striking up truces and deals to keep The Lost financially secure. However Billy’s sociopathic tendencies soon send The Lost back down a road of running battles with rival gangs and send Johnny headlong into a power struggle with Billy. Do Johnny and the Lost sound familiar? So they should. Johnny appears twice in the original GTA 4 missions. The first time alongside Niko and Playboy X in the drug deal that was a police sting and again as Niko attempted to sell Ray’s stolen diamonds to the Jewish dealers in the old museum. TLAD doesn’t forget any of these crossovers in story and in fact embraces them fully with said missions being tackled from Johnny’s perspective while references to things you did as Niko are a constant undertone while you progress through the surprisingly lengthy story.

So what has changed? Well on the plus side being content focused solely around a biker gang the bike physics have had a dramatic tweak. Bikes are now far more responsive and running over a twig no longer sends you flying over the handlebars and rolling half a mile down the street. Rockstar have also added a whole stash of new bikes both Hogs and sporty and all of this combined actively encourages you to ride instead of drive. I’ve both heard and read a number of people both “experts” and gamers mention how you will still get into the habit of hailing cabs and quick travelling while this may be true of some players it totally defeats the object of the content. With missions now seemingly marked off at each cutscene as a checkpoint there is no reason to fast travel at all other than to hit a safe house to save at short notice, also with the decreased amount of crashes sending you flying off your ride (to the point that I had played through a good 75% of the story before taking my first tumble) why waste good in game money on a cab ride when you can spend it on some of the new weaponry and reign down lead death in a whole new way.

That’s right NEW weaponry. Not only do you now have a whole host of new bikes and a small handful of new cars a couple of handy and extremely satisfying new weapons are also available. Whilst all the old items are still available in the gun stores a quick call to Terry and up rolls a van with a few new options. (Same idea as the call for guns made to Little Jacob) In addition to the regular handgun an automatic version is now available, as well as pipe bombs and my personal favourite the assault shotgun. The later is a TOTAL beast, quick fire and able to annihilate any vehicle in no time at all you’ll find yourself using it over and above most other guns in the game. The range of uses has also been tweaked. While in 4 you where restricted to handguns and smgs while driving TLAD allows the use of sawn off shotguns while riding so we can all fulfil our Arnie Terminator 2 fantasies.

On top of new physical items the ambience has also received a tweak. Most radio stations now have a handful of new songs that are slotted in randomly so after a short time they feel as if they have always been there. A number of new adverts and DJ chatter have also been effortlessly blended in to keep the comic touches that are now part and parcel of a Grand Theft Auto title. Speaking of comic touches WKTT now has a completely new segment “The Martin Serious Show” which is a not so subtle spoof of the shock jock culture…or is it more of a blatant finger point at the self proclaimed “King of all Media.” Add to that more TV content and a special Split Sides appearance of one of my personal favourite comics in Frankie Boyle and it becomes clear that despite it being merely DLC Rockstar have still given it an incredible amount of detail.

There is however one minor down point. In seemingly an attempt to give TLAD a grittier feel than GTA 4 the visuals have a grainy film effect filter placed over both cutscenes standard play. While I can understand why it was done it does the game no favours at all and makes the Liberty City that wowed us a year ago a very bland feel. This effect can easily be removed though through navigating the pause menu and removing the “noise” filter.

As a solo play title in itself TLAD certainly stands up extremely well to criticism. For a relatively small download story wise you are treated to a solid 8-10 hours of extra gameplay. The missions consisting of the regular drive, chase, shoot that you come to expect from GTA. The story itself isn’t as full of comic touches that GTA 4 was but it is however still engaging. Also the way in which certain parts of Johnny’s story tie in nicely to Niko’s give the player a whole new perspective on GTA 4 which may or may not make Niko seem less likable. Side missions take the shape of bike races done in the style of Road Rash as you ride and whack rivals with a baseball bat and gang wars which involve you riding with The Lost and trying to take down other gangs. Completing these unlocks more bike varieties that can be delivered to you with a simple phone call. “Dates” are still available but are no longer an annoying must but rather riding out with other gang members will over time boost their stats and make them far more effective in combat.

Multiplayer modes have not gone untouched either while certain modes are just revamped versions of multiplayer modes we all know from other titles each mode is done well and feels a part of the title rather than a hastily thrown in mode to appease multiplayer fans. Three modes especially stand head and shoulders above the rest ;

Gang War -

Kind of like a tug of war. The city is split into zones guarded by NPC’s Taking out said NPC’s and any enemy gang members captures the territory. When a certain percentage of territory is captured or the timer runs out the gang with the most area captured wins. Simple principal but it translates brilliantly to GTA.

Chopper vs. Chopper

Easily the most insane mode available. A straight 1 on 1 battle one player on a bike trying to hit checkpoints while the second player controls an attack chopper and tries to stop him. A great test of skill but great fun with it.

Witness Protection

Carnage by the bucket load. Two teams one controlling N.O.O.S.E the other controlling The Lost. The N.O.O.S.E team protects a prison bus that is dropping off people at Police Stations around the map while The Lost throws everything at taking out the bus and it’s witnesses. Utter mayhem but again awesome fun.

So in closing TLAD is an awesome addition to the franchise and well worth the 1600 MS points for download regardless of whether you are a solo play or multiplayer fan. It’s unlikely to convert those of you out there that don’t like GTA games but for those that do it is certainly worth the purchase and has now set a benchmark for DLC that other companies must surely be cursing. (TAKE NOTE EA)

Due to TLAD effectively being an update it would be unfair to score it on individual categories but I would HIGHLY recommend picking this up if you haven’t already