 |
|
GTA4: The Lost And Damned
The DLC That Every Other DLC Will Be Compared To For Years To Come...
|
|
In a word: Wow.
I gotta say, I enjoyed the Fallout 3 Expansion “Operation Anchorage”, but now after playing GTA4 expansion, “The Lost And Damned”, I feel like Anchorage was kind of a rip off. It lasted maybe 3 hours, tops? TLAD Lasted 9.5 hours and I didn’t come close to finishing all the races and gang wars. I’ll be the umpteenth reviewer to say it: There was so much content in this DLC they could have easily sold it as a stand-alone title. Of course we just say that, however, and don’t quite mean it. In reality, people would expect a new city for a full $60 title, but the fact is that TLAD serves up just as much story, and a better story if you ask me, than the Cousins Belic main GTA 4 plotline does.
I’ve always enjoyed biker culture, so that could have something to do with my preference. My favourite author, Hunter S. Thompson, wrote extensively about the Hell’s Angels and I’ve always enjoyed more insight into that culture. TLAD is a great take on it, if not exaggerated and glorified, but still the most realistic treatment it’s ever been given by a video game. I don’t know about you, either, but I always loved it when I could get on a chopper (the bike, not a helicopter) in GTA4, or any other game, so being given an entire campaign where you are constantly encouraged to ride them was better than any DLC I could have asked for. They have a bunch of great new biker gang mechanics as well, where you need to keep up with the pack when riding and drive on a giant TLAD badge that appears on the road behind the lead biker in order to hear the dialogue. You also have to try and keep your biker buddies alive so that they gain experience and are better fighters in subsequent fights, and all who die get memorialized inside the club on the wall.
I have to say that when I first played GTA4 I wasn’t overly impressed, mostly due to the hype and the fact that it was the highest rated game of all time. All of that clouded my perception of the game and I’m going to have to give it another play-through. While playing TLAD I noticed that the controls are actually quite good. Compared to games like Saints Row 2 they feel clunky at first, but you soon come to realize that they are just more realistic. You can’t run everywhere you go or have the pedal to the medal every time you’re on the roads in real life, and the GTA4 engine mimics this and achieves a more realistic pace. There’s no question that the combat/aiming system is superior to any other sandbox game ever made, as it’s the first one where you can really use a single bullet in the head per person if you want.
I’ve got to say, regarding TLAD, that the new music is awesome. I ALWAYS turn off music in games, especially when playing Sandbox games. I know that the radio is one of the coolest feature in them, but I just find it too distracting. In TLAD, though, every time one of the new tunes came on it was some classic rock song that I haven’t heard in a long time. It fit perfectly with the whole theme of the expansion and I almost always kept the radio on when on my bike. They also added this grain/noise effect to the entire game that was pretty cool, but made things hard to see sometimes. I’ve heard a lot of reviewers complain about this, which is really stupid because it’s very easy to turn off in the options menu. Finally they also added a new race mode that is very much akin to the old Sega Road Rage games, where you can strike out at your opponent with a bat either left or right as you race on your bike. The races were a lot of fun, especially since you’re on a bike and they could take you through some pretty tight areas normally reserved for pedestrians. I got so good at racing on my bike from these that I’m more agile on a motorbike now than I am on foot in the game.
I understand there have been quite a lot of multiplayer additions as well but I can’t really comment on those. I’m not a big fan of GTA multiplayer and would much rather play Saints Row 2 or any other number of great online multiplayer games. I like the realism of the controls, but they don’t make for great multiplayer gameplay which requires fast reaction times over realism. |
Graphics
I wasn't a huge fan of GTA4's graphics when I first played it, but now upon a revisit I'm starting to see why everyone thinks it's so amazing. The amount of detail dedicated to every inch of the game is astounding.
|
9.5 |
|
Sound
Great voice acting on quite a lot of the characters, not so great on the lead Johnny. Billy was great. The game sound is phenomenal as well.
|
8.5 |
|
Gameplay
I would have given this a far lower rating after playing GTA4 for the first time, but I'm glad I had time to reconsider. The controls are actually quite tight, just more realistic than previous incarnations. The changes for motorbikes in this expansion were awesome, too.
|
9.0 |
|
Originality
This is getting a high rating for originality JUST for having the balls to release such an epic DLC. Also, the use of the B button for camera angles in this expansion was amazing. You could really play the game using some of the action angles and that's definitely a first.
|
9.5 |
|
Interface
Pretty decent interface, I gotta say. No major complaints, but moving through the map and pause menu can be a bit slow and cumbersome.
|
9.0 |
|
Fun
I loved TLAD's story a lot more than the Cousins Belic main GTA4 plot line, and I thought the changes to the bike controls made it much more fun than it's parent game. I have a soft spot for biker gang stories and riding choppers, though, so what do you expect?
|
10.0 |
|
Lasting Appeal
I would rather play through this again than the main game, but I don't see myself doing so too often. It's not getting hit too hard, however, since for a DLC it provides a shitload of content.
|
8.5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Overall
If you enjoyed GTA4 you’d be retarded not to get this expansion. If you’re like me, and didn’t flip out over the original game you should still give it a try. I guess what I’m getting at is unless you hated GTA4, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be playing TLAD.
|
9.1 |
LiveSprites Review © 2008
All Rights Reserved
|