The Perspective

The Good: Checkpoints! Finally
The Bad: Can’t import new content into GTA IV
Absolute Badass: The street sweeper

When Microsoft handed take two a sizeable moneyhat to make the first two chapters of DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV an Xbox exclusive, those who weren’t outraged were wondering what the DLC could be. Would it be new missions? More weapons and vehicles or perhaps more multiplayer modes. Well the first batch of GTA IV DLC is here and I’m quite pleased to say that The Lost and Damned is all of these and more.

The game’s story is quite different from that of Niko’s. Rather than having a eastern-European immigrant trying to create a life for himself in Liberty City, The Lost and Damned stars Jonny, vice president of a biker gang called the lost. The game starts with the gang’s leader getting out of jail and stirring up trouble by being reckless and getting into more fights than he can handle, controversy ensues and the story continues from there. It’s definitely not as interesting as Niko’s story but then again, it would be pretty hard to top that. The amazing thing is that Jonny’s story runs parallel with Niko’s and there are several instances where your eyes are widened by a feeling of “so that’s how that happened”.

There have been several changes to the gameplay. The shooting and cover mechanic remain untouched. This is mostly a good thing but when you gain the ability to call in backup from your gang, you’ll wonder why you have to stand up to use your phone. This is especially frustrating when you’re calling for backup because you’re pinned down! Rockstar has tweaked how the bikes handle to make it easier to drive and harder to fall off. This actually makes the player want to use bikes over cars which I didn’t think possible. New weapons such as the pipe bomb, sawed off shotgun and the immensely powerful street sweeper make appearances and help keep things feeling fresh.

My two biggest problems with the original Grand Theft Auto IV was that at some points in the story, the missions began to feel repetitive, that and there were no checkpoints aside from a single one in the last mission. Thankfully, both of these problems have been fixed. Almost all of the missions are completely different from each other with a mission that has you gunning the back of a bike with a gun with infinite ammo and no reloading standing above the crowd and there are numerous checkpoints to cut down on previous frustrations.

New multiplayer modes also make an appearance. The standout one is the “Chopper vs. Chopper” mode that has one player on a bike struggling to get though as many checkpoints as possible and the other player in an invincible helicopter with pumped up guns.

The game isn’t without its fair share of problems though. For one, the military helicopter has been removed from multiplayer free mode, which is a real bummer. That and once you complete the 8 or so hour long story you are left with a single safe house that isn’t close to anything. ZiT, the cong identification phone number you could dial in GTA IV to get the ID of a song on the radio will no longer save to your list of contacts, meaning you have to manually dial the number any time you want to know what a song is called. All of these problems could have been easily solved if Rockstar had set something up that let players import their Lost and Damned content into GTA IV and let Niko have at the new bikes and weapons. Sadly, this is not the case.

In short, The Lost and Damned is definitely worth you’re twenty bucks. Many people say that it could have been sold as a standalone title. It could not. There are no new areas and the new mission will only last you seven or eight hours. This is an expansion, nothing more. But chopper vs. chopper, the street sweeper and parallel story make this a must buy for any self-respecting Grand Theft Auto fan. GTA IV: The Lost and Damned, get’s an A-.