GAMEFURY

Episodes from Liberty City – Review (X360)

As one of the few people that was nothing but disappointed with GTA IV, I didn’t hold out much hope for the add-ons. Luckily, much was improved with these episodes and the added bonus of not needing the original GTA IV in order to play them is a nice touch. However, even with the improvements, the series still has a long way to go in order to retain it’s former days of glory.

Gameplay is relatively unchanged and is solid enough to get the job done. Surviving many of the larger scale gunfights still feels more like luck than skill, but that doesn’t stop them from being entertaining. Many have complained about the vehicles having more weight to them, but I preferred this. Yes it makes driving more difficult, but it also makes near misses and amazing escapes more satisfying. The only major downside to the driving arises in Lost and the Damned, of which a majority of the missions have you riding alongside your biker gang. Unfortunately, most of the members are complete morons. They will constantly slam into you, cut you off, and basically behave like they have never rode on a bike before, motorized or otherwise.

Side missions and alternate activities play a smaller role in both games than they did in GTA IV. Your friend’s still call to hang out, but it happens far less often. Only one mission in each add-on requires you to participate in these activities, which will please those that found them boring. The Lost and Damned added relatively nothing new in this category, but The Ballad of Gay Tony has a repeatable mission where you are a bouncer in your night club. After patrolling the floor and kicking out people breaking the rules, the mission concludes with one of your VIPs needing you to run an errand for them. Most of the mini games return, with one standout added. In the nightclub, you can perform in a dancing rhythm game that rewards you with a group dance reminiscent of a Michael Jackson music video if you perform well enough.

The few side missions are a fun diversion, but ultimately pointless. The same problem that ruined GTA IV for me remains here, though not as severe. Shortly into the game money becomes completely useless. You spend cash on nothing but cab rides, ammo refills, and fast food to refill health. None of these thing cost much money and you will quickly have more than you know what to do with. The need to purchase weapons is completely gone because most missions give you a new weapon, many simply appearing out of thin air (however, one glitch early in The Ballad of Gay Tony makes all your weapons disappear right before a major gun battle). Not having a use for money makes both main characters’ occasional complaints of needing cash sound stupid. At least it is no longer the main character’s main motivation as it was for Niko in the main game.

The plot of Lost and Damned is interesting with a couple of twists and turns, some more obvious than others. It does a good job of making you feel like part of the gang and everything the main character, Johnny, does is to help himself or improve the gang. Most of the mission are summed up as ‘go here and kill these guys’ but there are a few gems that usually revolve around pranks that your gang does just for fun. The entire story would have been much more fun if your gang members weren’t such terrible drivers.

The Ballad of Gay Tony gets off to an interesting start, putting you in the role of Luis, business partner with Tony and part owner of a night club. The cast of characters here are far more entertaining, but are also complete idiots. Almost every mission was a result of one of them doing something stupid and Luis needing to clean up the mess. This constantly had me questioning why Luis wanted to be around these people in the first place. None of them ever show him any appreciation either. Even his own mother treats him like trash after he shows up and saves her from trouble with a loan shark. Luis also frequently talks about wanting to stay out of trouble because he doesn’t want to go back to jail, but this doesn’t stop him from opening fire on a squad of police at every turn. One early mission has his friends talking him into going to a drug deal with them. The police show up before you take possession of the drugs, meaning you haven’t done anything wrong yet. However, Luis’s reaction is to magically materialize a M16 out of thin air and mow down wave after wave of cops. It is tough to really enjoy the highlights of The Ballad of Gay Tony when I can’t get over how stupid the main character acts. It would be one thing if his personality was more of a loose cannon who doesn’t care, but he whines about doing things he clearly doesn’t have to do (had the game itself not forced you to do them in order to proceed).

The appeal of GTA as a whole also seems to be fading. Many of the offensive jokes are no longer clever and just come across as moronic. I never found anything funny, just constantly questioned why both characters spent so much time with complete idiots (though there are a couple of exceptions). I thought that I may have been outgrowing GTA, so I popped in San Andreas and found it as fun as ever. It seems as if Rockstar has put all of its effort into graphical improvement and let all other aspects suffer as a result. The game does look really good, but not enough to cover up all the other shortcomings.

Episodes from Liberty City is a decent value since it is available for less than a typical retail game and adding both episodes together totals near 20 hours. Many who found the original GTA IV to be too long will appreciate this package since it is clearly separated into two unique adventures. However, if you are like me and found the original plot pointless and the gameplay repetitive, your mind won’t be changed here. In this case, better doesn’t necessarily mean good.

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