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- Jan 2, 2007
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- 1,067
The Lost & Damned, the first piece of DLC for GTA IV on Xbox 360 is finally here, and gave me a reason to dust off my copy of GTA IV for the first time since Saints Row 2 came along and converted me. Now, despite what I just said, I still love GTA IV, the only reason that Saints Row 2 has seemed to usurp GTA IV is because Saints Row 2 is infinitely more replayable with its activities and such, but we're not here to review SR2.
In short, The Lost & Damned is... More GTA IV. If you liked GTA IV and own a 360, then you can't go wrong with The Lost & Damned. It's built on the base game, and as such many areas are the same and obviously its not a massive leap beyond- but I admit, it exceeded my expectations. Considering a lot of fairly light-weight DLC like the Operation Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3 on the PC, I expected TL&D to be a lot shorter and leaner than it really was. Now, thats not to say its not exactly long when you compare it to a full game, but for DLC its pretty lengthy and surprisingly meaty. The game improvements may seem small, but in the end they actually leave a fairly distinct mark- for better or for worse.
Obviously this episode focuses around "The Lost," a biker gang, and as such, you'll be spending a lot of time on a bike. I have to admit, when I first heard this I began to set low expectations because I f***ing HATED the Bike sections in GTA IV, the fiddly vehicle handling and physics made me dread having Niko mount a motorcycle. Thankfully Rockstar has made some improvements, while the handling is still a bit fiddly and tight and occasionally made me want the Cruise Control function from SR2, its improved and thankfully when you bump a wall you aren't going to go flying off. That still happens if you slam into something at a thousand miles per hour, but no more of that bullcrap where you just knock over a lamp post and end up eating pavement. Also the bike combat is surprisingly fun. The double barreled shotgun isn't the best on foot weapon, but on a bike it handles surprisingly well and is also fairly efficient at cutting down other bikers. There's a mission early on where you have to chase an entire convoy of enemy bikers and whenever I would blast a passenger off with a shot, I'd smile and also realize that bike combat has improved from GTAIV as well, maybe because with a shotgun you don't have to have such precise aiming as you would with one of those damn SMGs. It was even more satisfying though when I'd be close enough to cut down the passenger AND the driver in one blast.
The story isn't anything to write home about. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a "Biker gang" story, though it is interesting to see it occasionally pool with the traditional GTA mafioso. The characters are... meh. Besides Johnny himself, they're actually rather unlikable. While they may not be "annoying" like Roman was, they're just... well, as I said, unlikable. I know its stupid for me to blame a GTA game for being misogynistic, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes whenever Billy would talk about his supposed beloved girlfriend but it seems that his relationship with her has no real interest between them, just passing her around with the other members like shes a toy. At least Niko actually had SOME respect for women other than them being sex objects. Johnny is likable, though not as memorable maybe simply because his story isn't complex, though he feels like a fish out of water because he doesn't act like the big manly-man stereotype that his fellow Bikers do. That's a good thing, but it sometimes feels like he just doesn't belong in the lost.
The game looks OK, the graphics still annoy me with their weird "Art brush filter" that sometimes wears on my eyes, but its still a fairly good looking game, despite a few graphical glitches. Two that I can name happened a little more than they should have- one was whenever I would enter a tunnel, the tunnel would briefly vanish and the cars would split in half with only Johnny being whole, before the tunnel decided to come back. The other happens during the cinematic camera, where Johnny's bike will suddenly gain the ability to hover about a foot off of the ground. The game still sounds good, the voice acting is decent although sometimes riddled with cliche, the guns have a nice punch, and as always the city is nice to listen to. The music is also pretty good, they added about 45 minutes worth of new music to each of the stations so they don't wear or loop as much- Oh, and it instantly gets a million points in this category for having a song by The Doors in it. I know it may not seem like it, but listening to the Doors goes surprisingly well with biking. Who woulda thunk it? Although, the radio department loses a million points for having a distinct lack of Lazlo or any new content on the WKTT or PLR.
I haven't tinkered with the multiplayer yet, so I can't really review it. I didn't really get into the online component in the first place, maybe because it feels small and confined compared to the SA:MP component for the PC version of San Andreas. I always feel empty and bored in GTA IV online when compared to the insane firefights in SA:MP with over 100 people per server. Apparently there are some new modes, but as I said I wouldn't really know.
In the end, The Lost & The Damned is a worthy addition to GTA IV's base game. The new weapons are a blast, the missions are fun, and for once in the series legacy: Motorcycles are actually FUN to ride and not a pain. It's a surprisingly meaty DLC pack, and a fun one too. However, if you didn't like GTA IV, its not going to convert you. It's more of the same, but with a good enough twist that it makes it worth owning the 360 version of GTA IV. Apologies to anyone who plays the game on PS3 or PC (Srsly, why does the PS3 always get the DLC shaft?) since for some reason Microsoft has a DLC monopoly.
Scores N' Stuff
Story: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics:7.5/10
Sound: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Recommended to fans of GTA IV.
In short, The Lost & Damned is... More GTA IV. If you liked GTA IV and own a 360, then you can't go wrong with The Lost & Damned. It's built on the base game, and as such many areas are the same and obviously its not a massive leap beyond- but I admit, it exceeded my expectations. Considering a lot of fairly light-weight DLC like the Operation Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3 on the PC, I expected TL&D to be a lot shorter and leaner than it really was. Now, thats not to say its not exactly long when you compare it to a full game, but for DLC its pretty lengthy and surprisingly meaty. The game improvements may seem small, but in the end they actually leave a fairly distinct mark- for better or for worse.
Obviously this episode focuses around "The Lost," a biker gang, and as such, you'll be spending a lot of time on a bike. I have to admit, when I first heard this I began to set low expectations because I f***ing HATED the Bike sections in GTA IV, the fiddly vehicle handling and physics made me dread having Niko mount a motorcycle. Thankfully Rockstar has made some improvements, while the handling is still a bit fiddly and tight and occasionally made me want the Cruise Control function from SR2, its improved and thankfully when you bump a wall you aren't going to go flying off. That still happens if you slam into something at a thousand miles per hour, but no more of that bullcrap where you just knock over a lamp post and end up eating pavement. Also the bike combat is surprisingly fun. The double barreled shotgun isn't the best on foot weapon, but on a bike it handles surprisingly well and is also fairly efficient at cutting down other bikers. There's a mission early on where you have to chase an entire convoy of enemy bikers and whenever I would blast a passenger off with a shot, I'd smile and also realize that bike combat has improved from GTAIV as well, maybe because with a shotgun you don't have to have such precise aiming as you would with one of those damn SMGs. It was even more satisfying though when I'd be close enough to cut down the passenger AND the driver in one blast.
The story isn't anything to write home about. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a "Biker gang" story, though it is interesting to see it occasionally pool with the traditional GTA mafioso. The characters are... meh. Besides Johnny himself, they're actually rather unlikable. While they may not be "annoying" like Roman was, they're just... well, as I said, unlikable. I know its stupid for me to blame a GTA game for being misogynistic, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes whenever Billy would talk about his supposed beloved girlfriend but it seems that his relationship with her has no real interest between them, just passing her around with the other members like shes a toy. At least Niko actually had SOME respect for women other than them being sex objects. Johnny is likable, though not as memorable maybe simply because his story isn't complex, though he feels like a fish out of water because he doesn't act like the big manly-man stereotype that his fellow Bikers do. That's a good thing, but it sometimes feels like he just doesn't belong in the lost.
The game looks OK, the graphics still annoy me with their weird "Art brush filter" that sometimes wears on my eyes, but its still a fairly good looking game, despite a few graphical glitches. Two that I can name happened a little more than they should have- one was whenever I would enter a tunnel, the tunnel would briefly vanish and the cars would split in half with only Johnny being whole, before the tunnel decided to come back. The other happens during the cinematic camera, where Johnny's bike will suddenly gain the ability to hover about a foot off of the ground. The game still sounds good, the voice acting is decent although sometimes riddled with cliche, the guns have a nice punch, and as always the city is nice to listen to. The music is also pretty good, they added about 45 minutes worth of new music to each of the stations so they don't wear or loop as much- Oh, and it instantly gets a million points in this category for having a song by The Doors in it. I know it may not seem like it, but listening to the Doors goes surprisingly well with biking. Who woulda thunk it? Although, the radio department loses a million points for having a distinct lack of Lazlo or any new content on the WKTT or PLR.
I haven't tinkered with the multiplayer yet, so I can't really review it. I didn't really get into the online component in the first place, maybe because it feels small and confined compared to the SA:MP component for the PC version of San Andreas. I always feel empty and bored in GTA IV online when compared to the insane firefights in SA:MP with over 100 people per server. Apparently there are some new modes, but as I said I wouldn't really know.
In the end, The Lost & The Damned is a worthy addition to GTA IV's base game. The new weapons are a blast, the missions are fun, and for once in the series legacy: Motorcycles are actually FUN to ride and not a pain. It's a surprisingly meaty DLC pack, and a fun one too. However, if you didn't like GTA IV, its not going to convert you. It's more of the same, but with a good enough twist that it makes it worth owning the 360 version of GTA IV. Apologies to anyone who plays the game on PS3 or PC (Srsly, why does the PS3 always get the DLC shaft?) since for some reason Microsoft has a DLC monopoly.
Scores N' Stuff
Story: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics:7.5/10
Sound: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Recommended to fans of GTA IV.
