Liberty City is full of personalities. Grand Theft Auto IV chronicled chiefly the endeavours of one Niko Bellic, a cynical former soldier from an unspecified Eastern Bloc country who harbours a difficult past, a knack for associating with the regional criminal scum, a penchant for attracting the attentions of local law enforcement, and a ruthless disregard for pedestrian safety regulations.
Episodes from Liberty City expands the protagonist roster with two equally colourful characters – one for each of the DLC expansions included in the package – as they try to keep their respective lives from falling to pieces while juggling a certain purple bag of diamonds between them.
The collection kicks off with The Lost and Damned (TLAD), following Johnny Klebitz – a weathered biker and club Vice President who harbours a difficult past, a knack for associating with the regional criminal scum, a penchant for attracting the attentions of local law enforcement, and a ruthless disregard for pedestrian safety regulations – as he tries to keep The Lost Motorcyle Clubfrom tearing itself asunder under the leadership of their misguided president whose brief tenure at the Liberty City Institute for Falsely Denouncing Your Drug Addiction led him to falsely denounce his drug addiction as well as much of his capacity for club management.
TLAD introduces a few new mechanics, including one that offers Johnny a boost of morale when riding with his gang which also, by some inexplicable act of sorcery facilitated by a biker’s symbiotic relationship with his hardware, repairs his own bike. The feature is mostly superfluous, though, given that it only becomes available in a scant few missions and almost always in places where your bike would be fully repaired anyway (unless, of course, you drive even less skilfully than I do).
Equally curious is how, despite focusing almost exclusively on bikes and biker culture, the game made little to no improvement to the AI of other bikers. In almost each of the 12 bike races in the game there exists a seemingly trivial obstacle (including, but not limited to a wall of rocks a good 10 meters to the right of the intended route) that consistently and hilariously thwarts the other racers. This makes the addition of the (admittedly fun) baseball bat that allows Johnny to indulge in less-than-honourable tactics to win races an almost entirely obsolete one.
Needless to say though, a handful of new weapons are fired, rival gang members are killed, police are evaded, and missions are completed. All in all, TLAD is a pretty standard affair, and most of the time the only factor that distinguishes Johnny’s undertakings from Niko’s is TLAD’s strange noise filter which strives to make the experience seem more gritty but succeeded only in hurting my eyes.
But all that is forgotten in light of the (absolutely fabulous) second half of the collection, The Ballad of (the absolutely fabulous) Gay Tony (TBoTG). Its story plays out through the eyes of Luis Lopez, “Gay” Tony Prince’s bodyguard and business associate who harbours a difficult past, a knack for associating with the regional criminal scum, a penchant for attracting the attentions of local law enforcement, and a ruthless disregard for pedestrian safety regulations. He also still lives two blocks away from his mother.
TBoGT appears every bit as sparkly and glamorous as TLAD is gritty and grim, but playing it only for a little while reveals all the grime that permeates through the entire storyline, making it very much a GTA game, despite initial appearances: A whole bunch of new weapons are fired (including what is quite possibly the most devastating shotgun ever conceived), rival mobsters are killed, police are evaded, and missions are completed. A standard affair once again.
But TBoGT also introduces a handful of aspects that are either completely new or haven’t been seen in the series for quite some time, including the return of the parachute and associated base jumps from San Andreas (though still no planes), and a new set of club management side-quests. The game has all the colourful characters that were lacking in TLAD, and features a plotline that’s just as involved, though with fewer of TLAD’s incredibly clever intertwining moments with Niko’s quest.
Ultimately, it’s a solid package with a combined gameplay time that possibly rivals (though certainly doesn’t surpass) that of the main game. However, given GTA IV’s current retail price, the original game is still the place for newcomers to start, especially since the story in the episodes will be better appreciated by someone who’s completed the main game, and the episodes themselves easier for one familiar with the controls. This would be a particularly noticeable issue in the more difficult missions in TBoGT, which regularly throws the player in the deep-end. It’d be hard to pay attention to the context-sensitive tutorial messages when 20 Russians are trying to blow your head off. But, for someone who played and loved GTA IV, Episodes from Liberty City is a bit of a no-brainer. It’s more of the same and as high-quality as ever.
The package’s final score gets pulled up from the high 80s because of TBoGT’s Yusuf and his gold-plated helicopter. It loses one point because I was stupid and didn’t realise I could turn off TLAD’s noise filter until after I’d finished it. I’m fair like that. But, in the end, it lands a ninety because there is about 20 hours of game here, which is fantastic value despite the fact that it’s best appreciated only after having played GTA 4 first. As an expansion, you can’t wish for much more.
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