Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City - Review
Review by Cassam Looch
GRAND Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City is the brand new Grand Theft Auto containing two complete games – The Ballad Of Gay Tony and The Lost And Damned – together in one box!
The Lost And Damned
In The Lost And Damned, experience Liberty City as Johnny, a veteran member of The Lost, a notorious biker gang. Johnny has been creating business opportunities for The Lost in Liberty City but his first loyalty must be to the patch he wears on his back and to Billy Grey, the club’s President.
However, when Billy returns from rehab hell-bent on bloodshed and debauchery, Johnny finds himself in the middle of a vicious turf war with rival gangs for control of a city torn apart by violence and corruption. Can the brotherhood survive?
The Ballad Of Gay Tony
The Ballad Of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka “Gay Tony”), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.
Our verdict:
Using the same city but placing new adventures on it may be an old GTA trick, but when it’s done as well as this how can anyone complain?
The first episode has been available to download for a while. Don’t be fooled, though, as this is very much a fully formed game in its own right, as is the wonderfully titled The Ballad of Gay Tony.
Both games are very much adult games, but you would feel short-changed if they weren’t.
The graphics run as smoothly as the original GTA 4 and, if anything, slight enhancements have been made to iron out some of the rough edges and tiny glitches that used to crop up every once in a while.
Both soundtracks are tailored to suit the surroundings and characters involved, going to show once again how much care and attention Rockstar take over their prized asset.
Lost And The Damned has elements of GTA 4 running through it, but with the added ‘Biker’ element it has a more gritty feel to it. New weapons and vehicles are present, as is a fun and involving storyline which lends itself to great multi-player action as and when required.
The new addition to the GTA family is Gay Tony. Unlike the other characters in the series, this time you have already made your millions. You actually play a character called Luis Lopez who works for the titular Tony Prince, but the characters are closely linked.
The missions take place around the city, but concentrate in and around Algonquin, which is a very familiar ‘high-rise’ location.
As well as the missions themselves (which involve various ‘team-ups’ with characters even Luis is wary of), you also get side-missions and tasks such as the drug wars and nightclub management.
You could, of course, give the violence a side step and shuffle onto the dancefloor to groove the night away… but make sure you know which club you are going to… or you might just end up in the GTA version of the Blue Oyster!
Overall, this a great finale to GTA 4, tying up a few loose ends and refining the multi-player modes to make them as addictive as anything else out there. Roll on Grand Theft Auto… 5!