Today, gamers with a copy of GTA IV for the Xbox 360 can drop 1600 MS points to play Rockstar's first foray into Downloadable Episodes, The Lost and Damned. The package contains a massive scoop of new content including 54 songs, 20 vehicles and 6 weapons along with additional solo and multiplayer modes and ten or so hours in the life of Johnny Klebitz.
But is it worth the hefty $20 price tag?
Johnny, the comparatively cool second in command of the titular biker gang, The Lost, has spent some time healing the wounds of prior gang wars. The peace is short-lived though, as Billy Grey, the id-driven president of The Lost, returns from a stint at the Alderney State Correctional Facility. To reassert his dominance and send a message to any potential usurpers, Billy bashes a few heads and rekindles trouble for The Lost.
Full review after the jump...
As Johnny K., your job is to mop up after your misguided leader, while trying to sway him and your fellow biker brothers to reform. Fortunately, you have some support. Inside The Lost, you have Clay and Terry who, with a quick cellphone call, will provide you with backup, a bike or cheap weapons. You'll also have red shirts, club members that join you in certain battles, but, unlike Terry and Clay, are disposable. If they survive a battle, though, their stats increase, represented by a white bar that expands after each completed mission, making them more useful in future gun fights. This mechanic is only as useful as you make it. When you consciously protect these brothers, it costs you health and ammo, but if you dedicate your time to protecting the soldiers, the effort will be rewarded in the later missions.
Along with the bulky narrative you get handful of side missions and multiplayer modes.
Side missions come in three flavors: gang wars, bike races and scenarios provided by characters. The latter is exactly what you've come to expect from typical GTA missions, while Gang Wars play like a biker death match. But of the three modes Bike Races will have you most often returning to the well thanks to improved motorcycle physics and the ability to take a couple whacks from an opponent; rather than send you off your bike, a baseball thump to the head bounces you away like a pinball. The ricocheting animations certainly not realistic, but prevents races from becoming a battle to just stay on your bike and captures the arcade feel of retro racers like Road Rash.
Some of these new elements are introduced in new multiplayer modes which help to extend the life of the game. Bike races (complete with bats) can be played with other folks online, and a fantastic 1-on-1 mode called Chopper vs. Chopper is a fun pick for two friends looking for a quick multiplayer session. There are several other modes, usually motorcycle club-themed, but if you've played a ton of GTA 4 multiplayer already, you probably won't find the rest of the modes all that fresh.
TLAD falls a bit short of the moon in a few respects. Along with the faceless gang members, the inability to include the new content-cars, weapons, bikes, etc.-in Niko's campaign is irksome. Also, your fellow bikers' AI can drop from stellar to baffling in the blink of any eye, one minute lending necessary support, the next standing in front of a bullet or worse the camera. And gosh darnit, why can't you make a phone call while in cover, a seeming necessity when you want support under fire?
In other ways, TLAD nails the mark in unexpected, but welcome ways. The aforementioned improved bike physics are wonderful, as the vehicles seem to automatically brake on sharp turns, sticking you to ground. As for surviving the more difficult later half of the game, Rockstar has improved checkpoints. A death midway through a mission restarts you from your last checkpoint. No longer must you sit through the same cut scenes and make the long cross town drives just to get to the big shootouts. This comes in handy during an epic on-rails bike chase around the game's midpoint where you'll be scraping for every drop of life.
While instantly accessible after your purchase and download, The Lost and Damned might as well require the completion of the core game. Rockstar so carefully grafts TLAD's scenario onto the happenings of Niko Bellic, that it would be a pity for any gamer worth his or her salt to miss the winks and nudges that mesh together the lives of two heroes. And while Johnny's story's strong, much of the pleasure comes from learning more about Elizabeta, Ashley, Ray and other characters we met in Niko's adventure.
It's also a pleasure to see the inverted narrative the creator's weave. With Niko you make friends and enemies and create an identity. With Johnny, you extricate those closest to you, losing nearly everyone.
So, is The Lost and Damned worth twenty dollars? Absolutely.
