Unique & amazing.Tops GTA IV by tightening the screws on the cinematic experience & by innovative gameplay.BUY!
In TLAD, we get the same intense story telling, and we are not interrupted with busy work! All of the cinematic touches that rockstar had developed are in full swing here in TLAD, and they have a much greater impact due to the focus of the story. Due to this focus, some may say that the grand scale is now lost that connected Niko Bellic to the whole city. In a sense it is, but this is not a bad thing in my book. Sure, I dont think that is what GTA is supposed to be about, but this is sure as heck a lot more fun than GTAIV. The focused story is so intense from beginning to end you will walk away satisfied after the main missions. It is definitly more rewarding then running all around the city getting in on everything as seen in GTAIV. Also, if you enjoy just doing meaningless missions dont fear, a plethora of these types of missions are offered. They are more side missions that are not really connected with the main story. My suggestion is to stick to the main story missions first however. Also, the game does not make it seem really detrimental to date and hang out with friends, which was another feature that was simply agonizing and distracting in GTAIV.
TLAD is not completly free of busy work story missions though. However, most are not seen as such a plight as they are actually creative and fun. For example, one main mission thats not really connected to the story gets you on the back of a motorcycle with the newly featured auto shotgun. That thing can cause much destruction, and you must fend off the LCPD as the NPC (non player controlled character) tries to lose the cops who are hot on your tail. Cinematic camera angles are used to heighten the experience even further and the NPC pulls off some awesome manuevers in order to lose the cops. High speed action, big explosions, and nifty bike manuevers make the experience very memorable. There is also 1 or 2 story missions at around the middle of the game where I felt like they were just thrown in their to give us something to do, the missions themselves were not particularly interesting either as they were very basic (reminiscent of GTAIV). Overall the experience does not suffer much if at all from this because they are only brief expeditions, but I was getting worried at those points. The nonstory missions whether they be fun or boring, dont detract much away from the main story as they are not too numerous.
The story follows a biker named Johnny K (he is not called johnny K, I just dont know how to spell his last name, and I dont care to look it up). Like all of the characters seen in GTA IV and TLAD, the cinematic experience rockstar has nailed really brings Johnny to life. He is the vice president in the "The Lost" biker gang. The president of the biker gang, Billy, has just been released from rehab. Johnny and Billy dont get a long to well when it comes to what is best for the gang. Billy obviously has a lot of self serving motives. Obviously, the disagreement starts out verbally and slowly escalates. If one wants to put it simply, it is a story about a gang civil war. The dialogue between Billy and Johnny is perhaps the most intense I have ever seen in a video game, and on the whole the dialogue is utterly fantastic. The tale of this gang civil war serves up many memorable gaming moments in its playable missions and cinematic cutscenes. All of the missions feel fresh due to their creativity and tension brought on from this incredible tale. I dont want to spoil anything for you so I wont delve too much into experiences found in the game, but I will give some examples. If you are really worried about having anything spoiled for you then watch out, SPOILER ALERT SKIP LAST PART OF PARAGRAPH. At one point, a contract is out on Johnny, and hitmen come to whip him out. It is midnight, and the streets of liberty city are barren. They are in cars with SMGs that can really put a hurtin on you. They drive by like the most venemous bees (One drive by can take off a huge chunk of your life, if not kill you) and get out to pursue you if you think you have found a safe place. The situation has the same feel and tension of that scene from "No Country For Old Men" in the barren streets at night. Another great moment was a shootout in an under construction building at night in Algonquin on the upper floors. Johnny and his friend were fighting to escape from an opposing gang and are forced to to run along the unrailed construction platform outside of the buillding. Dont get caught up in the view, because you have to watch your step. There are many other moments like this throughout the game. If one were too tell me that thrilling moments like this were to be delivered in a sand box game (GTA nonetheless), I would have laughed. The situations this game serves up run with the best seen in video games today, if not the best.
Graphically, the game looks very different because of the grainy stylistic touch. Nothing much has changed about Liberty City, but the grainy look makes the game feel almost entirely different. This touch is a welcome addition. It fits so well into this universe. The GTA series has always dealt with gritty stories and the gritty look that it now has definitly compliments the game and the story it tells. I know that the beautiful scenary in GTA IV was meant to be kind of a parody to the corruption that actually holds the city, but I think that this tough look fits so much better. The grainy stylistic touch makes this one of the coolest looking games I have ever seen. It gives the game a very immersive feel, and a great sense of style that Rockstar is so good at nailing. The grainy stylistic touched is also implemented in online multiplayer.
Gameplay wise, it totally seperates itself from previous entrys, and for that matter the majority of video games through its innovative gameplay mechanics. Instead of cars, the main mode of transportation is now motorcycle bikes. Its a nifty way to get around liberty city. Handling is a lot easier, and all of the tricks the bikes can pull off are breathtaking. Nothing like speeding through liberty city on a crotch rocket, weaving through cars, and dodging gunfire. The best thing I can compare it to is those superhero games. We all know The Hulk and Spiderman have cool ways to get around the city and take out foes. In The Lost and Damned, it is the bike for you, and instead of the cities usually found in superhero video games, we have the most detailed and beautiful city in all of video games (liberty city). This makes The Lost and Damned gameplay totally fresh. The experience is totally integrated into the multiplayer portion as well. The ones I have enjoyed the most are Witness Protection, Lone Biker, Chopper vs. Chopper and Bike Race. The setup of these multiplayer modes really allow for the fresh gameplay of TLAD to be in full use. There are so many stunt moments in the single player and mutliplayer that will just make you go crazy. For information on all the multiplayer modes read the gamespot review.
Gameplay is further changed for the better by the newly added firepower and and the fact that your gang can assist you in tough firefights. Just make a call on your cell phone and they will be there in no time. The new weapons are the pipe bomb, auto pistol (you will find yourself using this alot, not a bad weapon for any situation), auto shotgun (powerful, devasting, can drop a group within a blink of an eye), grenade launcher, and a powerful double barrelled shotgun that can be shot while riding your motorcycle (can make a vehicle blow up pretty fast). The fact that additional man power is right at your finger tips coupled with the addition of new firepower stomps out the boring (and overused) stop and pop gameplay seen in GTA IV. Players will very rarely find themselves having to hide behind bullet shields for extended periods of time. Just use one of your devasting weapons to get out of hotspots and/or phone your buddies to distract the enemies attention off of you so that you can take them out more easily. As a result the game feels a lot faster, and I think that is the way a game like GTA should feel. A lot of the missions seen in the single player are especially crafted/scripted for the player to utilize and coordinate with his fellow gang members (yet another aspect that keeps the missions feeling fresh). All of the devastatingly new fire power is also brought online. The game still carries shooting control problems that have hampered the entire series. It has the same shooting control problems found in GTAIV. I just wish that the firefights in GTAIV and TLAD would feel more fluid instead of clunky. The new additions found in TLAD such as the powerful guns and fellow gang members help to distract from the clunky feel, but it does not fully address the problem.
Inside and out, TLAD feels like a completly different game then its predecessor. Saying that this is DLC is an insult to this game, its an all new gaming experience that I would have happily payed 60 bucks for. The single player and multiplayer rank up there with the video games that have done it the best. The innovative gameplay and modes that make use of the innovative gameplay will keep players coming back to it for a long time to come. The multiplayer is a whole lot of fun, and the action that comes with it is something players have never really tasted before. Without a doubt one of the most amazing, awesome, and downright cool experiences that video game multiplayer's have to offer. If TLAD did not have the stigma of being DLC, the multiplayer would be as ground breaking as Counter-Strike was for gaming. The single player feels like a great gangster/action movie, packing all of the high speed action and drama of movies like that. One of the best stories ever told by a video game. Too put it simply, you really dont want to skip out on this like I almost did, trust me! The Lost and Damned is a unique and innovative video game that you MUST BUY.