GTAIV: Lost & Damned is a good game add-on, but the bad story and recycled mechanics certainly mar the experience
The Lost and Damned takes place in Liberty City at the same time as Niko's story in GTA IV. The two games share locations and characters, but they're treated as two entirely different stories. Unfortunately, none of the new enhancements in L & D can be transferred over to GTA IV. That's a real shame, considering that the campaign in L & D isn't exactly top-notch. While the gameplay has been enhanced and you can now harness new weapons, it just doesn't matter much when you could care less about anything that happens in the story.
You play as Johnny "The Jew" Klebitz, Vice President of the West Alderny biker gang called The Lost. Johnny's been the substitute leader while Billy, the President of the Lost, has been in rehab. The game starts off with Billy being released and him resuming his duties as the gang's leader. Conflict arises when Billy wants to dive into the drug trade while Johnny wants the gang to be smarter about business.
The campaign can easily be beaten in 5-6 hours if you're in no hurry. The character development here isn't all that great. Johnny's simply not a likeable guy, as are all the other members of The Lost. The actual conflict comes off merely as a typical power struggle for control over the Lost. By comparison Niko is a lot more than meets the eye. Sure, he does bad things, but he never comes off as a bad guy. However, the same can't be said for Johnny. Even though L & D's story implies early on that Johnny is trying to turn his life around, later events show him to be as horrible as any other criminal in Liberty City. While the GTA has certainly starred men doing bad things, the main protagonists had at least some likeable quality to them, and in turn, Johnny's character comes off as an even bigger disappointment.
Johnny and Niko's stories intersect both directly and indirectly throughout the course of the game. When Johnny's partnered with Niko in two missions, he seems like a decent-or even good-guy. However, there are other sequences that help explain some things in GTA 4 that show Johnny as a bad person. Oh yeah, the story sucks, so don't think it'll be as good as GTA 4's. Whether it's the weak subplot featuring Johnny's sometimes-girlfriend Ashley or the main plot focus between Johnny and Bill; nothing ever feels fully developed. There's not enough time to develop character relationships, and some missions could've been adjusted or some characters cut out to allow for a better and more focused plot.
Many crucial gameplay tweaks have been made in L & D. The most notable of these for the vehicles is a major tweak for the motorcycles. The bikes in GTA 4 drive terribly, aren't very fast, and you get flown off your ride rather often. It's obvious that things needed a change, given that L & D stars a biker. Every single bike in L & D handles much better, and a hefty amount have been added so there's plenty of variety. More importantly, it's pretty hard to get knocked off your bike. You really need to ram something head-on to get tossed. This makes it a lot more enjoyable to freely roam around on your bike with little or no concern for being unseated.
In addition to the new bike enhancements, there are some new weapons. There's automatic pistol that isn't especially powerful, the assault shotgun, which is just plain filthy, a sawn-off-shotty that's helpful at close range but shouldn't be used in most firefights, pipe bombs that aren't all that different from grenades, and a grenade launcher which allows for shots through windows, over cover and behind cars. I've taken cars out in only a couple shots with the assault shotgun and the grenade launcher is probably the best new gun in the game.
Johnny controls a bit differently than Niko. He runs slower and puts his cell phone away slower. He does have one advantage over Niko, though-he doesn't need to make friends. Sure, you can call up your biker buddies to play pool or air hockey, but what would be the point? Instead of measuring the strength of your friendships with buddies, the game tests the battle-readiness of your comrades. Each member who survives gains more health and fighting skills. If someone happens to die, they'll be replaced with an inexperienced member, so it's crucial to keep your experienced members alive to make the next firefight easier.
While I wasn't a fan of the story, I still had a good time with The Lost and Damned. Some of this has to do with the improved bike mechanics. However, most of the missions to me felt bland, since there wasn't really any variety. Thankfully, there are mid-level checkpoints, usually implemented right after a cutscene. One cutscene involves full-frontal male nudity. Yeah, that's right. Full-frontal male nudity. It was completely unnecessary and shouldn't have been put in. After you complete the campaign, there are 25 gang wars to conquer, various bike thefts to complete and races to complete in, which include baseball bats. There are also new comedy shows to enjoy, 50 seagulls to find and kill, and several odd jobs to complete for various miscreants.
As for the multiplayer, it's back and better than ever. Unfortunately, it's already been experienced before. There's ranked and unranked versions of Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Turf War, Free Mode, a mode that puts a player in a chopper to try and kill another player on a bike, a bike chase mode, races, and that's about it. It's very enjoyable, just nothing groundbreaking.
The audiovisual presentation is far from gorgeous. GTA 4's graphics weren't exactly beautiful a year ago, but with no improvements made in a year, I can't say they impress me. There are still far too many clipping issues, character models look bad, and things in the distance appear blurry. The car effects still look as good as they ever have. However, a default grain filter has been added, making things appear ugly. The audio is top-notch. The voice acting is good, but it ultimately doesn't do much to improve the story. The in-game sound hasn't change at all.
Overall, The Lost and Damned is a solid DLC. However, the lack of a good story hinders the experience considerably. For fans of GTA IV, there's still a lot to like about this DLC, but for everyone else who was looking for something new and exciting, your 1600 Microsoft points are probably better-spent elsewhere.