GTA IV:Episodes from Liberty City - Review

GTA: Episodes from Liberty City - Review

Its been a couple of years since the release of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto IV and now PS3 owners can finally get their hands on the two expansion packs that Microsoft’s exclusivity cunningly prevented them from grasping. If you enjoyed the revolutionary experience and play-through of GTA IV, then you will certainly have no qualms in returning to Liberty City yet another time.

In Episodes from Liberty City, you get not one, but two brand new expansions of the original game, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, bothof which have their own characters and story that has been carefully constructed to intertwine with some of the events that took place in the original story arc of GTA IV. The core gameplay behind these episodes is primarily the same as you saw in the original GTA IV. For the Lost and Damned, you play as Jonny Klebitz, who is a member of the Lost Motorcycle Club in the State of Alderny. This episode has a pretty strong storyline with plenty of tense gang hierarchy moments along with the feature of gang wars which is a welcome addition to the game. Alot of the missions will see you riding up and down Liberty City as part of a convoy in order to take down rival gangs such as the Angels of Death. A lot of missions will have you working as part of a group with your fellow bikers. There is a plentiful weapons arsenalin both episodes which includes automatic pistols, grenade launchers and a variety of shotguns. As you spend a large proportion of your time on motorbikes in the Lost and Damned you can now perform drivebys with the sawn-off shotgun (the gang’s trademark weapon). In the other episode, the Ballad of Gay Tony, you play as the protagonist,Luis Lopez, who’s swinging high in Algonquin. Like in the Lost and Damned, there is a whole suit of new features, weapons, vehicles and minigames to freshen up the experience. One of the most noticeable additions to the Ballad of Gay Tony is the ability to use the parachute and perform base jumps. It is certainly a new and unique way of getting around.

If you have played GTA games in the past then you will be aware of how frustrating it can be to keep having to replay a mission from scratch if you keep failing one. Fortunately, a new checkpoint system has been integrated into the game so that if you do fail a mission you can get right back into action without having to see the contact again and again. Whilst there are some fun and amusing minigames in both episodes, the ones in BoGT such as dancing at clubs and playing golf at the driving range offer it bit more diversity. In addition, there isa bit more variety in the missions in the Ballad of Gay Tony, and if you prefer the bright lights and glamour of Algonquin then you will probably find this episode has a slight edge on the Lost and Damned.

Each episode will likely take you around 10-15 hours to complete the main story but there are plenty of other things to do once that is over. Both games comprise of several awesome multiplayer modes which have refined further to heighten the experience. For example, in some of the race events, you can equip nitrous boosts to you car which certainly ups the adrenaline factor and makes them far more interesting. Even under close scrutiny, other than a few framerate issues, there are few faults to pick out from either episode.