Grand Theft Auto IV’s DLC: The Lost and Damned (A review)
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is downloadable content (DLC) released for Grand Theft Auto IV on February 17th, 2009. Comprised of a new storyline and protagonist, this game offers more story-based missions, along with new vehicles, weapons, and various other benefits. With 23 story missions and the myriad of other new and improved aspects, its $20 US price tag is hardly excessive.
The story of the Lost and Damned focuses on Johnny Klebitz, the vice-president of the Lost Motorcycle Club. A gang of outlaws, drunks, drug addicts, and hell-raisers, he and his friends have little trouble getting into trouble throughout the city. Unlike some of the others, however, Johnny is more down-to-earth, and realizes that the lifestyle his gang is forced into is self-destructive. The story often boils down to Johnny having to reel in his brothers, maintaining a voice of sanity amongst the chaos. Although perhaps a tad trite, the story is well-presented and executed, making it enjoyable.
Now for the meat of the game: the new and improved aspects. The most notable improvement is the motorcycle physics. One may expect Johnny to handle a chopper better than Niko if for no other reason than Johnny is a biker, and they’d be right. Motorcycles in TLAD are much more resistant to objects, and do not throw Johnny off if even tapped lightly. TLAD heavily features motorcycles in the storyline and side missions, making these improvements a necessary change that allows the game to be playable.
Several new vehicles were added as well, most of them motorcycles. Both choppers and sports bikes received a notable boon to their numbers, with the former being much more ubiquitous. New four-wheeled vehicles are much more sporadic, but include only a couple of vehicles that appear in normal traffic, the rest mission-specific vehicles that never appear randomly. The consequence of this is that most of them may never be driven by most players, unless measures to obtain one are undertaken. While not an excuse, the game compels the player to use a motorcycle (even when not required), thus driving cars and trucks is not as common an occurrence.
One of the weaker new aspects is the five new weapons, ranging from good to poor. The first one seen is the sawn-off shotgun. Powerful, but with abysmal range, its main draw is use from a motorcycle, allowing Johnny to bring down enemy bikers with ease. Other new weapons include the useful but underpowered automatic 9mm, the mediocre and clumsy grenade launcher, and pipe bombs which are only different from grenades in two missions (and harder to get). The best is the assault shotgun, a.k.a. street sweeper, genuinely superior to the other available shotguns. A mediocre selection of arms, but at least there are one or two useful ones.
Another boon this DLC offers is new radio content, some stations having twice as much as they used to. The significance of this addition is that the new content carries over to vanilla GTAIV; unlike the new weapons, motorcycle physics, and vehicles, Niko can enjoy the new songs and DJ banter while playing his own story.
Several new side missions join the fold for Johnny to complete, spanning the usual spectrum for a GTA game. Mini-missions for previous contacts, vehicle races (all motorcycle, of course), vehicle fetching missions (motorcycles again, surprise), and combat-oriented gang wars offer Johnny a chance to explore the new features of TLAD outside of the immediate storyline.
All in all, TLAD is a good addition to GTAIV, although it feels a bit short. Johnny’s story begins after Niko’s starts and finishes before his does, so the brevity does make some sense. Whether one is a fan of GTAIV or not, this game is a solid buy, especially at its price, retaining the improvements of GTAIV while mixing in some of the feel of the older GTA games, which unfortunately, IV lost. Lost, but not forgotten.
Johnny IV
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