I recently got Episodes From Liberty City from gamefly. For all the ignorant jive turkeys out there, it’s a disc with the two downloadable packs from Grand Theft Auto. It was released in tandem with the new DLC, The Ballad of Gay Tony, so I played that one first. I did this mainly so I could participate with podcasts and such, but also because the concept interested me more. In the choice between club owner and biker I chose the former. I think I made the right decision because I just started Lost and Damned (around 25% completed) and I feel Gay Tony was by far the better game. I believe this for three reasons. First, I feel Gay Tony had more developed and interesting characters; second, I think Gay Tony had more action packed missions; and third, Gay Tony was significantly less frustrating.
In Gay Tony you accept missions from about five different people. Those people being Tony, Yusuf, Mori, Bulgarin, and Henrique & Armando. Tony’s missions involve helping financial issues and protecting the clubs. Yusuf’s missions tend to involve stealing tanks, helicopters, et cetera. Tony owes a bet to Mori so your character, Luis Lopez, must repay it through favors. Bulgarin has you run errands of all kinds, but mainly serves as an asshole, while Henrique and Armando have you help with their drug deals. All of these characters have depth and complexities. Now to my point. In The Lost and Damned, almost none of the characters are deep or interesting. The main characters (Billy Grey, Jim Fitzgerald, and Brian Jeremy) are all very similar. This could be because they’re all part of the same gang, but I think it’s just lazy storytelling.
These issues I can get by but my main beef with L&D is frustration. I died probably around ten times in Gay Tony, and I feel I deserved every one of those deaths. In L&D, I died that many times on one mission. I feel L&D pits you against ridiculous odds, often without an AI partner, which almost never happened in Gay Tony. I think the reason the odds seem so against me is the weapon choices. In Gay Tony you almost feel overpowered with your arsenal, while in L&D you start with a shotgun that has to reload every two shots. I can’t recall too well, but this was probably the reason I quit GTA IV in the first place.
My last beef is the mission design. In Gay Tony almost every mission you’re skydiving, flying a helicopter, or driving a tank. It gives you a feeling of control, and hearkens back to other GTA’s such as San Andreas or Vice City. In L&D you feel like such a little bitch, even though Johnny is so much more badass than Luis. I don’t necessarily want every mission to be Die Hard but I don’t them all to be Reservoir Dogs either. I want a middle ground, which I’ll never get considering this is the last of the DLC.
I posted this article on my infrequent blog almost exactly one month ago and as you may have guessed, I quite Lost and Damned. It just became too much for me. This could of been for many reasons. For one I had just began New Super Mario Bros Wii and that was such a superior game. Another reason could of just been GTA overload. I think I quite GTA IV because it was just too much of that style. The game is very formulaic and I think I just played it too much, too fast. The only other reason I can think of is that L&D truly was an inferior game. I ask the Bitmob community for a post-mortem, if you will, for the episodes for Liberty City.