The Digest: Another amazing performance from Rockstar. Grand Theft Auto as usual, with a brand new storyline, weapons and vehicles all set in the massive, detailed Liberty City. For the $39.99 price tag, definitely a must-buy.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: October 29, 2009
PUBLISHER: Rockstar
DEVELOPER: Rockstar
ESRB RATING: “M” for Mature 17+
GENRE: Action
PRICE: $39.99
PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a brand new standalone retail product that contains two games:

-Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned, previously available for download only via Xbox LIVE, and requires a copy of the original Grand Theft Auto IV to play.

-Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony

The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available as a separate download via Xbox LIVE as part of a simultaneous launch alongside Episodes From Liberty City. However, to purchase and download it via Xbox LIVE it will also require an original copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Episodes From Liberty City does not require an original copy of Grand Theft Auto IV or a connection to Xbox LIVE to play.

Available as separate DLC downloads on Xbox Live or at retail, the newest chapter to the Grand Theft Auto saga presents more of the same: Near perfection. With a detailed, compelling storyline and new weapons, vehicles, missions and activities, the newest add-on to the series is sure to present hours upon hours of enjoyment.

Of course, if you’re not into “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs and Alcohol,” then this game is not for you. (If the ESRB threw the AO rating around more, I think GTA would be one of the first to receive it.) If you are, then read on!

As mentioned in the fact sheet, Episodes from Liberty City contains two games: The Lost and the Damned (TLAD) and The Ballad of Gay Tony (TBoGT). Both of these titles are also available as downloadable content on the Xbox Live marketplace for 1600 Microsoft points each ($20.00) and require the original GTA IV disk to play. Other than having a separate disk to play on different consoles, the only other advantage I can think of buying the game at retail (aside from not having Xbox Live) is for some of the supplemental goods. Included are a poster (one side of a Liberty City girl, the other a detailed map of Liberty City) and the (condensed) game manual, as well as the convenience of a physical game disk. In this review, the retail disk was used.

When booting the game disk up, you are presented with the option of playing either TLAD or TBoGT. Since TLAD released earlier this year, I’ll try to concentrate more on TBoGT in this review.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, you play the game as Luis Lopez, who works for “Gay Tony”. Tony is a night club manager in Liberty City (Part of what makes the story/game so compelling is the relationship between Luis and Tony). Over the course of some 26 missions, you learn more about Tony, as well as meet new friends (and foes). For those familiar with GTA IV, interactions with Niko Bellic, as well as characters from the Lost and the Damned’s motorcycle gang occur. In the game, several new characters are also introduced (as well as some old ‘friends’), and some of them share their benefits with you (i.e. calling for vehicles or a ‘gun van’).

At the end of each mission, your receive a percentage-based score. This score is based on a combination of factors, including health, time elapsed, number of headshots, etc. After you complete the game, you can then retry missions for a better score.

Spoilers aside, The Ballad of Gay Tony has a very compelling plot, but I found that sometimes cutscenes tended to be longer than I would have liked. Several of them seemed to last as long as 5 minutes (the opening is longer than that), and movements seemed ‘robotic’ at points. Nonetheless, they provided a good transition between scenes and gameplay and helped add to the storyline.

The Ballad of Gay Tony also comes with several side missions/jobs:

• Drug Wars- Steal the goods from rival gangs to earn money.
• BASE jumping- Jump off of buildings, or out of helicopters, to hit targets (moving or stationary).
• Fight Club- Duel with other fighters in a cage match. There are 3 opponents per round and they grow increasingly difficult as time progresses. No weapons up front, either.
• Races- Race around Liberty City.
• Golf- Hit balls off a tee at the driving range.
• Club Management- Work at one of Tony’s clubs (You can also dance at the clubs).

TBoGT also introduces the concept of a “Booty Call.” I’ll let you discover that one on your own. All of theses game modes are rather unique and thorough, providing for several more hours of enjoyment, as well as achievements for completing each. If you’re still looking for more to do in Liberty City, there are 50 seagulls for you to find (same as pigeons in GTA IV) scattered across the city.

The detail in the game (as well as GTA as a whole) is incredible. Paying attention to the little details, such as watching streetlights (and crosswalk signals) change is pretty cool. Having an entire radio with custom stations and music is incredible as well. I also was impressed with the theming for each of the games. In TBoGT, the entire game (such as the menus, phone and text) are themed in more “rainbow-ish” colors to coincide with Gay Tony. In TLAD, the colors are darker and everything is themed like a biker gang would have it. In regards to the graphics; they are top notch, especially given the magnitude of Liberty City.

One thing I love about the GTA series is the ability to play “without a purpose.” Basically, it’s enjoyable to just run around the city aimlessly and wreck havoc. The availability of new weapons, vehicles and helicopters make this easier than ever before. There’s several new heliports all over Liberty City (including a new military helicopter), and new vehicles are available as easy as a phone call (including a NOOSE tank). As for the weapons, there’s a new shotgun that shoots explosive shells, a machine gun with a clip size of 200, a new sniper rifle, sticky bombs and several other miscellaneous improvements.

As players of the retail GTA IV may remember, money is not the most difficult thing to come by. It seems that Rockstar has finally noticed that, and acknowledged it. Money is still bountiful, but I was definitely more conscious of my spending habits with a considerably smaller wallet.

Initially playing through The Ballad of Gay Tony took me around 7-8 hours (watching all the cinematics and a few retries included). I also completed all of the base jumps and started some of the Drug Wars. After some random activities, I found myself having played for roughly 12 hours with only 60-65% of the game completed (story complete). For someone looking to play in-depth, I’d say that there’s easily 15-25 hours of unique gameplay here.

As for achievements, The Ballad of Gay Tony includes 10 achievements worth 250G collectively. Only 2 of those (35G) are obtained via story progression. The rest are available by completing side activities such as BASE jumping or Drug Wars. Most of the G’s are available by obtaining scores of 80% or 100% on all of the missions (Hard).The Lost and the Damned has 5 achievements for 250G, most of which are based on story progress.

One of the drawbacks to the game is the loading times, especially when booting the game. Booting directly from the disk game disk took 92 seconds, whereas installing the game to the hard drive (11.5 minutes later) took 74 seconds on boot. There was also a small decrease in loading times across the board (Odds are that over the course of playing the game, you will save more time by installing to the hard drive if you have some extra disk space to spare). To be fair, I’m not sure how the download version of this game is affected by load times, as I didn’t have it available for testing, but 74 seconds is still a long time.

Conclusion:

Overall, I was very impressed with Episode from Liberty City. Both The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony provide hours upon hours of exciting gameplay and add depth to the Liberty City trilogy. Coupled with new features, it provides a gaming environment that is definitely worth investing $39.99 in. If you’re only interested in one of the titles, they’re both worth the 1600 MS Points. I know that I personally was skeptical to make a (larger) purchase with my points when TLAD came out, but if I knew what I knew now, I would have bought it on day one. The $39.99 price point locks in the rating.

Single Player: 9/10 | Multi-Player: 8/10

Special thanks to Rockstar for providing us with a copy of the game for review.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

123►