Brilliant GTA game, absolutely phenomenal DLC!
The Ballad of Gay Tony gives you the final ending to a long line of Liberty City stories. Starting with the tale of a cynical and fearlessly loyal immigrant who sadly was groomed through life experiences to become a cold blooded gun for hire, to then playing as a misguided member of a biker gang who was always for rebeling against what he thought was wrong and not afraid to cause some damage in the process.
The setup is very similair but the execution is much more louder and definatley with a bigger bang than anything to what Niko and Johnny had to crawl through.
''Gay'' Tony Prince, Luis' boss, friend, mentor and father figure, is in some serious debt with alot of undesirables. Tony was initially a well respected figure among the nightlife scene but as the years went by with his age ever growing along with his paranoia, Tony would resort to drugs and bad debt from bad people to help fund such bad habits.
Its upto Luis to help sort out Tony's problems and help fill in what needs to filled to get all this debt off Tony's case once and for all. There is abit of story, going off track, concerning Luis' mother and his old hoodlum homies but they really act as an after-thought and the sole focus will be on Tony and just how quick he keeps falling from his throne.
The storyline as a whole is very enjoyable but mostly through the amazing characters and equally amazing writing for them to deliver their personalities to the screen. The story arc itself is fairly predictable with you probably already making accurate guess' as to whos going to betray whom and probably even how most of the storys situations will end. Not like that degrades any of its enjoyment with this infact being one of my favourite GTA storylines thus far just for the fantasically hilarious characters Luis will cross among his story.
While seeing some of the old faces from Niko and even Johnny's storylines is a real treat, just to have more of them and to see from a different perspective at that, the highlight goes to some of the newer characters introduced. Tony Prince for starters is hard to dislike and can't help but pity for just how nothing seems to go right for the poor guy. He's not a gangster or mob boss and is much more legitimate with his business than what contacts the GTA hero's usually get work from. His relationship with Luis too will help strengthen his likablity, with Luis' own father abandoning him (Even more bad rep for fathers in GTA4) Tony replaced the void and as Luis states throughout, is a real inspiration and is definatley one of the reasons for his success in life.
Then you also have such characters as Yusuf Amir, who is just a raving riot with always something hilarious to say and
Luis himself is also a fantastic protoganist. He's lacking in morals per usual of the GTA hero's but he still keeps alot of humanity within him. He's not evil and while he admits that he sometimes enjoys killing for money, the satisfaction is usually down from him knowing how hes helping someone he cares about in life. Much like Niko and Johnny before him, Luis certaintly deserves to take place as one of the greatest GTA protagonists to date and is definatley a character I'm hoping to see more of, down the GTA timeline.
So TBoGT brings with it a new story and new set of characters, no surprise there, but equally as expected it also brings with a whole host of new features to which may almost make you feel sorry for Niko and Johnny to what they've missed out on.
Sure the game still revolves around shooting and driving usually in combination of each other, but theres now so much variety with that scheme that repetition hardly features in The Ballad.
New weapons galore for starters add a whole new coat of fresh and explosive paint over GTA4. From the seemingly pointless addition of a new sniper-rifle to what will hopefully will become a GTA standard, the AA12 shotgun complete with
explosive rounds
! While the original GTA4 basically set you up with a less than expansive set of weapons with no real choice of which weapon to leave home with besides the better of the two, TBoGT now has such an extensive set that theres easily a playstyle for just about everyone.Obviously not as game altering as the weapons, but a very hefty amount of new cars makes it through the transition from eastern immigrant to Dominican hotshot. Returning favourites from GTA-SA, The Bullet is one of the many new sports car Luis can cruise around in.
An agile helicopter, however, that can shoot an unlimited amount of missiles and an explosive turret equipped APC certaintly add even more explosive potential to The Ballad.
Whats more is parachuting has now made a return and with GTA4's still high quality physics, is now as fun as its ever been.
That lists some of the much more notable features that have been generously added into the GTA4 experience, but then there is still smaller additions such as Club Management and dancing minigames. Though they really act as slight diversions rather than anything for you really sink some time into.
Much like you'd expect with such an OTT arsenal of equipment for Luis to mess around with, the story missions themselves are riotiously broad and chaotic but always the good type. Dog battles between attack choppers and diving of helicopters infiltrating skyscrapers, the missions are hardly ever boring to play through again and again ((thanks to the better late than never replay mission mechanic)).
Some missions though certaintly aren't all too engaging to undertake and while would of been acceptable in say a full fledged GTA story like the original, with all the smaller missions there just to bridge storylines and such, for TBoGT and its still reasonably long storyline of 26 missions, you would of hoped each one would be as action packed as the next. To which is close to the mark, but some missions are still rather dull and seem like a waste of what could of been just as fun as the majority.
From base jumping missions to helping out your homies steal drugs to even still just hanging at your clubs dancing and drinking the night away, theres a good deal to get yourself distracted with.
As mentioned earlier, TBoGT also features a mission replay option, to which once you complete the storyline can then replay any mission you so desire, just to go through the frantic fun once more but to also improve your score you now gain from each mission regarding your gun accuracy, damage taken and some miscellenous concerning the mission itself.
Replay value has never been stronger for GTA4 and TBoGT is definatley the best choice of story to go with for all your random rampaging needs.
Of course even besides the single player, TBoGT has its own exclusive multiplayer component. It doesn't have any new modes and doesn't bring along anything from the Lost and Damned. It rathers centred on the basics of deathmatch, races and the ever popular free mode. What sets it apart from the original GTA4 and the L&D is of course the addition of all the wonderful new toys for you and your friends to cruise, kill, parachute from and destroy whatever you wish.
Moving on the presentation of it all, thats definatley where the game falters, but only by so little fortunatly. The game still looks and sounds great and infact thanks to the new additions to the radio stations, has one of the best licensed soundtracks to come across that isn't a music-game.
Graphically it still holds well and with it now having a much more natural look over L&D with its filters, it now looks better than ever with its clear skys and general illuminious atmosphere its created. The character models do look better surprisingly but still seem rather robotic mid gameplay. Cutscene graphics can look a little jagged too at times but frankly this is still one of the best looking sandbox-crime games to be found.
The voice acting is your usual GTA quality, as in its phenomenoul with every character you meet really giving you the exact emotion Rockstar are wanting you to feel. Intimidation from the husky Bulgarin, pity for the unlucky in...everything...Tony and respect for the ever loyal and immensly helpful Armando and Henrique.
The new weapons brought into the fold too all sound appropiate and the AA12 shotgun+
explosive rounds
is always sadistically satisfying to listen to.The Ballad of Gay Tony far from reinvents what GTA4 is known for. Theres still alot of shooting and driving and still does lack the huge variety of say San Andreas. Everything that is here, however, has to be admired for its evident attention to detail and its overall top quality. TBoGT is so fantastic, as DLC and as a GTA game in general, it could probably bring forth the cynics who left GTA from GTA4's realistic approach and gritty down to earth asthetic.
Speaking for GTA4 fans alone, TBoGT is undoubtely a must play to finish off loose ends of both past storylines and just to be able to experience GTA4's gameplay at its finest
