Grand Theft Auto IV

The original announcement at E3 06, the delays pushing the episodic content further back, and the fifty million dollars. Several months after the original details of the downloadable content were revealed, the Lost and the Damned is finally here. The Lost and Damned packs a new storyline featuring a new character, new modes, weapons, and vehicles, and even some controversy to go along with it. After all of the mentioned events, people want to know if it lives up to the hype. Subtly put, Lost and Damned packs more features to make fans ponder what will be in the next downloadble content.

Enter Johnny Klebitz, the intern-president of a biker game named "The Lost." He is in charge while their actual leader, Billy Grey, is in rehab. Johnny believes in a more peace and civil attitude towards rivaling biker gangs, but once their leader is released, they begin to clash over leadership and subsequently ways to lead the gang. Johnny appears as a more sensible and civil man, in contrast to his more radical and foolhardy superior. The Lost clash with rival gangs, which include the "Angels of Death." There will be several times throughout the game where it will show several different missions in Johnny's perspective, as you will get to meet Grand Theft Auto IV main character Niko Bellic once again. The Lost and the Damned features the usual GTA-missions, but with a new twist. Since you are in a biking gang, you will almost always be in a formation with a group of bikers. Spots will be designated in this formations allowing you to regain health, and repair your bike. The Lost and Damned features many cop-evasion missions, and if you weren't a fan of them, like myself, these misions will be quite annoying. I was never a fan of trying to evade cops under a 3-star and 4-star radius. Even some risque nudity takes place, and Rockstar stepped over the line in an audacious move.

Your cell-phone makes another return, and had the standard options from Grand Theft Auto IV. Small differences include: calling people to back you up, going out for different games, and getting your bike. Lost and Damned also includes several different mini-games, such as arm wrestling and betting on high and low. Arm wrestling is mapped to the right analog, which dares you to move it back and forth. Warning: your analog stick might just break. None of these mini-games are worthwhile, and they are just that: mini-games. Lost and Damned will probably run you 5-6 hours if you just hit the story mode, and you can easily push into the double-digits if you wish to fool around and try out the other activities. Different activities include racing, which allows you to challenge fools in Liberty City on your bike, and even knock those suckers down with you bat. The other new activity is Gang Wars, which allows you to fight other gangs in Liberty City for turf. It is good to see these new features, because they give a sense of nostalgia, in homage to San Andreas.

Several new weapons make their appearances in Lost and The Damned, such as the automatic and sawn-off shotguns, and pipe bombs. What makes the sawn-off shotgun even more lethal (or just more awesome to use), is blasting some fool on your bike. A grenade-launcher gun also makes its appearance as well. One of the bigger aspects of Lost and the Damned is the ability of checkpoints in the midst of the mission. An oft magnified in GTA IV was being prompted to the beginning of the mission, after you failed it. That is no longer present, assuming you progressed somewhat in that mission, you will spawn at a designated section of the mission. This is great, but unfortunately this does not update in GTA IV.

Lost and the Damned packs several features in the online aspect, such as a new mode which allows you to gain control sections of the city. Lost and Damned continues the tradition of great voice-acting in GTA games, and you will be seamlessly giggling throughout. One of the more disappointing drawbacks to this package was the fact that none of this would be integrated into Grand Theft Auto IV. All of this is a stand-alone expansion, so you will not be able to take any of the new weapons into the original game.

For what it is worth, The Lost and Damned is essentially a third of the game, both length and price wise. Lost and Damned packs more content and playing time then some games you will find on the market, and all GTA fans should give this a look. As I touched upon before, the only faults I could find in this package is that it isn't integrated better with Grand Theft Auto IV. With all of that being said, Johnny Klebitz makes a great main character. While everyone powers through The Lost and Damned, we should now look into where the next episode will take us. The controversy, the story, the new features, everything you would expect in a GTA episodic pack is here, and it is great.