The Lost And Damned: My Thoughts

I shouldn't really be blogging. I should be working on one of the many essays I have to write over the next two weeks. But I feel like I should write something. I've just finished the main story missions of The Lost and Damned, the first part of DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV, and I wanted to share my opinion of it with all you readers. Considering time isn't something I have in abundance, I'll keep it simple and just list some of the things I liked about it, as well as a couple of things I didn't like quite so much. Think of it as a condensed Discovering Gaming Greatness blog. Oh, and if you haven't played TLaD, don't worry, I've kept you in mind. Spoilers are minimal and not story-related.

Stuff I liked about The Lost and DamnedYES

• New soundtrack - I like classic rock. Liberty Rock Radio in GTAIV felt pretty half-arsed, in my eyes. Sure, it had The Who and Thin Lizzy, but some of the stuff was very questionable (Elton John? Really?). TLaD fixes this problem by adding a load more tracks to LRR, from recognised classic rock artists like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Nazareth. The result is a much more consistent classic rock station that I can enjoy listening to.
• Improved mission structure - While I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the story missions in GTAIV, they started to lack variety by the end of the game. The missions in TLaD are varied throughout and don't ever make you feel like you're doing the same thing over and over again. It's nice to see Rockstar settling back into their groove when it comes to mission design.
  
• Biker friends - Having all friend perks open to you from the start was a brave choice, but it's one that really pays off. The fact you can call your buddies for weapons or a new bike at any time in the strand really enhances the sense of brotherhood (read: buh-ruh-thuh-hood) that you'd expect to find in a gang like The Lost.
• Tweaks to the game engine - The fact that Johnny is a biker provides a logical reason for TLaD to tighten up the bike handling. What I didn't expect the developers to do, however, was to make Johnny's car handling a little less impressive than Niko's. Again, it was a brave move, but one that really paid off. Bikes were fun to ride, and cars were a little more thrilling to drive.
• Simultaneous story arcs - I loved the way that Johnny's story is tightly interwoven with Niko's throughout TLaD. It was nice to play through scenarios like the diamond exchange and the heroin deal from another perspective, and it was also cool to see how Johnny's actions influenced Niko's story and vice versa. I expect more of this with the next piece of episodic content, assuming the rumours about Luis are true.
• New weapons - While there was nothing in GTAIV to stop you going on crazy rampages, Niko's limited arsenal did hinder you a bit. A lot of the new weapons seem designed with this in mind, with toys like the assault shotgun and grenade launcher inviting you to get down and dirty with the LCPD. Although I'm still not overly thrilled about the limit of eight rockets for the RPG.
  

And stuff I didn't like quite so much about The Lost and DamnedNO

• Mission availability - Maybe I was expecting a bit too much from Rockstar, but I was kinda hoping that the missions available to Johnny at any given time would be influenced by the order I completed missions in the main game. In TLaD, I heard about Goldberg's assassination on the radio before I finished the Elizabeta Torres mission strand. I don't think anybody assassinated Goldberg before finishing up Elizabeta's missions in GTAIV. I'm not even sure it's possible to do that. Like I said, maybe I was expecting too much, but it would have been an awesome touch.
• Lacklustre story - I think GTAIV itself is to blame for this upset, because had I not played GTAIV, I would have no problems with the story of TLaD. Niko's story was characterised by morality and the futility of the criminal lifestyle, whereas Johnny's story doesn't seem to have any of that. The new characters lack depth and just aren't as interesting as the cast from GTAIV. The story of TLaD was good, it just doesn't really stand up to the source material.
• Length - I know it's episodic content, but I was expecting TLaD to weigh in at a little longer than it did. It was advertised as being a third of the length of GTAIV when in reality it's significantly under a quarter (twenty-three main story missions compared to GTAIV's ninety-four) and it took me just six and a half hours to play through. The delays experienced prior to the DLC's release and the bumped-up price of 1600 MS points also made me expect a little bit more than what I got. What content there is is brilliant. It's just a shame there isn't more of it.