GTA: Episodes from Liberty City same city same stories different guys
Well it’s certainly a very unpopular opinion for some reason, anyone who says Grand Theft Auto IV was a disappointment tends to get the evil eye, saying that we just didn’t get it and to go back to our casual games or the Wii. Well having played every installment since III, this isn’t really a case of I don’t like hardcore games but rather I just didn’t like Grand Theft Auto IV. I felt what Rockstar did was move the series from outlandish, over-the-top and Fun with a capital F to something more realistic, detailed and immersive at the expense of the fun. You could spend so much time doing whatever you wanted in the old games whereas in IV I felt like “yeah I could but do I feel the need to?” So why did I check out “Episodes from Liberty City”? I guess partly because part of me at least wants to give the series another shot; after all I did spend so much time in the previous cities that maybe I just need to change how I approach the games. Combining the Lost and Damned as well as brand new Ballad of Gay Tony episodes, I find some improvement but it still falls into pitfalls Rockstar should’ve fixed long ago.
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Story: The Lost and Damned has you control Johnny “the Jew” Klebitz, Vice President of the biker gang The Lost, which is just having its President, Billy Grey, released from doing time. But seems that there’s some tension brewing as Johnny has differing views on how to handle business while Billy is getting more progressively outspoken and maybe even a bit out of control. Eventually this’ll tie into the botched diamond deal seen in IV, Johnny’s drugged up ex Ashley and Johnny having to potentially save the gang from itself. The Ballad of Gay Tony, meanwhile, has you control Luis Lopez, right-hand man for Tony Prince, who’s starting to feel pressure in terms of money, the diamond deal that goes south, potential buyers for his nightclubs not to mention his own drug issues.
The problem with Lost and Damned is that there’s really no characters to actually like and main guy Johnny is such an ***hole but not a likable anti-hero type either. For all the bad things Tommy did, he at least came across as an awesome dude but Johnny barely has any redeeming features despite his pleas for less bloodshed and mayhem. And love interest Ashley doesn’t even hold much interest for him or Johnny which is a shame since the want-to-be-do’gooder Johnny still being around messed up and drug-using Ashley could’ve made for some good character development but nope, he just treats her like ****. Ballad of Gay Tony on the other hand is a bit better, mainly thanks to a bit more outrageous cast such as Yusuf, a completely nutso helicopter-owning dude. I still prefer the story in Vice City but nice to see Rockstar lighten up with this episode.
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Graphics: The Rage engine is starting to show its age, really. The graphics here do look colorful, especially in Tony’s nightclubs, character animation during cutscenes is well-done and the draw distance is pretty incredible especially since there’s barely any load times other than mission loads. However, graphical textures will still show themselves appearing later than they should and strangely I find certain facial animations to look bizarre, especially smiles and laughs. But Liberty City is certainly a very detailed and elaborate place but hopefully next game, Rockstar will do some upgrades. Oh and I’d suggest turning off the filter in the Lost and Damned because it just makes the game look ugly.
Sound/Music: The GTA series has always had impeccable voice acting and here it’s no different. While I find Luis to be a bit flat-toned, the rest of the cast is really well-done and there’s even some funny lines to be seen though the swear words to get thrown around very frequently, maybe a bit more than necessary. Other benefit in GTA is the radio stations which range from jazz to hip-hop to dance and even yoga-esque new age music and of course frequent visitor Lazlow. One problem I had is that I would’ve love to be able to see exactly what song is playing because there was this one song on a station I started to fall in love with only there was no actual way to say what it was so it prompts a visit through the OST or google lyrics to figure out what it was.
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Gameplay: What made the old GTA series fun is just the insane amount of stuff to do. Fire truck missions, police missions, taxi missions, learning how to ride bikes better, cars, pedal bikes, planes, jets even, hidden packages, jumps, races etc. Even Vice City had the whole property buying but GTA IV got rid of most of it so now hidden packages are those damn pigeons, police missions are most wanted hunting and there is jumps, races and base jumps (in Gay Tony) but I guess it was my problem with GTA IV, a big expansive and elaborate universe that wasn’t much fun to play in. The DLC expansions some of it but it still feels like there’s not as much stuff to do, it’s just a bigger world to move in. The mission variety is also starting to wear a bit thin since it really comes down to get ambushed, shoot everyone and outrun cops or chase someone and kill them. Also there’s some missions that were clear missteps, namely the use of the helicopters which are some of the more frustrating-to-control vehicles I’ve seen in awhile and they make you ride these things more than 3 times for missions. Controls are also spotty for combat in that gunplay is still roughly the same like taking cover and it’s supremely easy to get headshots but cycling through targets still doesn’t want to target the guy right to your left but rather some guy on the street below and it’s very easy to stay locked on to a target you already killed. I would’ve liked separate controls for helicopter and on-foot as well since one camera type didn’t work for me in another type.
As far as extra stuff to do, both episodes include the idea of gang wars (TLAD) and drug wars (TBoGT) and these work somewhat similar to territory control in San Andreas where you fight off some enemies in a given area. Gay Tony also introduces the idea of base jumping where you parachute down through rings or get an achievement by freefalling without pulling the parachute for the longest time (hint: try to do it before you hit the ground). One thing I will criticize Rockstar for is that there’s secondary mission objectives in the Gay Tony missions where there’s almost certain things you need to do in the mission to get a better score such as little to no damage, accuracy and time. Wouldn’t be bad if the achievements weren’t directly related to it nor mention what exactly needs to be done for each one but at least you can replay after the story’s over.
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City videos & screenshots.
Strange as it sounds but a lot of people preferred Saints Row 2 for just how zany and outlandish it was yet I didn’t much care for it, seeing a lack of refinement that Rockstar does with their games yet I didn’t like GTA IV. Not sure what it is and the Episodes from Liberty City reminds me of other games in that this wasn’t awesome enough to fully invest in (like Fallout 3 or Call of Duty 4) yet they weren’t bad enough to outright quit. But I’m sure this’ll be a very unpopular review so bring it on (or not would be preferred).