Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City

The added value that Rockstar have given the already content packed Grand Theft Auto IV is terrific. Terrific in that violent and wonderfully entertaining way. The downloadable episodes The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony didn't only give us new main characters and cool storylines, they also gave us a closer relationship with Liberty City itself. The two expansions have, as you might know, been put together and released as Episodes from Liberty City, and since Microsoft's time exclusive deal has run out the collection has now reached Playstation 3.

We threw ourselves over these expansions back when they were released as download on the Xbox 360 back in the day, and they recieved pretty good grades (9/10 and 8/10 on the Swedish edition of Gamereactor). The Lost and Damned was the first one to be released, and when I sit down with the Playstation 3 edition it's once again biker Johnny Klebitz's adventure I try out first. Depite the fact that it's a story I've experienced before I'm instantly hooked once again, for several reasons.

First of all, the almost constantly high tempo and action is a great plus for someone that hates escort missions as much as I do. Klebitz, or The Kleb as I like to call him, doesn't need an introduction in how Liberty City looks or how to handle a shotgun. Secondly, the storyline is top notch and even if The Kleb doesn't feel nearly as deep as Nico Bellic you still want to know what will happen to him and the people around him. The cross over with the events in the original game (the diamond heist, Roman Bellic's kidnapping, etc) is also a nice detail.

Of course there is a long list of side missions, with motorcycle races and gang wars to get yourself involved in - all to the tunes of rock music fitting your MC. It takes quite a while to get through The Lost and Damned, and then you still have half of Episodes from Liberty City to go...

Because you still have The Ballad of Gay Tony to sink your teeth in. Completely different in both story and design, it seems like Rockstar wanted to make both the environments and characters the polar opposites of The Lost and Damned. Luis Lopez, bodyguard for nightclub owner Gay Tony, gives us a fresh pair of eyes to see Liberty City through. Champagne and glitter instead of whiskey and exhaust pipes, but still with a healthy dosage of action. Lopez is just as dangerous as any other protagonist in a Rockstar game, especially since he has access to a wide variety of weapons right from the start.

Gay Tony includes a lot of helicopter flying, and seeing Liberty City from above and taking part in dogfights is a lot of fun. The episode also includes a couple of new features, like being able to replay a mission to better your score and compare yourself to the leaderboards online. Luis has quite a hectic schedule, which includes skydiving, drinking games and cage fighting; where you can either take part yourself or bet money on who is going to win.

It feels a bit sad, but of course there are a couple of problems in these two wonderful episodes. As usual, not everything in Grand Theft Auto IV is perfect, which isn't surprising considering the amount of activities available. Sometimes the fire fights are a bit too chaotic, the cover system is hardly intuitive and sometimes flying isn't as easy to control as one would hope. I also tend to get quite fed up with the "cool" approach (mostly in The Lost and Damned) in the cutscenes, where characters go from believable to clichés. But these sunspots shouldn't scare you away from picking this up.

Episodes from Liberty City is truly worth its price, and should be a lesson for all in how to expand a game. This is no simple cash-in; Rockstar have with both their episodes proven that they take their work and worlds seriously. If you haven't met Johnny Klebitz and/or Luis Lopez until now, it's about time that you do.