Both GTA IV downloadable expansions packaged in a stand-alone game. Better than some full retail games! A must-play.
The Lost and Damned can be purchased as a $20 DLC pack, or comes with the Ballad of Gay Tony in the $40 Tales from Liberty City retail disk package. Either way, you get your money's worth. I easily spent 12-13 hours with TLAD working primarily on the main missions with a few side missions thrown in here and there. I've completed $60 "full" games in half that time!
The Lost and Damned follows the bike gang "The Lost" in Liberty City and the primary character Jonny Kibitz during the same timeframe that Niko's story unfolds in the GTA IV main storyline. Several characters are familiar, and in a couple missions you even participate in the same events as Niko, but from a different point of view. There are also tie-ins with the second expansion, Ballad of Gay Tony. In the end, all three stories are interwoven into one cohesive whole, giving the player multiple viewpoints on the same events, and a better understanding of what happened between Niko's missions.
On top of TLAD's 10-hour campaign, there are plenty of other new things to do in Liberty City. New games, new grand theft lists (motorcycles this time), and new side missions. Plus you get to shoot seagulls (TLAD's version of pigeons) with a few new and powerful weapons. The campaign itself is a fairly dark and gritty story missing much of the humor found in so many other GTA narratives. Most of the missions are straight forward and lacking in wild, over-the-top moments. The production values of the expansion are at the same high level of the main game, so you aren't getting a half-baked product.
Overall, any fan of the GTA series should get this expansion. It packs as much value as a full retail game for about 1/3 the price. And you certainly can't go wrong if you purchase it in the Episodes from Liberty City pack and get the stellar Ballad of Gay Tony along with it.
Grand Theft Auto IV was a great game, but my biggest complaint was that Niko's story just didn't compel like previous chapters of the franchise. The Ballad of Gay Tony returns GTA IV to it's fun and over-the-top roots with likable characters and a solid story that is not only compelling in its own right, but serves to tie up all the loose ends of Niko's and Johnny's intersecting story arcs.
While the first expansion, The Lost and Damned, was dark and gritty and had no real fun or absurd missions, TBOGT goes all out. You'll find yourself driving every manner of vehicle including attack helicopters and tanks. Plus you'll find yourself parachuting off of choppers, buildings and even a plane. Add some great new weapons, and you've got a well-rounded package. Many of the missions are fun and interesting, with absurd and laugh-out-loud situations. And the story of Luiz and Tony is interesting and mostly coherent.
Throughout the main story, you'll find yourself running into Niko and Johnny a few times. The story itself ties directly into the diamond heist plotline that is so important in both the main plot and with the Lost and Damned. There are also plenty of other things to do, such as cage fighting, drug wars, and base jumping amongst other activities. Overall, for the cost of this expansion as DLC, or as part of the Episodes from Liberty City retail package, you get more than your money's worth! TBOGT alone has more content than some full games.
While TLAD's achievements were relatively simple to obtain, TBOGT added a scoring mechanic to the missions which make a bulk of the gamerscore difficult to get without having to replay them multiple times. This forced difficulty, and some hard-to-control helicopter and parachuting missions are the only real low points for the expansion. That, and perhaps some boring repetition on the drug wars. Beyond that, The Ballad of Gay Tony is well worth playing, either as DLC to the original GTA IV, or as a stand-alone game purchased in the Episodes package.