Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is both a stellar expansion and an example of what DLC should be.
The first thing one needs to note is that the plot of this game isn't the same caliber of Grand Theft Auto IV. Despite this though, it still gets the job done and it's an engaging adventure with great character development. You play as Johnny Klebitz who was the lead of the Lost MC Motorcycle Gang. When the true leader of the Gang, Billy Grey, leaves jail he takes over and immediately sparks a gang war with his actions. The game follows from this point. Without spoiling it I will say this game's story has a lot of attention to detail. Though it's not exactly intricate it still makes sure to follow the plot of the original game so that there is no contradiction. Given this, the plot is one of the best 'view from another angle' plots I've seen but it's still not as good at Grand Theft Auto IV. One must note though, this is a ten hour expansion, not a thirty hour epic. I still found the new characters though to be great. I also enjoyed the enhanced grittiness and brutality featured in the game. It was appropriate and this game is appropriately grim.
Where The Lost and The Damned shines is in it's gameplay changes. These are all for the better. Though gunplay has not been directly improved, the already excellent system has been aided by the addition of new weapons. These new weapons include; an automatic pistol, an automatic shotgun, a sawed-off shotgun, a grenade launcher, and pipe bombs. These are all excellent additions but I didn't use them as much as I'd have liked to. The automatic shotgun is a blast and so is the grenade launcher but the other weapons faded to oblivion after about five hours.
The missions have been changed for the better though. Instead of relying on slow progression and repetition like in the first game, The Lost and Damned understands that we know how to play this game already. For this reason, the missions not only offer more variety, but they also offer a higher difficulty level and an increased level of action. In terms of over the top violence, it's a real throwback to the old GTA games and there are just so many over the top gun battles, on the rails sequences, and gang wars. I enjoyed every new mission and the increased difficulty made me glad since I found Grand Theft Auto IV a tad bit easy.
Other new additions include extras like racing and gang wars. Gang wars are a real throwback to the ones in San Andreas albiet with many improvements. For one to start a gang war you just enter a point, get your backup, then hunt the gang in their area. There's 25 of these missions and they follow the same pattern but there is enough variety to keep it interesting. The best thing is once you capture the territory, it's yours for good. Thank god for this, I hated maintaining territory in San Andreas.
Races are also a lot of fun. It's real throwback to Road Rash 64 as you can knock the other racers off their bikes with melee weapons. The racing is also intense as they often do the same. I don't have much to say but this is a fun addition. It's all the more improved once you do these events online.
Another small addition introduced is the concept of 'rider formation'. The usage of your gang is also a new element added to the gameplay. Rider formation works in that you either lead the gang or follow the leader. When you follow the leader if you do it well enough a box comes up that if you race into you gain health and bike repair. It's cool and when you lead the gang in formation it just has this epic feeling. Calling up your gang for backup and calling them for a bike or gun is also great.
As far as online goes it's the same online with a few new modes. One new mode is Witness Protection in which one team attempts to blow up the bus while the NOOSE attempt to protect it. It's a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. There are also race modes which as I mentioned earlier are a blast. I just love the satisfaction of knocking a guy off his bike. Own The City is a turf war style mode similar to the one featured in San Andreas. You can lose territory and it's a constant shifting of territory. This is my favorite addition. Other modes include Chopper vs Chopper in which a helicopter hunts people on their motorcycles. It's fun but I can't take it seriously. It's just some light fun and I enjoy it's addition.
As far as everything else goes, this game is similar. The graphics have no changes but the film grain and general grittiness in the menus. The grittiness in the menu's is great but the film grain is too much. Luckily it's easily disposed of. The sound is stellar though. The new voice actors do a great job and the new soundtrack additions are awesome. You got The Doors, Cannibal Corpse, Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Kanye West, and many more artists in there. It amazes me they got all these licenses for a 19.99 DLC but they, the more the merrier.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a DLC better then The Lost and Damned. In fact I don't think it is even possible. The Lost and Damned is a testament to the power of developer passion. My only hope for the future is that developer's truly take note of what Rockstar has done with this first expansion. It's just an amazing deal and its superior in length and quality to many full-priced retail games.
The Good: Takes the Grand Theft Auto IV formula and tweaks it in all the right ways, Great new alternate take on Liberty City, Amazing attention to detail, Great new characters, Keeps things grim, Excellent new soundtrack additions, Great weapons, Great new online modes, Great value, Great mission variety, No hand holding
The Bad: Some plot issues, the film grain is not the best but you can disable it
The Ugly: A DLC you simply can't afford to miss