This episodic expansion focuses on the high-end nightlife, and shows you sides of Liberty City you never knew existed
Contains: Very Strong Language, Strong Bloody Violence, Sex and Drug References
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GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second of the two episodic expansion packs and is currently the final game of the Grand Theft Auto IV era.
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STORY - 2/5
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The Ballad of Gay Tony follows the exploits of a new protagonist, Luis Fernando Lopez, a recent member of the Dominican drug dealers and the personal bodyguard of Anthony Prince, also referred to and known as "Gay Tony". Prince is the owner of the two largest nightclubs within Liberty City and is also a high-status socialite. This episode within the frequently used setting injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and crime and players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price. It focuses a lot on the nightlife of Grand Theft Auto which is previously never displayed in such mature and realistic manner, and while the events cleverly run along concurrently with Niko Bellic's story in GTA IV with references and physical appearances by notable characters, The Ballad of Gay Tony isn't as interesting or captivating like most of the Grand Theft Auto storylines.
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CHARACTERS - 2/5
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You play as Luis Fernando Lopez, a 25-year old Dominican bodyguard and business associate of Tony Prince, who is the owner of the hottest gay and straight nightclubs in Liberty City. Luis's background with Tony is revealed throughout the course of the game, but overall Luis proves a rather lacklustre protagonist, like most of the new characters within The Ballad of Gay Tony. Many characters are from the main game, and their involvement within this expansion all have important relevance to the events happening parallel with Niko's story, and so greater understanding of certain events can be distinguished here from a second perspective even if they showcase with a generally weak impact on proceedings in your story. But the sometimes humorous references to the original game's characters are well implemented and are a welcome integration that nicely fit in within this story that shows sides of Liberty City you never knew existed.
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GAMEPLAY - 5/5
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You take control of Luis Lopez within Liberty City in an identical sandbox design to Grand Theft Auto IV and outside of the frantic, action-packed missions are various activities and jobs to partake in, some familiar to those who played Grand Theft Auto IV, and some new and exclusive to this expansion. New optional activities include completing drug wars with childhood friends Armando and Henrique, where you exploit a drug deal and make off with the stash in a variety of staged deals, and these friends are also the people who can hang out with in your free time and make use of their benefits such as calling for a specific vehicle or requiring unique weapons at a discounted price for dangerous missions. Because of Luis' job as a high-profile nightclub bouncer you can partake in club management jobs where you deal with trouble head on, and also given Lopez's penchant for parachutes and the prominence of helicopters during this crime adventure you will be able to compete in triathlon races and base jumping/skydiving challenges which require you to hit checkpoints while freefalling or land in the designated zone on the ground or on a moving vehicle. The excellent variety doesn't stop there either, since not only can you engage in mini games with your friends but you can also enjoy new activities such as playing golf or stepping into a Cage Fighters contest as either a spectator to bet on who will be the dominant winner or actually challenge your way through brutal stages of a bare-knuckle championship where no punches are pulled, money is earned and the violence is as real as the blood seeping out a wound appears. It's fair to say that The Ballad of Gay Tony offers variety that differs greatly from end of the crime spectrum to the other, where you can have a fun day out with your friends, be in charge of the nightlife activities in a club or be a brutal boxer in a fight-to-the-death style, gritty underworld where fortune and muscles are the way forward in this city.
Extremely good gunplay and physics are a big part of what makes the criminal activities within a gritty, city underworld so authentic, and running down pedestrians could never be exemplified more here with such a violent impact on your senses as they propel off the bonnet brutally and roll to a bloody halt, leaving marks on your vehicle where the force is made clear that you hit them hard. Bodies drop to the floor appropriately depending on the force of the weapon and the hit detection of each bullet fired, and the blood spray that occurs from the point of impact is done in a manner that isn't too much to seem fake. A variety of new weapons are available to use throughout The Ballad of Gay Tony including a high-powered magnum pistol, a light machine gun and a silenced assault SMG, and each is fun to shoot and useful when used appropriately at the right stance and range.
One of the best new features in The Ballad of Gay Tony is the availability of mid-mission checkpoints, a feature which is relatively absent from previous Grand Theft Auto games, and it's implementation here is much appreciated to avoid tedious travelling time when you fail a mission. Main missions get straight into the action-packed scenes rather than doing tutorial missions to get you into the swing of things slowly, but this won't prove a problem if you came straight from playing Grand Theft Auto IV to this. Many of the story missions are well varied and inventive that deviate away from the usual GTA IV formula, and a few make use of the new parachute implementation that will no doubt bring back memories from San Andreas. You'll need to take cover fairly often as it's quite easy to die if you don't do so, but the checkpoints during missions do ease some of the frustration when you cheaply die from being left vulnerable by an environmental error or an impatient opponent throwing Molotov's. Before missions you'll frequently have to call up a buddy to provide weapons and armor to ensure that you have full protection against the barrage of bullets you'll inevitably face. Apart from some frustrations The Ballad of Gay Tony proves very similar to GTA IV with the exception of a new protagonist, new weapons, new vehicles and new mission structures that get wrapped up in the criminal based gameplay in much the same way you've already seen, and is thoroughly enjoyable when things go as planned and you succeed on first attempts.
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GRAPHICS - 4/5
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Liberty City is still a stunning open world brimming with authentic details that compliment the atmosphere of pedestrian day-to-day life, and the sharpness of the visuals is just as consistent as you remember it from GTA IV, though unfortunately the framerate drops and slowdown becomes apparent when too much characters or explosions inhabit the screen at one time. Cutscene graphics are also starting to show their age now, and character animations during these look like they need some polish to make the drama more engaging and impressive. Real-time car damage effects are still extremely realistic here to represent the exact impact you make when driving recklessly through traffic, and body physics are authentically replicated in-game to provide even more realism to your actions whether it be from gunfire or the front of your vehicle.
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SOUND - 4/5
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Apart from the original Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, several new tracks have been added to the radio stations in this expansion, which are welcome variety to the great amount of songs which you began to here time and again repetitively throughout the main game. All dialogue is spoken with the right manner and makes each character believable and each reaction, whether it be out of emotion or rage, is conveyed across convincingly for the unfolding developments within each cutscene or over a phone call. Cold-blooded humour is familiar for those who have played Grand Theft Auto before, and the laughs are forced through cold wit by certain characters, easing the tension on a stressful mission, but never digressing away from the subject matter at hand. Fiery explosions are accompanied by strong sound effects that justify the fireball wreck of a vehicle or the realistic physics that throw an enemy through the air with the correct force as a grenade produces after-effects that are expected, and gunfire is made solid due to the correct sound that each weapon is trying to represent as realistically as possible.
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CONTROLS - 4/5
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The control configurations are exactly the same as in Grand Theft Auto IV, so the controls should all feel adequate if you recently played the main game before this expansion. Vehicle handling, though difficult and noticeably stiff when turning, is well done for realism forcing you to slow down when approaching junctions so you can't just speed through the corner with ease, and moving your character around is deliberately sluggish to present the correct movement a person would do, rather than brief and unconvincing swivels that most games proceed to adapt to. Smooth animations make taking cover from a variety of stances good to witness, and even though problems can arise when an enemy gets within punching distance and you're frantically attempting to push them back to shoot, the controls are all great to adapt to in time.
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ATMOSPHERE - 5/5
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Liberty City once again feels alive with commotion, pedestrian life and realistic police behaviour during daytime, and yet again feels hostile with gritty crimes, prostitution and police activity during the dark hours of night making for a believable setting where the game focuses on the nightlife status of the characters. And to augment the atmosphere as you find yourself drawn into the dark, criminal underworld is the stunning amount of detail to establish such a well made city brimming with activity around the clock, whether it be cleaners within a fast-food restaurant or trains travelling on schedule to get people to and from work, you'll constantly find yourself impressed with the achievement Rockstar has made.
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ENEMY AI - 4/5
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General enemy AI is reasonably good, they take cover where possible and prove a threat if you aren't in cover yourself. They don't react to tossed grenades though, making them easy targets for a fiery explosion if you have the weapon to deliver the fireball available in your large arsenal of powerful weaponry. You gain police attention for committing crimes such as homicide and stealing and the police will try and arrest you or kill you depending on how much of a threat they think you pose for your crime wave of criminal activities. To escape them you have to exit the flashing area on the map and remain out of sight until they give up the chase, and changing your vehicle or seeking shelter down alleyways makes them less likely to recognise you. The higher the wanted level, the more aggressively the cops will pursue you, ever-increasing in difficulty to shake off and lose them until you commit an unlawful action that attracts them again, which is inevitable throughout the course of the game.
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LENGTH - 5/5
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Throughout The Ballad of Gay Tony there is so much to do to prolong the length of the story, that vary from nightclub mini games such as dancing and drinking, hanging out with childhood friends in a round of golf on the driving range, earning money by completing drug wars, and even taking the view up high as you parachute towards the designated targets for various base jumps. Playing the game casually and not rushing through story missions can see this expansion last anywhere between 14 and 18 hours of constantly enjoyable gameplay in a criminal protagonist's shoes.
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REPLAY VALUE - 4/5
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A new feature in this expansion is a mission scoring system that has specific requirements to meet in which you'll be given a percentage after you've completed the mission. Different thresholds that ask questions of your skill capabilities such as accuracy or damage taken, and whether or not you can execute them all within a time limit all lead to tension if you want to fully complete each mission and tick each box requirement. And subsequently you can replay each mission to improve your statistics and strive for that 100% stat followed by a well earned trophy, but aggravation is inevitable, and only tough GTA players will bother to replay every mission several times to fully complete them.
The Ballad of Gay Tony incorporates the same excellent gunplay and physics from Grand Theft Auto IV, with some new weapons, vehicles and soundtrack, but unfortunately doesn't improve upon all aspects which held Grand Theft Auto IV back from perfection, and also happens to involve you in an uninteresting story with little excitement from the perspective of a rather lacklustre protagonist. But despite that drawback, well varied story missions with a checkpoint system, and neat exploration in a believable city setting ensure that the Grand Theft Auto experience is still fulfilled in a satisfying and violent way just like it's predecessors succeeded to do.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8.5/10
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Good Points: Great value for money, Liberty City still looks stunning and has a very believable atmosphere, New weapons and activities, Excellent voice acting enforces each characters personality, Gunplay and physics are perfect, Well varied story missions, Mid-mission checkpoints ease the frustration of failing, Plenty of things to distract you away from the main story missions.
Bad Points: Luis Lopez is a rather lacklustre protagonist, Story ties in nicely with GTA IV's plot but overall isn't very captivating, Some framerate and slowdown technical issues.