| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 8.10 |
| Overall | 8.10 |
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This review of Episodes of Liberty City will be split into two parts, one for each game. Cause they share many of the same elements the next paragraph will be added to both reviews as it covers the similar elements. The Episodes still play just like GTA4, it is just an expansion so the city and controls are the same. Years after GTA4 the graphics and feel of the game is a bit dated. Third person shooters have been getting better and better, the cover and auto aim mechanics of GTA4 feels a bit clunky in comparison. It's still better than a lot of other open world games but for the next GTA hopefully they rework it. Driving vehicles is as fun as ever and this time bikes are reworked so that they feel like they did in the PS2 GTA's, they are fun to ride once again. The Episodes add a whole new soundtrack to the game, one that I feel is better than GTA4's selection. There are all new TV shows to watch, including new episodes of Republican Space Marines and the new Princess Bubblegum which is hilarious. While it is nice to see new content of the entertainment around the city, it sucks that the city is identical, not one new area to explore. The cell phone is back and it handles the same way. Thankfully friends rarely call you to hang out with them in these expansions,it's almost always your choice. I believe that alone helps the flow of the game. Both expansions are missing the classic side missions like cop car missions, ambulance, fire trucks, deliver cars, rampages, assassinations, it's all gone. Each expansion has their own set of side games but it sucks not having those usual staples of the GTA experience. Both expansions take about 20 hours if you do all side missions as well, basically 1/3 of a GTA game. The Lost and the Damned was the first expansion to come out and it focused on a biker gang. Like all GTA's you have a great cast of characters, excellent voice acting and a good story. They nailed the feeling of a biker gang, or what I think a biker gang would be like since I have no clue what it's really like. I felt the comradery between the "brothers", the game handles it so well cause in almost every mission you ride with them, you fight with them, you are always together. Each time you ride out with your gang you have a group of red shirts, guys who are not main characters but they get a name and stats. If they survive the mission they will appear in the next mission with better stats and health. It's not important to the story in any way but at least it gives you incentive on trying to keep your brothers alive. Your home base is the gang house where you can take part in card games and arm wrestling. LaTD is all about bikes almost to a fault. In many missions you need YOUR bike. Say you arrive at a location and have a big shootout, then you must escape. Well there are a ton of bikes all around but if you don't take YOUR bike you fail the mission. The side missions include bike races, 12 in all scattered around the city and gang wars which is basically random shootouts. The game states you must do 25 gang war missions to get "100%" in side quest completion, they are not unique though, I think it's just randomized. To do these side missions you must have a bike. It's a minor inconvenience cause you can call a buddy and have a bike delivered to you, still its a hassle every single time you want to start these missions. After a while you get sick of bikes, GTA is about variety and this expansion basically restricts you to one type of vehicle. The main missions are average I would say. There isn't much imagination to them, many of them have you driving your gang to a spot and shooting people, then escape back to your hideout. There are a few standout missions but nothing we haven't seen before. At least the story is compelling, that kept me interested until the very end. I would say that Lost and the Damned is your basic expansion, it just does more of the same. Thankfully the same in this case is really good gameplay but I couldn't help but feel it was like those PSP games, only a short version of one of those. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 18 May 2010 19:52:30
Recently Spotted:
travo (5m)
I'll read this one and then Gay tony after I've played it a bit more.
I don't think the graphics are outdated, I just wish they could solidify the frame rate and fix the pop up. For some reason it feels worse than GTAIV in those regards.
The missions are cool, I prefer them to GTA IV but even the small sample of Gay Tony I sampled...
Heh, heh.
Was better.
Completed GTA LATD last night. Bit limp at the end, Billy put up no resistance, kind of disappointed as I thought he would have a much larger and all encompassing feud with Johnathen. Then at the end the gang just walked away and the game saved. I woke up in a little abandonded shack that was now my safe house.
I mopped up the remaning missions, gang war etc. Done and done.
Onto Gay Tony.