GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

Format Xbox 360

Developer Rockstar North

Publisher Rockstar

Genre Action

32 Comments

February 17 sees the launch of The Lost and Damned, the first instalment of GTA IV's 360-exclusive downloadable content which reveals a darker side to GTA IV. Liberty City is now the backdrop for a revenge plot that sees much death and a tragic tale of a family collapsing in on itself - and this time you're not just a tourist.

You play as Johnny Klebitz, the troubled vice president of motorcycle gang The Lost. The group's leader (and Johnny's brother Billy) was sent to rehab to dodge a lengthy stretch inside. Johnny's used his time as acting gang leader to quell the violence that's raged between his gang and rivals The Angels of Death.

But Billy's out and back in charge, which quickly means that old habits have come crashing back. All of Johnny's hard work is being undone by his brother's warmongering.

This is a more sombre tale compared to Niko Belic's crime-spree visit to America. Hairy man-types get executed in every other cutscene. The piece de resistance, a subtle 'grain filter' made popular by Mass Effect and Left 4 Dead, sets the perfect tone for this dark spin-off to Niko Belic's story, which both run parallel and cross over.

In GTA IV it was an absolute pleasure to discover America alongside the foreign Niko Belic - and thanks to his fresh arrival on US shores introductions to new characters never felt tagged on.

For the DLC though, having Johnny as a Liberty City resident makes perfect sense for both the episode and us. He knows who his friends are, he knows where to park his bike and he knows the way to the local Burger Shot - which means we can jump straight into the action. And we do.

Celebrating his return from the priory, boss Billy celebrates with his Lost comrades using the traditional biker cocktail of booze, girls and drugs, which is where we're first introduced to our slightly unsettled lead character.

Cut-scenes, as usual, are incredible. No detail has been spared Rockstar's obsessive attention and the movements, voices and facial animations of each hairy biker. Lip service looks improved too, with some characters looking uncannily realistic when wording their lines.

Billy's pleased to see his brother after months of AA group hugs, but Johnny's holding back. He knows his brother is about to take a proverbial poo on the truce he's successfully created. It's only a matter of time before the claret-clad Angels of Death arrive to spoil the party. In an instant bad tempered Billy kills one of their crew in cold blood, well and truly setting things off again.

This is the first mission we get to play, called Angels in America. Johnny and his brothers must chase down the remaining Angels on bikes and, using his sawn-off shotgun, take them out before they get back to their clubhouse and inform everyone that the war is back on.

A massive convoy bike chase ensues but thanks to the awesome stopping power of the sawn-off shotgun - which is definitely the new gun to have in a motorbike shoot-out - the Angels' bikes are soon rolling down the road in pieces.

Johnny's starting bike, which has wheels the size of a monster truck and handles like a Jeep, is one-of-a-kind and can't be retrieved if destroyed. Rockstar promises an assortment of new vehicles including several motorbikes specific to The Lost. This was all we saw in the motor department though.

Whereas Niko's story was a very solitary experience for our anti-hero, the story in The Lost and Damned is all about riding and fighting with your crew. It's a pack that you bond with, each character having its own strengths and weaknesses. This is showcased in our next mission.

Now that it's all gone tits, Billy demands retaliation against the Angels for a previous attack they launched on members of The Lost. He proposes that they head over to the Angels clubhouse for a ruck.

An interesting mechanic added into the episode is formation driving, which as a well hard biker gang you're going to have practice a lot. Here we form a giant motorbike convoy with us (Johnny) cruising in the centre.

Driving in formation gives you some interesting rewards, such as a small heal for your bike or the initiation of dialogue between the gang members. You do this by keeping yourself inside of a floating Lost emblem, which trails behind the convoy leader's ride at all times.

But there's more; pressing down on the d-pad displays a whole list of bar-graph stats for your gang members. Although this doesn't have a name yet (or we weren't told it at least) it seems to be a sort of adrenaline meter for your pals. Talking to a comrade before a mission will boost their stat bar slightly, as will defending and saving them during a firefight.

As a Lost member's stat bar goes up, he'll become a more confident combatant, sharper shot and all round better man to have at your side. Get him killed and he'll be replaced by a rookie. It's an interesting set-up that gives you a reason to look out for your pals.

Once the Lost arrives at the Angel's clubhouse in Alderney, Johnny's handed another new toy; the grenade launcher, and ordered to throw a present through the window. The grenade launcher is a big, noisy bastard that's also a great physics fun toy.

Grenades 'pop' out of the nozzle with an ever-so-satisfying sound effect, arch into the air with a trail of smoke and bounce around a corner before blowing enemies sky-high. It'll be an instant fan favourite that should just be renamed the 'ragdoll gun'.

Very quickly red waistcoat-wearing gang members come spilling out of the now-flaming club house, taking cover behind cars as a very Gears of War cover shoot-out ensues.

But the launcher's not the only new gun in Lost - not by a long, er, shot. Cycling through our inventory of tools we discover an automatic 9mm (angry burst-fire pistol), pipe bomb (grenades that roll and kill zombies), sawn-off shotgun (see earlier) and assault shotgun (automatic BOOM). The Lost and Damned certainly doesn't disappoint with its arsenal.

Launching the last of the Angels into the stratosphere, we move into Clubhouse for the final kill. Rockstar's cooked up brand new interiors especially for the gangs and the spirit-filled bar and dirty lounge look impressive. Hiding behind the bar is our last victim; with a blast from the slightly less-powerful but devastatingly accurate sawn-off he's laid to rest.

It's more classic GTA action, but another mission we handled was by far the most promising; a flashback from GTA IV but from the perspective of our new bearded protagonist.

'Buyer's Market' reintroduces us to a few familiar faces; Elizabeta, Playboy X, and, yes, Niko himself. GTA IV completists will remember that Johnny was involved in a heroin deal that, inevitably, went belly up. Now as Johnny you're tasked with picking up the drugs and heading over to the buyers to complete the deal.

When the buyers exposed themselves as pissed off FBI agents in GTA IV, Niko and Playboy X took the roof. Playing as Johnny it's not so easy; we have to tackle the cops head on, fighting our way through the hallways of tooled-up SWAT officers to the inevitable epic car chase at the end.

The assault shotgun proves essential in cutting through the blues and twos; hold down the trigger and it unleashes several rounds of pellet-death into the law until the entire magazine has been emptied. Multiplayer isn't going to be fun for players on the wrong end of this.

The first GTA IV 'episode' is looking like a pretty meaty package then. At 1600 Microsoft Points (about £13) the bullet point list already stretches across the page with new weapons, guns, music and multiplayer features.

Rockstar boldly stated that the length of this episode will be around a third of GTA IV's (if you just stick to the story missions, we're guessing).

But what impressed us the most about The Lost and Damned is the standout cinematic experience it promises to deliver. As with the real Big Apple there are eight million stories to tell in Liberty City, and this is looking like one of the most interesting...

Andy Robinson