Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

"The Lost and Damned" expansion for "Grand Theft Auto IV" offers a unique take on Liberty City's criminal underworld - this time, not through the eyes of a lone immigrant, but from the perspective of a true biker. And if you thought life in a gang was all about beer, rock music, and cruising around the city, you're in for a surprise: there's betrayal, brutal showdowns, and even a hint of drama. Well... almost.

The protagonist is Johnny Klebitz, a member of the biker club "The Lost". Johnny's life is anything but smooth: loyal brothers on one side, internal strife and turf wars on the other, plus the constant feeling that everything's about to spiral out of control. The story unfolds with confidence and keeps you engaged, with events stacking neatly and characters that stick in your mind. At some point, though, it becomes clear that the game tries to be emotional - but never quite hits those truly powerful notes. Still, it's nice how well the story fits into the broader "GTA IV" narrative and even intersects with it at times.

In this game, the bike is more than just a vehicle - it's practically the co-star. Everything revolves around two wheels: missions, side activities, getting around town. If you didn't know how to handle a motorcycle in "GTA IV", you'll learn here - there's no other choice. And for me, those rides were an absolute blast.

Visually, the game seemed slightly different. It felt darker, the colors more subdued. Though maybe that's just how I remember it.

"The Lost and Damned" is a solid biker story that could easily stand on its own. With engaging characters, intense shootouts, and its own gritty vibe, the expansion is well-crafted and genuinely fun to play. I definitely enjoyed it.

7 out of 10.

Whether you do or don't You are Johnny Klebitz, the VP of the bikers The Lost, having improved their business, and being pragmatic, having helped bring about a truce with the rivals, the Angels of Death. The president, Billy Grey, returns from rehab, and is unhappy with the state of affairs. He wants to bring them back to being all about the old values, brotherhood, independence, macho culture. If this plot sounds too weak and clichéd to be the focus, that's because it is. Along with overly straightforward, with few twists. It goes where you think it will. Not a classic tragedy. Don't expect double-crosses or switching sides. This does run parallel to its parent, so we do meet some of those characters again, and hey, the new ones are badasses, and along with offensive stereotypes, we have the suck-up, the family man, etc. Surprising again yet we should expect it by now, you really get into the identity. Convoys, road captains and the like, in spite of how awkward it can be, becomes fun.

The value again lies in the MP. And that is very limited here, since it's essentially dead. The new modes replace(read: copy) the old ones, and today, few are still along for that ride. Witness Protection has one team must try to eliminate a bus carrying witnesses while the other is NOOSE who try to protect it as it delivers them. Checkpoint racing(SP, too) now lets you be on bikes, carrying bats and smashing each other, similar to Road Rash. You can knock other off their wheels! There's a free for all style one where one is the Lone Wolf and all others try to stop and become him. Whoever was it for the longest time, wins. You can try to gain control one section by another, clearly colored by who owns them, based on San Andreas' gang wars, and not only serving to remind us of that. AI defend each of the handful of ones, in addition to anyone who might be along with them, or capturing. There's a version of this offline, as well, stop a van or eliminate a group, and it's as generic as it sounds.

While not MMO, it's chaotic, open and crazy, with the reaction-heavy NPCs, traffic, respray shops, even police. Those can go after one or multiple, and respond proportionally… escape by leaving their sight and/or not attracting attention – that can be too easy. It just has some of the deeper mechanics removed, taking place in the same city, the imitation of New York with three main islands, authentic and realistic as the rest of this. There, you don't move like you're morbidly obese. You will see some lag. We get a server list! With filters! Four people can be in the same car(if that many seats), and all of them can fire, if and when they want to! Hold down Enter Key instead of just pressing to not take over car. The 360 free camera, in this case not requiring constant manual adjustment, allows you to keep the same thing in your sights regardless of how you're moving. You can customize the model, a male, and a female, by body part: head, torso, legs, glasses, hats. You do start out with few options, 4 at the most, and, not the developer's fault, however, since today, well, I rarely found even a handful of others on, so you don't rank up and never get the extra options. Unlike Max Payne 3, there are no groups to skin separately, and less personality to them than that. Ugh… I get chills any time I say something positive about that title. 12 different locations, and they're diverse: docks, prison, etc., and sizable chunks. You may respawn very close to where you died, which means there can be lengthy shootouts.

I completed this in 7 hours. Add 8 and a half for side stuff, and it brought me to 71,25%. Even for a DLC, that's very little. This adds, fixes or changes fairly little. Like IV, a lot of what it improves are the physics, graphics, things that don't alter the gameplay much. We have less features than before, and a number of the ones we have just aren't that compelling. A lot of the content isn't even interactive, it's TV you can watch, Internet you can explore, and radio you can listen to. While we do have proper third person gunplay, it's not as smooth as its unnumbered predecessor. It does have crouch, strafe, a target health indicator(the appearance of which doesn't mean that you won't just hit what you're standing close to…), and, of course, the cover system(so bad that you end up making sure not to use it). You hold down the trigger to fire, which is awkward and screws up timing when others are ducking out to attack, you press at the right time, but there's half a second or so of delay. "You" are too heavy and slow to respond for it. Why doesn't it let you stick your head out when you hold down Focus Aim… same for shooting from a vehicle, and worse, they actually do it right when you're not the driver, so they were able to do it.

Flying is more involved than driving a car in this, unlike Just Case 1 and 2, and I would almost rather play JC1 than this. Yes, steering a helicopter is complicated. But with how streamlined driving a car is in these(no dealing with clutch, gears), air travel should be more simplified, as well. You can't use planes(there are always ones taking off from the airport. You can't blow them up or stop them by blocking them), there are only helis, but some come with gatling guns, with explosive bullets!

There is a lot of bloody violence and a little full frontal male nudity in this(avert your eyes!). I recommend this only to completists, this you can and should skip. 7/10

WELL! Just when I thought Grand Theft Auto 4 was superb, they went and brought out something that rises above the already extreme grand yardstick! Cruisin around Liberty City on your Harley Davidson, messing around with your sawed off shot gun, blowing people across the boundaries as well as knocking them over... But wait... You have a gang of other bikes on your side following you in formation where ever you go! Really Rockstar have outdone themselves again and I'd have confidence in them for every chapter they have to sell us.

I won't be second in line to get it this time.

GTA fans, do not hesitate in any way to buy this fantastic Expansion, especially at such a cheap price. It is well worth it, Believe Me! Overall rating: 10/10

Grand Theft Auto 4 introduced DLCs to the franchise. The Lost and Damned is the first of two expansions which together form the Episodes of Liberty City. While Lost and Damned's story cannot compete with the main game's, it's still worth playing.

It introduces some new features like calling gang members and riding with them in formation. It also features some new weapons which are fun to use.

However, there are some major issues: First and formost the frustrating bike riding which is caused by the main game's vehicle control. It's just unrealistic how easily these bikes turn out of a curve and it is very frustrating to put it nice.

Second issue I had, playing the game on PC were infinite loading screens at two points of the story. I had to restart the game and play the whole mission all over again. This is sad for a 15 years old DLC.

All in all an experience worth being played. It adds some interesting parts to the main story and has some great missions.

An amazing story, good bike physics, fun,...and so many other things