Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

10 Review to this product

• 

  Vynny
  November 5th, 2009 on 2:29 pm

  Rating

  I, along with many others, was ultimately kind of disappointed with the original GTA IV. The removal of the staple elements of the GTA franchise was not good; the side service missions such as paramedic/fire/taxi, the wee remote control vehicles, the crazy cars along with the mini tracks for go karting, triple stunt points gone, and so on… and of course the loss of the planes. Heck even give me back the dodo R*! It was a big surprise to see all that gone and not a pleasant one. But when playing GTA IV you kind of felt that they had more planned for Liberty City in the future. Maybe that golfing range might be able to be used, that skateboard park might come into play and perhaps we’ll get to ride on the ferris wheel too at some point.

  So with the release of TLOD and TBOGT we’re getting somewhere. Now for full disclosure I played The Ballad of Gay Tony through first even though it’s episode two, primarily because I wanted to base jump! And in TBOGT I can see Rockstar finally giving us back some of what they took away. You can indeed now play golf in that floating driving range, you can base jump off specific buildings as a challenge or indeed just buy a parachute and jump off anything you want. Tanks are back too! Rockstar are slowly making LC a more fun sandbox and I hope that continues with the release of more episodes. With regards to these two episodes, well you can’t go wrong. Both are typical GTA fare with varied missions and great story lines. I won’t go into the plots of each – do I need to? There’s some nice cross-over moments in the stories though that will make you smile!

  With TBOGT you have specific optional targets to do in each mission such as a time limit or how much damage you take. The nice thing about the way this works are the new very extensive mission checkpoints, something massively lacking from GTA IV. But there’s a penalty for using a checkpoint – if you use a reload then your mission objectives aren’t saved. You can still complete the mission and continue with the story but there’s an actual incentive to replay each one and do better each time. It’s a great game mechanic that satisfies both players who prefer to blast through the game and those who wish to fine tune each play-through. Nice.

  It also seems that LC’s code and graphics were fine-tuned somewhat because there’s considerably less little glitches and popups in TBOGT over TLOD and the original. But do install the game to the HD if you buy the disc version regardless of which episode you play.

  All in all very satisfied that I got my money’s worth here. I’m now playing through TLOD although I still have some side mission (drug wars) to complete in TBOGT. It took me 18 hours to complete the second episode and I expect about the same for TLOD. So for about a dollar an hour entertainment this hits the mark. If you felt, as I did, that GTA IV was a step in the wrong direction for GTA then I recommend this compilation; GTA is heading back to its roots.

  R* should also be commended for not allowing folks to play the episodes without the need for the original GTA disc if you buy the disc version (you’ll need the original if you DL the episodes from XBL). Helpful for those of us who put GTA IV on ebay shortly after completing it!
• 

  Charles Miller
  November 11th, 2009 on 4:34 pm

  Rating

  I totally was not expecting a game as cool as this. When i first bought this i knew that these were previous down-loadable episodes, but i definitely was not expecting so much gameplay. All together i’d say the game is either just as long or longer than GTA 4. Lost and the Damned was definitely the shortest but including Ballad of Gay Tony was genius. The missions just kept on coming. Don’t hesitate… buy this! You won’t regret it.
• 

  Matthew Keefe
  November 15th, 2009 on 10:18 pm

  Rating

  The overall Grand Theft IV experience has been quite amazing. First with the original GTA IV game released a few years back which only pushed the limits of hardcore gaming. Then with two additional downloadable expansion packs (Xbox 360 exclusive) which are now available on disc here.

  The first expansion pack, Lost and the Damned has you smack dab in a biker gang uprising right inside Liberty City. Anyone that has heard of or watched Sons of Anarchy will be able to see a lot of similarities in the story lines.. which is not a bad thing. The average gamer will get about 20 hours of gameplay with this expansion pack. The second expansion pack, Ballad of Gay Tony is more close to the original GTA IV and has you running guns, murder-for-hire and even some nightclub management.

  Without going into detail or providing any spoilers I will simply say all 3 games play off each other and the overall stories become clear once you have played through both expansion packs and the original game.

  If you have played a previous GTA, as most have you will be very pleased with this update and once completed will be wanting more, just like the rest of the diehard GTA fans.
• 

  Mr. Jason P. Brown
  November 18th, 2009 on 12:21 am

  Rating

  GTA Episodes from Liberty City is a great games. It weaves in and out the story from GTA IV with The Lost and the Dammed and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Both add new cars and guns along with different missions types. Each of the games are on the same disc, you just select the game you want t0 play after the rockstar logos. I break each game down.

  The lost and the Dammed:
  
  In TLATD, you control a biker try to keep the gang alive. The leader gets out of rehab and cause hell for the gang. You normally drive bikes in the game, but you can still drive cars. TLATD has the best safehouse out of any of the games, it got a tv and the internet like one of the safe houses in gta 4, but you can arm wrestle, play a card game(both for money), see hot biker girls dance, and play pool. The story is not as great as 4 or TBoGT, nor were the mission, the last mission was way to easy and compared to the other games, not as exciting, but still enjoyed The lost and the dammed.

  The ballad of Gay Tony:
  
  I love this game, it bring back the wit of the old generation GTA games to the nexgen world.The story and the mission are great and fun, stealing every thing from a rocket pack chopper to a subway car, kickass guns,and getting laid in the clubs, this game has it all and does it well. The story is great, it may be better than IV. You can request the gun van just like TLATD, and can can request cars instead of bikes, and fast cars at that.I haven’t used it yet but the mission repeat feature is a great add on.The best part is the two surprises after you beat the game, I’m not telling but they will cause hell in Liberty city. The Ballad of gay tony is a great add on for GTA IV.

  Episodes from liberty city is great for any body who don’t have the hard drive room or broadband. It is required that if you have GTA IV , that you have these two games.
• 

  Hurberto Costa
  December 2nd, 2009 on 3:39 pm

  Rating

  Love it. Been a GTA fan since GTA on the PS1. When it used to be an overview. This GTA is cool Because there’s another story happening while NB is climbing to the top of the American dream. I don’t really care for the grimy film they put on the graphics. The more I play it. I’m getting used to it. other then that GTA doesn’t fail and on the Violent parts. and for that We all thank Rock star!!!!!
• 

  Charlie thian
  December 9th, 2009 on 6:56 pm

  Rating

  GTA Liberty City is a definitely worth buy game as it consist 2 full game. Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned. Nice story line if you love the previous GTA series, you will not want to miss this one.
• 

  Ron Heck
  December 21st, 2009 on 4:50 am

  Rating

  Months ago when The Lost and Damned was made available for download, I purposely waited for the disc package to be made available. I’m glad I did. These two games really don’t feel like expansions on the original at all, but more like their own separate experiences. The disc reiterates that by taking out some of the original material, For example, you can’t play as Niko at all, Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams are gone, and none of the songs from the first game are included here. Instead there are completely new playlists and radio stations, new storylines, and a new comedian, the very off-color and hilarious Frankie Boyle. And the disc has it’s own exclusive radio station, Vice City Radio. If you’ve seen the trailer with “She’s Got The Look,” know that that’s only found on the disc package.

  These two storylines couldn’t be more different from each other. Lost and Damned is a serious and stern story of the inner drama of a motorcycle club. I got a little lost at times and the characters look a lot alike. It’s still a good story that really makes you feel like you’re part of a brotherhood. The best parts of the game are often the simple talking sections when you ride in formation with gang. The only problem is that the only radio stations that sound appropriate for these parts are Liberty Rock and LCHC, so you’ll probably be hearing the same songs a lot. The missions themselves now include checkpoints to cut down on having to replay the commutes. You get new bikes and new weapons (my favorite being the automatic pistol), but the missions themselves are often fairly repetitive, even more than in GTA4. Almost all of them involve shootouts and getaways and there’s very little variation from the formula. There are also gang wars and hitman jobs throughout, though their mostly the same, just without the cutscenes. Many reviewers have noted that the graphics are a lot different on this game, which I assume was intentional. There is a grain filter and the colors are very washed out. To me, it enhances the game in its own way, drawing you in while making this microcosm of the GTA universe feel more plausible.

  The Ballad of Gay Tony flips all of that upside down. Here, the graphics are even more colorful and the draw distance is further (the framerate does take a minor hit at times). This story is about the oddball relationship between a former street thug and a nightclub owner with a drug problem. I found myself more involved with this one and the story made me laugh out loud at times. The game seemed shorter, but probably only because I played it more just to see what would happen next. The minigames are more fun in this game, too. Instead of arm wrestling and air hockey, there’s cage fighting and club management. The missions are also much more varied with an emphasis on bombs, helicopters, and sky diving. The automatic shotgun with explosive shells is something to behold, which can take down helicopters and destroy cars even better than the rocket launcher. If you like to stick to the story or if you like to just mess around with the city, this episode easily trumps both the original Niko’s Story and Lost and Damned. It’s smart, funny, self referential, and the acting is top notch all around. This is exactly what made the GTA series great in the first place, and you barely have to go do errands with in-game friends if you don’t feel like it. (Also, no girlfriends this time. In Lost and Damned, there are none at all from what I could see, and Ballad just has straight booty calls which skip dating altogether. So there’s no trying to fruitlessly entertain women for hours on end.)

  The neat thing about having these two games on one set and playing them back to back, you can see the clever ways the developers tried to integrate the two stories and how they overlap at points. There’s just a ton of content to be had here, a lot of things to do, and a lot of ridiculous toys to play with (they give you a tank). At a certain point in GTA4, I got a little bored. The storyline was too big and Niko’s revenge plot wore a little thin as the hours go by. By putting the game into a smaller package, the stories are a lot more engaging and condensed. I really think the game would have benefitted by going this direction from the beginning, since this offered so much more variety and made the city so much more interesting.
• 

  Christopher Michael
  December 22nd, 2009 on 1:57 am

  Rating

  First, this is a great deal; Hours of quality gameplay for a little $$….

  Perhaps because these games are shorter than GTA IV, they are more like games and less like the movie GTA IV was; I respect what Rockstar was trying to do there, but there were certainly some pacing and mission difficulty issues.
  
  And while not much has changed as far as the difficulty goes–often escaping the police is more of the hard part–,the pacing has picked up to the point where you feel like you are playing something that maybe would have come just before GTA IV. Very nostalgic, brutal, funny, and un-PC across the board; The Lost and The Damned offers a more hardcore experience, including little side on bike gang fights that reminded me somewhat of San Andreas and the turf wars; The Ballad of Gay Tony is more eccentric, colorful, and more of a throwback even so; the colors are brighter, there is a lot more neon, the free jumping is back from the tallest building you can find……the characters are really strange, but the story, as in TLAD, is very amusing.

  As always, there are lots of cool things to do; just driving around in the right car in the right weather with the right song can be fun in and of itself; Great new songs, TV shows, Radio Talk, funny billboards, great game cross references, and internet stuff. Gone for the most part are the annoying phone calls in the middle of a gunfight or the mandatory bowling date to move on.

  Now if they could just move this game to a more colorful setting; I would love to see Rockstar make use of some of things you know it can already do….esp when you look back fondly on GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas.
• 

  John
  December 23rd, 2009 on 2:29 am

  Rating

  I just had to write a review for The Ballad of Gay Tony. This expansion alone is worth purchasing the Episodes of Liberty City. Tons of great action missions. The new weapons are alot of fun and extremely usefull. Most of all, the characters are great. I couldnt say enough great things about this expansion. A perfect way to leave Liberty City behind.
• 

  Guillermo Perez
  January 30th, 2010 on 9:07 am

  Rating

  is a excellent items work great, the images is so real, In jewel cases and all his clue to make a exciting games