Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned


Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is the first of two episodic expansion packs developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was first released for Xbox 360 on 17 February 2009, and for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010. It is the third expansion pack in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the twelfth release overall.
The protagonist of The Lost and Damned is Johnny Klebitz, vice-president of the Liberty chapter of The Lost MC, a motorcycle club which, along with himself, featured in a number of missions throughout the course of Grand Theft Auto IV. The main storyline of the episode focuses on Johnny's efforts to keep the chapter running, while dealing with internal conflicts, gang warfare, drug running, and various enemies. It also shows Johnny's perspective in regard to the infamous diamond storyline from Grand Theft Auto IV.
A combined standalone disc-based package titled ', which does not require the original Grand Theft Auto IV game to be played, was released and contains both The Lost and Damned and '.

Gameplay

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. It features similar gameplay to that of Grand Theft Auto IV, and takes place in the same setting of Liberty City, the game only features around a third of the number of missions from that game, as was stated in an interview between IGN and the president of Rockstar North, which thus places the amount of time to complete it at approximately 10–15 hours, depending on how focused the player is on the storyline. The game also features new additions, some in regard to Johnny's connection to the Lost MC, and some minor changes.
The most prominent of these additions is the availability of mid-mission checkpoints, which can spare the player repeated trips to a given location in order to trigger and replay a failed mission again — an often criticised aspect of the Grand Theft Auto series. Checkpoints are only available by retrying the mission after it has been previously failed — going to the mission start point begins the mission from scratch. Alongside the Checkpoint system, The Lost and Damned features the inclusion of new weapons and vehicles, including Johnny's custom-made motorcycle, the ability to call on aid from members of the Lost MC, a new but small collection of random characters, additional side activities, and unique side jobs including Gang Wars and Bike Races. In addition, the game has a few changes to that of Grand Theft Auto IV, in that Johnny can access the whole of Liberty City from the start of a new game, but cannot change his clothing or enter clothing stores. The city's comedy club, Split Sides, also features a brand new comedian doing routines there, while gun stores do not stock any of the new weapons featured in The Lost and Damned; they can only be bought through the club's gun vendor.
Two of the new side jobs featured in The Lost and Damned – Gang Wars and Bike Races – require Johnny to be on a bike to trigger them. In Gang Wars, Johnny battles against rival gangs in a few variations – taking them out at a hangout, or while cruising the streets, or destroying a vehicle they are escorting – earning money from each war completed and unlocking a weapon at the Lost clubhouse with every 10 subsequent Wars completed. Each gang war becomes tougher, the more Johnny continues engaging in them. Meanwhile, Bike Races play out like the Street Races of Grand Theft Auto IV, except both Johnny and his opponents carry a baseball bat to attack their rival racers while making their way to each checkpoint of the race, with each capable of dislodging a racer from their bike depending on the strength of their swing. Other side jobs see Johnny either stealing bikes or working for a congressman met during the game's story. Meanwhile, the new additions to the activities from Grand Theft Auto IV, include Arm Wrestling, games of Hi-Lo cards, and Air Hockey. The new weapons featured in the game includes the sawn-off shotgun, assault shotgun, pool cues, grenade launchers and pipe bombs.
Because of Johnny's position in the Lost MC, some missions and Gang Wars can see him accompanied by a team of bikers who, if they survive through either, can improve and gain experience and thus become more battle-hardened in later missions/Gang Wars. If, at any time, a biker is killed in a mission or gang war, they will be replaced by another in the next. Johnny can receive further support from two members of the Lost – Terry and Clay; both can be taken out for friend activities, but have their special abilities active from the beginning of a new game. If Terry is called, he will drive to a location near to Johnny and sell him weapons and armour, while Clay can deliver a bike of the player's choice to him directly. At a later stage in the game, Johnny can call one or the other, while on a mission, to gain back-up from them, with both capable of gaining experience that increases their health, combat abilities, and grant them better weapons.
While the single player has new additions, multiplayer is also given new modes, connected to the Lost MC, some of which improve on those featured in Grand Theft Auto IV:

Setting

The Lost and Damned takes place within the same setting of Liberty City used for Grand Theft Auto IV, although with players able to explore the city from the start after completing the DLC's first mission. The events of the DLC's story takes place alongside those of the main game and of The Ballad of Gay Tony, with the game's missions intertwining with both of these, some of which involve events seen from Johnny's perspective.

Characters

As an expansion to Grand Theft Auto IV, the game features both new and returning characters. The protagonist is Jonathan "Johnny" Klebitz, a veteran member and vice-president of the Liberty chapter of The Lost Motorcycle Club, which is led by Billy Grey, a reckless and selfish leader, whose actions negatively affect the club and all its members, causing him to often come into conflict with Johnny. The club also includes secretary Brian Jeremy, who is often blinded by his loyalty towards Billy, Jason Michaels, and Johnny's friends: treasurer Jim Fitzgerald, road captain Clay Simons, arms dealer Terry Thorpe, and Angus Martin. Throughout the game, Johnny works for various individuals to assure The Lost's wellbeing, including drug baroness Elizabeta Torres, corrupt congressman Thomas Stubbs III, and Pegorino Crime Family caporegime Ray Boccino. Other notable characters include Johnny's ex-girlfriend Ashley Butler, and Malc and DeSean, two members of the Uptown Riders biker gang whom Johnny befriends.
In addition to Johnny, Jim, Jason, Ashley, Boccino, and Elizabeta, more characters from the base game return, including protagonist Niko Bellic, his cousin Roman, drug dealer Playboy X, Jewish diamond dealer Isaac Roth, nightclub owner "Gay" Tony Prince, and his bodyguard Luis Lopez ; the latter two would go on to be the main characters of The Ballad of Gay Tony. GTA IV's main antagonist, Dimitri Rascalov, is also mentioned in the game.

Plot

In 2008, Billy Grey is welcomed back by his fellow Lost members following his release from a court-ordered rehab. Although Johnny is eager to resume business, Billy annoys him by breaking a truce he arranged with The Lost's rivals, the Angels of Death. After Jason Michaels is killed in Broker, Billy blames his death on the Angels, despite the lack of concrete evidence, and orders The Lost to retaliate by burning down of their clubhouses. When Johnny spots Billy and Brian Jeremy stealing a stash of heroin from the clubhouse before it is burnt down, he questions the nature of Billy's orders on the attack. Billy arranges for Johnny to meet with Elizabeta Torres, who provides him a buyer for the heroin. Although aided by Niko Bellic and Playboy X, the exchange turns out to be a police bust.
Billy later assigns Johnny to provide assistance to Thomas Stubbs, who needs help with his re-election campaign. Impressed with Johnny's abilities, Stubbs vows to return the favour in the future. Jim Fitzgerald later arrives with news that the stolen heroin belonged to the Triads and advises that the gang return it to them. Billy agrees, but secretly arranges for the Triads to kill Johnny and Jim. While the pair escape when the exchange with the Triads turns ugly, despite being forced to leave the heroin behind, Billy is arrested by the police during the chaos. Johnny takes over as club president, but faces new problems from Brian, who is still faithful to Billy and holds him responsible for his arrest. While contending with a civil war started by Brian, Johnny does his best to make money for the club, taking on jobs from Elizabeta alongside Malc and DeSean. He also helps out Ashley from her debts by kidnapping Roman Bellic for Russian mobster Dimitri Rascalov.
Ray Boccino, who often does deals with The Lost, soon gives up Brian's hideout in exchange for the club's assistance in the future. Johnny uses the information to track Brian down and deal with him, ending the war. Boccino contacts Johnny to return the favour, and hires The Lost to steal a shipment of diamonds about to be purchased by Tony Prince, and then pass them onto Boccino's men to later retrieve. Although the theft is successful, the subsequent exchange with the Jewish mob, overseen by Johnny and Niko, finds itself ambushed by Luis Lopez. Johnny escapes with the money in the chaos, leading to Boccino having both him and Jim captured for their betrayal. The pair manage to escape, but after Johnny deals with assassins sent by Boccino, he quickly learns from Ashley that Jim was killed after they parted ways.
With the gang virtually weakened, Johnny receives a visit from Stubbs at the clubhouse with important news. Although Boccino is under observations by federal law enforcement and is no longer a threat, Stubbs reveals that Billy plans to turn over state's evidence against the gang in order to enter Witness Protection Program. Johnny and the last remaining Lost members assault the Alderney State Correctional Facility, where Johnny kills Billy for his betrayal. The Lost then return to their clubhouse, only to find it vandalised by Boccino's men. The group decide to burn down the remains of the clubhouse and find new pastures. Afterwards, Johnny firmly cuts all his ties to Stubbs and Ashley, while intending to give financial support to Jim's widow and child.

Soundtrack

Apart from the original Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, several new tracks were added to the radio stations in the expansion. LCHC - Liberty City Hardcore and Liberty Rock Radio saw the biggest addition of new tracks, to fit with the expansion's biker theme. LCHC also got the addition of a new radio show dedicated to extreme metal, hosted by Max Cavalera.
Additional tracks were added to the rotation of The Beat 102.7 and Radio Broker as well as a new radio show on the talk station WKTT; The Martin Serious Show.

Development

The content was first announced during Microsoft's 2006 E3 press conference on 9 May 2006. Peter Moore, then head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division, described downloadable content as "epic episode packs", and not just an extra car or character. A press release during the conference said that the expansion packs, both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony would add "hours of entirely new gameplay" to the game, with Jeronimo Barrera, Vice-President of Product Development for Rockstar Games, explaining that the episodes were experiments because they were not sure that there were enough users with access to online content on the Xbox 360. Take-Two Interactive's chief financial officer, Lainie Goldstein, revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of $50 million for the first two episodes.
On 20 February 2008, it was initially announced that the extra content would be introduced starting August 2008. Dan Houser, vice-president of creative development at Rockstar Games, claimed that through this episode, it would show "a different side of Liberty City". As part of its second quarter financial reports Take-Two announced that the downloadable content had been delayed and would be released during the first quarter of its 2009 financial year. On 13 November 2008, Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick warned that while they were aiming to release the first episode pack by January 2009, the date may have had to change to the second financial quarter of 2009 depending on the completion date. 17 February's release date was eventually announced one week after Zelnick's warning.

Reception

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned received "universal acclaim" reviews for the Xbox 360 and "generally favorable" reviews for PlayStation 3 from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Critics cited its improved motorcycle mechanics in comparison to the previous games, dramatic storyline, quality voice acting, addictive multiplayer component and other new content which added many hours of game time. Complaints with the game have included auto-aiming issues and weak gang AI, which were a noticeable problem in the original game.

Controversy

In the opening cutscene for the mission 'Politics', Tom Stubbs exposes his genitals in a full-frontal shot facing towards the camera after getting off a massage table and discussing his plans with Johnny. Parental advisory group Common Sense Media issued a public warning about the expansion pack due to a full-frontal male nudity scene during the cutscene. They claimed the game was "even more controversial than its predecessors" because it featured "full frontal male nudity".