Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City is the disc based incarnation of the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC. In The Lost and the Damned, you play as Johnny Klebitz. Johnny is a powerful figure of The Lost biker gang and has taken over while their leader was in rehab. In The Ballad of Gay Tony, you play as Luis Lopez, the right-hand man to club owner Tony Prince. When Tony gets in a jam, Luis is the one to pull him out. When some business deals go incredibly sour, Luis has his work cut out for him. These stories are told alongside the main story arc of Niko Belic in Grand Theft Auto IV and flesh out Liberty City.

What's Hot
Rockstar knows how to tell a story. They are masters at creating characters with depth and settings with stories to tell all their own. The concept of the episodes are that it runs concurrently with the main story told in GTA IV. When you look at these stories as a whole, you realize that Rockstar wasn't thinking of a human character to be the main subject all along. The character in the world of GTA IV was Liberty City itself. Niko, Johnny and Luis are just freckles in the larger character of Liberty City.

The two games have drastically different themes and each proves that everyone in Liberty City has a story to tell. The difference between the gritty Lost and the Damned and glitzy Ballad of Gay Tony couldn't be more drastic if it hit you over the head. The map of Liberty City doesn't expand at all, but you see it in different viewpoints that keep the city fresh and as exciting as you remember. The common thread is that Johnny and Luis are part of the seedy underbelly and never seem to do the right thing. The action is nonstop and there are fun missions, especially the BASE jumping missions in the Ballad of Gay Tony that give you another unique view of the city as you parachute to the ground. The content provided in Episodes from Liberty City is nearly equal to that of full priced, blockbuster games.



What's Not
GTA IV was a sensation when it released, widely accepted as one of the defining moments of this generation of consoles. What a difference a year makes. The gunplay and resulting firefights don't stack up well in comparison with some other games that have since refined the cover mechanics. The aging of the GTA IV engine is the equivalent of a squeaky door, something that's noticeable but nothing serious.

Your mind isn't likely to change if you aren't fan of the series to begin with. The missions have different storylines, however, they most always involve criminal activity. Lost and the Damned has some gang elements and Ballad of Gay Tony incorporates BASE jumping but those are basically where the new, headlining features end. If it weren't for the well crafted stories and diverse cast of characters, the missions would make the new characters feel like any random thug in Liberty City.

Final Word
The Ballad of Gay Tony challenges a lot of stereotypes by doing what the developers are best at, social satire. The personalities are more larger than life than ever but that comes with the club-background-as-a-theme territory. Lost and the Damned takes on darker themes of a gang fighter trying to stay top dog in a world that is always on the verge of complete chaos. There aren't too many improvements over GTA IV, but the story is crafted so well that if you enjoyed the previous GTA games, there is no reason you won't like what Episodes from Liberty City offers. The amount of content packed in these episodes is insane and is more than enough reason to check back in to Liberty City.