Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

Enjoy our spoiler-free verdict on the first of two new episodes of GTA IV. Can a bunch of bikers beat the Bellics?

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Rockstar North	Publisher Rockstar	Genre Action

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The racing and driving based missions, and for that matter most of the driving throughout the episode, are significantly enhanced thanks to Johnny's bike, which is certainly the best bike ever in the series. You'd really expect nothing less in an update that's about a gang of bikers, but seriously, this bike is an absolute joy to ride, with an unparalleled sense of control at high speed that allows you to navigate the streets and many highly ambitious corners with a fantastic level of aggression and confidence. Some of the other new bikes have a comparable level of might, and players will soon find their comfort zone with these beautiful new machines.

North has also added a bunch of structural tweaks since GTA IV. Mission restarts are now more logical; whenever you choose to do a mission again via the text message on your phone, you'll skip any previously completed A-B journeys prior to a shootout which would otherwise be a chore to do more than once, and there are also mid-way restart points on a couple of the lengthier missions. GTA IV would have really benefited from this being added to one of two of its missions last year, but it's not a problem in The Lost and Damned.

There's some nice variety in difficulty, but no real difficulty 'curve' as such; it's more like The Lost and Damned is designed for people who are already familiar with GTA IV and want some kick-ass new missions of varying mixed-up difficulty, with a few that will require some real focus to get through - but nothing ridiculously taxing on the whole (in the way that for example some of GTA IV's later missions proved pretty damn tough).

The Lost and Damned could easily leave it there, and we'd already be talking about an essential package - but we all know that North doesn't do things like that. So they've added a whole bunch of new multiplayer modes as well. There's Road Rash style races where you can melee people with a bat as you ride past, a new mode called Own The City where you have to take and hold as much of the city in blocks as you can in teams - which is one that we've found a bit awkward, to be honest. More enjoyable is Witness Protection, which sees one team as The Lost and the other as a SWAT (NOOSE) team protecting a state witness, as the gang tries to take them out.

Then there's Chopper VS Chopper, with one player racing on the street from checkpoint to checkpoint while the other follows him in the air attempting to gun him away, with players switching after one is killed. This was fun but for some reason it was really hard for me to actually land fire on the guy on the ground, perhaps because the chopper's firepower is tough to target - maybe I need some more practice here. By far our favourite new multiplayer addition is Lone Wolf Biker, essentially a game of 'tag', it's one biker on the run - how long can he last? This mode's really excellent fun.

I can't say I like The Lost as much as I adore the Bellics, and in single player I would like to have seen some of the AI a little sharper on occasion, but really there's not much to complain about with The Lost and Damned, and we've not even touched on other additions like new music, new DJs and new TV content. Even the pesky grain effect that covers the screen in the preview version we played last month is something that can now be turned off. It's without a doubt one of the best downloadable game expansions ever made, and a truly worthy addition to one of (if not the) defining title of this generation to date.

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