Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 2:33 pm IST

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

27 Feb, 2009, 11:17 am IST | Avinash Bali | Console Console

In today’s gaming industry, downloadable content (DLC) has become a way of life. It’s the developers’ way of offering tit bits of new content for a smaller price in the form of new missions, multiplayer modes, weapons, characters etc. to us paying customers. With their first batch of DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV - exclusive to the Xbox360 - Rockstar has taken the term "DLC" to the next level by offering an entire game for just 1600 points (it’s no surprise they’ve done so since Microsoft paid them nearly $50 million for this Xbox360 exclusive content).

Unlike most DLC that continues with the original protagonist, TLAD introduces a whole bunch of newcomers to the foray all of which are interesting in true Rockstar fashion. You have the new protagonist, Johnny Klebitz (who’s not new to the GTA IV universe by the way), an old school chopper riding, leather jacket toting badass and the leader of the Lost MC (motorcycle club), Billy, who’s a tad more complex and screwed in the head than him. Both Johnny and Billy are faithfully followed by the entire LMC who don’t stand out in any particular way but are fine as the supporting cast.

Then you have Johnny’s love interest for dramatic effect who’s desperately trying to kick her nasty drug addiction while proclaiming her love for him in hopes that he’d take her far away from her miserable existence. And then you do have certain recurring characters as well like Ray Boccino, Elizabeta Torres and of course Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman who sadly are pretty underused.

As far as the plot’s concerned you’ll have no trouble getting immersed in it since all the voice actors involved in this project have done a bang up job of things. Even though Johnny is more of an a**hole than Niko, you’ll slowly but surely be rooting for him by the end of the game. Billy is a nut-job but he’s got an enigmatic quality that you just can’t ignore and like I mentioned earlier, the other cast members don’t stand out but are quirky and amusing in their own way.

Tags: Grand Theft Auto IV

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