Let me start by saying I previously bought GTA IV when it first released and played it for a while. I enjoyed it, but wasn’t in to it so I traded it in. When Dec/Jan came around I learned that Rockstar was releasing DLC called “The Lost and Damned” and it peaked my interest. I watched the trailers and thought that it would be really interesting to try.
Since I had already traded in my GTA IV I went to my brother to borrow his copy. I figured leading up to the release of The Lost and Damned I would give the original story of Niko Bellic another try. So a week before the DLC release I began a new game and enjoyed it this time around. Then came February 17th and the release.
Here I was knowing I was going to get it, but I was just hoping it would be worth the 1600 points. I didn’t start the game until the 18th, but I have to say when I did I played almost all the way through. I enjoyed every single mission and the changes Rockstar made for The Lost and Damned. Being that this story revolves around a biker named Johnny, Rockstar tweaked bikes to be better. They seemed to be easier to control and you fell off a lot less.
One of the biggest features I loved about this DLC is the crossover between the original story and the new story. The first time I was sent on a mission with Niko I thought it was awesome. Being able to do the mission from a different perspective and think about how I did it with Niko was great. It made the story that much more enjoyable for me. It kept me wondering when I would intersect with my old friend (not Johnny’s but mine since I played him for a while) Niko again.
That leads me to another feature that made this story a lot more fun to play. Rockstar added in “checkpoints” during missions. In the original story, no matter how far you got in a mission, if you died or failed the mission for some other reason you had to start from the beginning. That could mean driving for what feels like hours again to get to the objective. In The Lost and Damned if you failed at certain points, when you retried the mission it would start you at a point further along. This made it not so aggravating to die during a mission.
Overall I think this DLC was well worth the 1600 points/$20 for the bonus content. You get to enjoy new characters, new guns, new vehicles, new music/radio, and a whole new perspective of some old familiar missions. If you have not beaten the original story I do recommend doing that first. I personally enjoyed the game from beginning all the way to the end of the credits. I now have to go in and finish the side stuff like Gang Wars and Races.
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Being that one of the parts that I enjoyed the most was the cross over between Niko’s story and Johnny’s, I was floored to find out that Johnny was the one who kidnapped Roman for Dimitri. I was like “Oh no, wtf!” because I remembered that mission being a pain in the ass for me on Niko. I died multiple times trying to save Roman.
Another great moment was the final mission. Breaking into the jail and getting Billy was great. When I first met Billy at the start of the game I wanted to do what I did in the prison. Then afterwards I actually enjoyed watching the credits. They show different perspectives of missions you do as Niko and show how the Lost were passing by at those times.
One thing I do wish Rockstar could have done is to make the new story read an old save file and adjust Niko’s clothes to be what you had on when you did the mission. Every time you cross Niko while playing as Johnny he is wearing that same outfit that you find him wearing when you start the original GTA IV story. A bit bland and boring to see him wearing this, but not the end of the world.daybreakers dvd
