Two very different takes of criminal life from the gangsters at Rockstar Games.
Liberty City. It's arguably one of gamings most complete creations, a fully-realised fictitious American city that takes a bit of LA, a bit of New York, a bit of Chicago, and many other great American landmarks, and mooches them together to create a narrative melting pot for epic crime dramas. Like you cannot imagine The Godfather without the streets of New York, or Miami Vice without the neon of its titular setting, Liberty City is as important a character to GTA as any of its protagonists.
If GTA IV told a story that held a pretty strong middle-ground of criminal life, the two standalone games in Episodes looks both lower and much higher, to offer up a complete picture of life outside of the rules.
In The Lost and the Damned (which was available as DLC, but for many, this will be the more convenient option), you play the member of a hardbitten, but down on its luck motorcycle gang, The Lost. Your leader has just come out of prison, and while you've kept the gang coffers flowing, he's more interested in catching up on a little hell-raising.
Right away, the tone is very different. There's always a sense of impending doom, a sense that violence and mayhem is just a word away from erupting. Impressively, this stems from the rigid structure of The Lost. Everyone has a role, from road boss to treasurer, and even on gang rides - a common occurrence of the game - there's a system of follow the leader that you would do well not to transgress.
It's a great story, very Shakespearean in its tone. Nearly all the voicework in Lost is bang on, especially that of the gang leader (who, incidentally, looks like was modelled in a leaner, scarier Brian Cox). All the game's systems are tweaked appropriately, too. Bike riding is an important part of the game, so that now feels a lot smoother. Even your weapon loadout is much more low-key - sawn off shotguns and baseball bats dominate.
It is, essentially, Liberty City as seen from the lowest rungs of criminal enterprise.
But if you want to look down on the world, and enjoy some serious excess, that's where the impressively-named Ballad of Gay Tony comes in. Tonally, the two games in Episodes are like chalk and cheese. In Ballad, you're the right-hand man of Gay Tony, a flamboyant disco club operator who owes important people big favours - and you're the man to deliver.
In Lost, you beat up bikers and intimidate crackheads; here, you're more likely to be doing favours for a coked out, gold undies wearing kingpin who really wants you to steal him a train, or parachuting onto a building to take out a rival operator in his penthouse office. It's just as well-acted and paced as Lost and the original GTA, but of the three games...
Well, we really like The Lost and the Damned. There's no doubt that Niko Bellic remains the everyman of modern gaming, a Gordon Freeman in cheap denim, but the epic tale of friendships lost and twisted ambition in Lost really appeals, and is something you rarely see attempted in gaming, let alone done so well.
Altogther, though, there's no doubt that whatever your preference, this is a top couple of games, rounding out a city that we really hope we've not seen the last of.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012