Game Review: 'The Lost and the Damned'

Ross Edwards - Knight Ridder/Tribune

One of the most highly lauded video games of 2008 got a fresh look a little more than a week ago when "The Lost and the Damned" expansion pack was released for the Xbox 360 version of "Grand Theft Auto IV."

More than a mere update, "The Lost" follows a separate story from "GTA IV," adding a lengthy campaign mode, new weapons, more vehicles and an enhanced multiplayer experience. All the action takes place on the familiar grounds of Liberty City -- also the setting for "GTA IV" -- and intertwines with the main game's storyline at several points.

The game puts players in the boots of Johnny Klebitz, the vice president of a biker gang known as The Lost. Johnny has spent the previous year acting as president of the gang while the group's leader, Billy Grey, has been serving time in rehab on drug charges.

Under Johnny's rule, the gang morphed into a prosperous criminal enterprise. When Billy returns, however, the bikers revert to their bloodthirsty ways, violating a truce with a rival gang, drawing the attention of the police and reigniting a turf war.

Developer Rockstar North -- no stranger to video game controversy -- has included all the violence, sexual content and vulgarity for which the franchise has become known. Gun battles leave bodies slumped over in the streets, explosions send innocent pedestrians flying through the air and missions often involve altercations with law enforcement as Billy's bad decisions drop Johnny into one bloodbath after another.

The game is also drawing attention and, in some cases, criticism for a cutscene -- or video clip -- in which a non-playable male character briefly appears fully nude.

Most parents will want to keep this game away from children at all costs. There are plenty of fun and appropriate games out there for youngsters, but "The Lost" isn't one of them.

Rockstar is taking a leap of faith in assuming gamers will want to shell out 1,600 Microsoft Points -- roughly $20 -- for the expansion pack, which takes up about 1.8 gigabytes of hard drive space. The original version of "GTA IV" is required, and players who bought the game for PC or PlayStation 3 are out of luck, as "The Lost" is only available for download on the Xbox 360.

In addition to adding new weapons and vehicles, Rockstar has also cleaned up one of the most frustrating aspects of "GTA IV." Mid-mission checkpoints have finally been added, eliminating the infinitely frustrating experience of dying near the end of a 20-minute ordeal and being forced to start over from scratch.

There are also some new perks to the multiplayer experience. Along with standard fare like deathmatch and team deathmatch, "The Lost" features exciting new modes such as lone wolf biker and witness protection.

In lone wolf, one biker is designated as the wolf and the rest of the players are tasked with chasing him down. The player who kills the wolf becomes the new target and must try to elude his former teammates.

In witness protection, players are divided into two teams. One group is made up of police officers assigned to protect a bus carrying state witnesses to various drop-off points in the city. Other players fill the role of a biker gang bent on destroying the bus and killing the witnesses inside.

In the end, "The Lost and the Damned" mixes the good with the bad. An often-traveled plot and flat characters do little to draw gamers into the story. Players who enjoyed "GTA IV," however, will find even more to love, as the new campaign, inventory additions and gameplay tweaks provide more than enough incentive to give Liberty City another look.

Final score: 8.5 out of 10.

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Copyright 2012 by Knight Ridder/Tribune