When people think of the Grand Theft Auto series, they think of a story of rags to riches. Ok, they think of killing hookers first, then rags to riches. Wait, it would be killing hookers, then insane violence, then and the whole rags to riches thing. Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, the newest downloadable episode for Rockstar’s crime epic exceeds because it changes what we have come to expect from the series. Unlike previous editions of the franchise, you won’t be starting off as a lowly no name; you’ll be thrust into a story that involves Liberty City’s upper echelon. It may not seem like much, but it makes The Ballad of Gay Tony seem incredibly fresh. What results is a DLC package that’s not only fun, but since it features more content than most new games is well worth your download space and money. I refuse to go through the explanation of just what GTA is. At this point, if you don’t know – go back and check out our review of the game. In the Ballad of Gay Tony, you play not as the titular character, but as his business partner ally Luis Lopez.
Luis is a loyal and hard working “problem solver” for his boss Tony “Gay Tony” Price – one of Liberty’s hottest nightclub owners. From the beginning you’ll notice that Luis is a great protagonist – sure he seems to like killing people for money and does a lot of really bad things, but he’s doing so to ensure a better life for himself following a stint in prison for drug trafficking. While most of the game centers on Gay Tony; this is after all a Grand Theft Auto game and there’s no shortage of interesting characters asking you to carry out missions for them. A few are a bit eccentric, but you never get the sense that they’re cartoony – these could all be real people in any major city in the United States. Keep an eye out in particular for the son of an Arab millionaire and a few childhood friends who always keep life interesting. But who am I kidding? This is Grand Theft Auto! You want to blow some serious shit up! And you shall; the Ballad of Gay Tony is no slouch when it comes to the destruction and devastation the series has become known for.
What’s more – there’s an added emphasis on tanks in this one. Yeah, let that one sink in. The game encourages you to use tanks more. There are also a slew of new weapons at your disposal including a new shotgun which fires exploding shells, sticky bombs and an advanced sniper rifle. The main story in the DLC should take most gamers between ten and twelve hours to complete. The missions, for what it’s worth tend to be a bit more varied than the original GTA IV disc and the Lost and The Damned. You’ll be doing everything from cage fighting; to skydiving and even playing golf and in a nice touch you’ll be able to experience a number of missions from the earlier GTA games from a different perspective. When you take a step back, the game feels like a Quentin Tarantino movie with the intertwining stories. Another new feature the new episode adds is the drug wars mini game.
While it will seem similar to those who’ve played Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the new mode which finds you offing drug rivals for profit is a great distraction and serves to stretch the game out a bit further. Unlike the Lost and the Damned, which featured a number of new gameplay modes, Gay Tony’s online suite consists only of modes found on the original GTA IV disk. There are tweaks like added base-jumping support in freeplay mode, but those looking for a game changing online addition will be a bit disappointed. There is however a new option to retry missions from the single player campaign to get a higher score and position on the online leader boards. Seriously, that’s awesome. Now I have a reason to go back and retry missions and objectives that I think could have went better. When it comes to downloadable content that’s worth your money – you can’t do much better than the Ballad of Gay Tony; hell it even gives most games a run for their money. Featuring a number of new features, a likeable protagonist and some new kickass weapons, this latest episode is a great reason to return to Liberty City, especially if you haven’t made the trip in a while.
Final Recommendation: Buy
