By Reardon Jones

Having been a gamer for most of my life I am a little shocked to say that Episodes from Liberty City marks my first foray into the sandbox world of Grand Theft Auto for quite some time.

The last time I left the franchise, was in the old bird's eye perspective days - talk about out of the loop.

We reviewed the Episodes From Liberty City when it first came out on Xbox 360 awhile ago. 

Now, Rockstar has released the episodes for Playstation 3 just to keep the fans happy.

This standalone combination of the down-loadable episodes from Grand Theft Auto IV, contains The Lost & Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

The Lost & Damned follows the story of Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of notorious Liberty City biker gang The Lost. Formally the President while the gang’s leader Billy Grey was incarcerated, Johnny has established a strong grip on Liberty City through truces and dealings with former rival gangs. This all changes when President Billy Grey is released and a destructive and spiraling fall into crime ensues, resulting in a battle for leadership.

The second episode revolves around Gay Tony’s bodyguard Luis Fernando Lopez. Supporting and protecting his flamboyant boss becomes a lot harder after it is revealed Gay Tony is up to is eyes in debt and drugs. The trials become harder as Luis and Tony try dealing with various Triad and Mafia members to raise the establishment out of the red.

Both episodes on occasion entwine with Grand Theft Auto IV, with the main character Nico popping in and out of both episodes.

Like its predecessors, both episodes of Liberty City follow the same game style; stealing cars, dealing drugs and avoiding the law. The use of the program euphoria allows for additional characters, bystanders and their decisions to be independent depending on the sequence of events. This allows for ‘Moral Decision Making’, which basically gives the player the choice of being a stone cold hard-ass or reformed criminal. But hey, who wants to be a reformed criminal in a GTA game?

An added feature to this game is the use of check points during missions. The ability to start the mission from a certain point already achieved is much better than having to go back and start all over again - this can get very frustrating to say the least.

With each new addition to a gaming series it is important to keep updating and improving on the original. Rockstar have added new weapons for Liberty City, including Pipe bombs, Grenade Launchers, Sawn-off Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Auto-Mag Pistols.

New vehicles include some high end sports cars, attack helicopters and chopper motorcycles.

The ability to base jump off skyscrapers and sky diving is a nice break from the standard on ground missions, using the new altimeter to determine when to pull the chute.

The multi-player mode adds another level to the gaming experince. Competing in a base jumping competition or hunting someone down in witness protection are some of the mini games available in multi-player mode. These ensure that the enjoyment of the game isn’t lost after completing the story mode.  One of my most memorable moments was when I was racing though the streets on a chopper while an attack helicopter tried to gun me down - simply awesome.

The release of this game was not without controversy, with the homosexual community and ethnic representations being over exaggerated, also the addition of nudity during some of the cut scenes pushed some of the rating commissions. 

What did they expect? GTA is one of the gaming worlds bad boys....

I can't see any of that stopping this addition to the GTA family to be any less successful. When you have a formula like this and an established fan base, lovers of the original will flock to these additional episodes.

Grand Theft Auto: Get on it!

Game: Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
System: Playstation 3
Online: Yes
Developer: Rockstar North
Distributor: Rockstar Games

Rating: 75%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)