In the third and most eclectic chapter in the GTA IV saga. The Episodes from Liberty City, delivers a great big helping of the GTA for a relatively reasonable price. Released in both disc and downloadable forms, Episodes from Liberty City stars Luis Lopez the body guard of nightclub owner “Gay” Tony Prince. With a hitch in his walk, and a carefree attititude Luis will find himself perched near the top of the food chain, associating with the sociopathic high society of Liberty City. Interwoven with the main story line from GTA IV, Episodes from Liberty City does a great job at making a near stand-alone title or an exceptional add-on.
Those familiar with the series and GTA IV in particular will find that little has changed in the way that Rockstar has chosen to deliver the story telling in Episodes from Liberty City. Edgy humor, and graphic acts of sex and violence are plentiful. Pieced together in majority by cutscenes, Episodes from Liberty City is probably the best graphical delivery in the history of the franchise in this regard. The graphics and character models look sharp and the animations flow smoothly. The dark humor of the series certainly helps this along, with well written and believable voice acting.
For the most part Episodes from Liberty City doesn’t deviate from the formula of success that GTA IV and Lost and Damned has written. You will be challenged on every level of transportation be it by Air, Sea, or Land. The action is mixed and staggered at a fairly even pace. Mixed in with driving, flying, and boating, you will also get a throwback to San Andreas with the welcome addition of skydiving. Eventhough, there is a nice variety of things to do in the game,some of the challenges that can arise when performing certain missions seem to be a little less well thought out in Episodes from Liberty City. With undeniably unlear objectives at certain points of challenges. These become a sheer challenge of trial and error rather than a challenge of skill. I haven’t been a fan of the controls or physics for vehicles in the GTA series ever. The chunky and sometimes unresponsive controls can lend a hand to a rather frustrating experience at some points in the game.
It really is hard to make a character as unique and likeable as Niko from the original title, but Episodes from Liberty City does a good job of fitting the overall storyline of GTA IV into the game. The cast of characters that Rockstar created for the game are likeable though. With some very colorful and diverse personalities, Rockstar which has always done an excellent job at crafting an engaging storyline , scores again in here. With the ever lively Liberty City and its strange goings on, the combination of the story, characters, and variety of gameplay can make you overlook some of the negatives of the game.
These negatives mainly boil down to controls being a bit sketchy at times. With little room for error in most challenges, the slightest slip will send you on long retracements just to start a mission over and fail again. I had hoped for some new and fresh multiplayer component to the game, and after just a few rounds was quickly bored with the new weapons that were available to me. With so many games doing both racing and deathmatches better than GTA it’s hard to justify spending much time in the multiplayer component of the game if thats your thing.
As a whole Episodes from Liberty City is a winner, it both rides the coattails of its predecessors successes and stands on its own merits as a fun, new and entertaining single player experience. While not perfect, the over the top action, unique and likeable characters, and variety, make GTA Episodes from Liberty City the perfect grand finale for the GTA IV series of content.
