Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Review

Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by PAYBACK-IRONMAN in Microsoft, Real Talk with the HipHopGamer, Reviews

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The first DLC for GTA IV came earlier this year with The Lost and Damned and although it was fun, it really didn’t offer that much other then a new storyline. Now with the Ballad of Gay Tony Rockstar has certainly taken things to whole new level because this episode features a much better story, fun side missions and an overall experience that feels just as fun as GTA: San Andreas did back in 2004.

In this episode players take on the role of Luis Lopez, who is the right hand man to Tony Prince; the owner of Liberty City’s most popular gay and straight nightclub. The story involves Tony getting into trouble with the wrong people and it then follows the story of the stolen diamonds that has spanned across in both the Niko Belic and Johnny Klebitz storyline. The story is definitely one of the best written GTA story line’s yet and some of the supporting cast are hilarious. The new character Yusef Amir is surely one of the funniest characters you’ll ever see in a GTA game.

The mission’s in Gay Tony are sure to please long time GTA fans. Some of the missions will have you taking part in helicopter dog fights and even sky diving off of sky scrapers. Sky diving isn’t the only thing that has made a return, one mission with have you driving an APC tank, which will have destroying cars and police like nothing. The APC isn’t as strong as the tanks in previous games, but its nice to something very similar to it because GTA IV didn’t have any sort of vehicle that was this powerful.

Of course with new vehicles there must also be new weapons. The silenced P90 is sure to become you’re new best friend with its amazing fire rate and clip size, killing enemies with it is very satisfying and you may only use this gun through out the entire story. Another great weapon is the new auto shotgun, which is more powerful then the combat shotgun and it can even use explosive rounds that can take down helicopters in just a few shots.

When you’re not busy with the story there’s plenty of side missions you can take part in. Luis can take part in an underground fight club and you can place bets to earn some extra cash. Also there’s 25 drug war missions where you and some on Luis’ old friends steal other gangs drugs in order to become the top dealers in Liberty City. The mission’s feel similar to the previous drug deals that Little Jacob would give you in GTA IV, but these feature a lot more action and they just add more fun to the game. Since Luis runs nightclubs, he can visit the clubs any time he wishes and you can do things like get drunk, throw out anyone that’s causing trouble and you can even play a dance mini game and if you got the moves you may get lucky with one of the many girls on the dance floor.

Overall The Ballad of Gay Tony is the best DLC on Xbox Live so far. For $20 you’re getting a funny and entertaining storyline that can take you over ten hours to complete, plus you’re able to replay any of the main story’s missions and you’ve got a bunch of fun side missions and activities that just take even more time to complete. This is in my opinion a much better game then what we saw in the Niko Belic storyline and lets just hope that Rockstar isn’t done with the GTA IV DLC just yet.

SCORE: 9/10

Tags: grand theft auto 4, GTA 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony