Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Done with TLAD now ready for Resident Evil 5

I'm done with GTA IV: The Lost and Damned and I'm ready for the arrival of Resident Evil 5.

The first downloadable content for GTA IV was short, and sweet, giving players more of the criminal life in the urban world of Liberty City they've come to expect from the series. And though the cast of characters are new, they are hardly as memorable or as appealing as those in Niko's universe -- Ashley the drugged-out former girlfriend of Johnny, and the other members of the Lost gang, are pretty dull in comparison to GTA IV's main cast, you could even say they were forgettable. If given more time to develop these characters in a longer game or another episode, I'm sure they'd actually have some character development going on, but given TLAD is quite short, there's not much to develop. I LOL'd when Ashley proclaimed "I'm gonna go to Rehab!" on the steps of the safehouse, which was a quick way to put some closure to the annoying Ashley character. They should have just called her Amy Winehouse. Admittedly the cross-overs and cameos of GTV IV characters is what I looked forward to most, and what kept me interested, not so much the 'Lost' drama.

The game itself does have a few improvements over the previous GTV IV's gameplay, a few cool motorcycle missions, and action sequences, but surprisingly in the end the energy of 'The Lost and Damned' seemed to drop off suddenly, coming to a really bland and disappointing concluding mission. "That's it?" I said, when the credits started rolling. No bike stunts? No grabbing on to helicopters?

Aside from the ending, and uninteresting characters, for a smaller GTA game, it's a good step in the episodic direction. I wonder what's next? Asian mafia in Liberty City? Rockstar has to hit up every ethnicity to keep the series going!

In any case, bring it on...

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