Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

When I last left Liberty City I was biker Johnny Klebitz, who obviously spent most of time in some of the less prosperous neighbourhoods. The contrast as I am introduced to the night life of Liberty City is staggering. Beautiful ladies, VIP rooms, clubs, and cocaine. The king of the clubs, Tony Prince (aka Gay Tony) is as far removed from bikers as you can get.

As friend, business partner and assistant to Tony, Luis Lopez has his hands full keeping the clubs afloat while Gay Tony collects new debts, enemies and drug habits. As the owner of both the hottest club and gay club in town you easily attract the attention of the criminal elements of Liberty City. And it doesn't take long until we have to dive head first into the filthy reality that makes up the foundation of the city.

Luis Lopez started his career as a dope runner for the Dominicans on the street corners of Liberty City. But after serving some time behind bars Gay Tony took him under his wings, provided him with a seemingly legitimate job and a new life. The loyalty Luis feels towards his mentor is a red thread throughout and is constantly put to the test. Everyone wants a piece of Luis and nobody is ever satisfied. His old friends want him back in the drug business, the mafia bosses who want him to join their ranks, and Tony constantly puts his life in danger as he attempts to sort out some of his growing amounts of problems.

As expected Rockstar offers up an enormous and amazing gallery of characters, and the voice acting is of the highest calibre. Luis Lopez is despite being a stone cold murderer, very agreeable. But Gay Tony is the real star. Instead of taking the easy path and making him into a gay stereotype and drama queen, the 40 year old night life veteran is commanding, cocky and a man of action. When he is doped up or drunk he is a self pity personified and paranoid. Empathy turns into frustration as Tony digs himself into a deeper and deeper hole, no matter how hard Luis tries to put things right.

The missions in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony are similar to what we've seen in previous Liberty City adventures. Drive somewhere, talk to someone, shoot some people, shake the cops and win the race. While the missions are varied, and sometimes surprisingly different, there is a familiar pattern to most of them. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned felt like a game in its own right while this is more of a traditional expansion.

Therefore it is refreshing that you get an evaluation after each story mission. The percentage score is based on how many of the seondary objectives you complete, whether there is a time limit, or if you can only take a certain amount of damage, get a certain number of headshots or shooting accuracy. You replay any mission to get a better score and hunt achievements, which adds even more hours of entertainment.

Just like its predecessors The Ballad of Gay Tony provides us with a number of brand new mini games you can enjoy while taking a break for the main story. There is Drug Wars, where Luis helps his childhood friends with their drug running, Base Jumping, where you dive from buildings or helicopters through hoops and land on specific target, Club Management, where you patrol the clubs, throw out drunk or unruly guests and make sure everyone has a good time, and finally there is an club in the basement where your fists do the talking.

To be honest I never got into the Base Jumping, but working security at the night clubs was fun and something I tended to do as soon as they opened for the night. It is however a major shortcoming that Rockstar haven't done anything to improve the fighting system, especially when a whole mini game is based on it. Pulling off counters is purely based on luck, and the controls are stiff and unresponsive. They tuned up the motorcycle part of the game for The Lost and Damned as it played a major part in the episode, and I would have expected the fighting system to get a similar update when a whole mini game revolves around it.

Much like its predecessors The Ballad of Gay Tony takes us on a roller coaster ride where its hard to put away the controller once you have started playing. You end up feeling something about all the characters whether they are good or bad. The Arabic billionaire son Yusuf is in many ways the Roman of The Ballad of Gay Tony, or what he would have been like with unlimited amounts of money. With a prostitute on one arm and a golden gun in his other hand, he sends Luis on the most insane missions, and it always brings a smile to my face when the culturally challenged young man for another job. There were other characters I came to loath and I put of doing their missions until I had no other choice.

As the case was with Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned - The Ballad of Gay Tony is played out in the same time period as the Grand Theft Auto IV and you will run into old acquaintances every now and then. The stories fit together incredibly well and getting a third perspective on the famous Museum sequence is just one of the climaxes in the game, while it also represents closure.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is a worthy ending to this Liberty City adventure. It provides us with more details and insights and just like in The Wire we realised that the true protagonist is the city, and that the characters we have experienced it through is the backdrop. It saddened me a bit when I finished the last mission, but it was some consolation that there are many hours left in order to perfect the mission scores. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in again...