The final installment of the promised Xbox360 exclusive downloadable content packs for Grand Theft Auto IV has been released. The Ballad of Gay Tony promised over the top action, as you are no longer tortured by the serious matter of poverty that had stricken Niko Belic . Instead, you play as Luis Lopez, the righthand man and bodyguard of Tony Prince, nightclub owner and more importantly your boss.  The action in this expansion doesn’t just take place in Liberty City, but in its nightlife.  The choice between friends, family or money, is what this kind of life is all about.  The expansion also comes with new vehicles, weapons, music, and activities such as base jumping.

Tony made Luis, brought him under his wing and turned him into something.  This plays a big role in the storyline as you choose who your loyalties lie with.  But of course the game is all about living the high life, everyone’s real aspiration. Most of the game takes place in the middle island of Liberty City, Algonquin where you’ll get to meet some interesting characters.  Think Gay Tony was an interesting name for the DLC?  Well trust me, you’ll meet some interesting people including the seemingly insane Arab, Yusif Amir, the crazy Russian mobster that wishes he had a rock band, Bulgarin, and you cant forget Brucie’s brother Mori who’s pretty much the most annoying person you will ever meet and happens to swear a mile a minute.  Not like everyone else doesn’t swear.

The game begins with the bank robbery that you took part in in the original GTA.  After that, where you go next is all up to you.  Go help Tony with his nightclubs, help your two childhood buddies, Armando and Henrique, or help your Mom out.  Whatever you do, make sure you’re ready for skydiving and explosions as there are plenty of both?  Most of these come when you are helping Yusif Amir, the crazy Arab, that has you steal seemingly random things, like a NOOSE tank.

The helicopter makes a greater appearance in the DLC, which is certainly welcome as it makes traveling much easier. The Buzzard, one of the new vehicles included, shoots not only two machine guns, but rockets. Both air-to-ground and air-to-air combat is still a little messy, but who can complain when they’re looking at all those pretty explosions? Also included is the P90, M249 SAW, sticky bombs, an explosive shotgun, and the new best pistol, the Pistol .44.  As soon as you unlock the shotgun, you have found the new vehicle killer, not only does it fire faster but it is also  more accurate than the rocket launcher.

There on no new online feares, but it does feature new smaller levels for team deathmatch. Free mode is by far the most fun, as now there are parachutes which are a blast and seemingly never get old. Jumping out of choppers has never been more fun. The sticky bombs also allow for setting traps online, which is classic.  There’s nothing better than watching your friend get in a car that you just recently rigged, drive away, and with one click of the d-pad, boom. The online mode does include some minor improvements such as kill streak rewards and nitrous boosting in races.

The campaign now includes scoring, every mission has a total of 100 percent. This is gained by accuracy, headshots, time overall, and other miscellaneous objectives. Any mission can be replayed through the phone, and all missions must be 100% to unlock the final achievement. Along with fifteen base jumping challenges, which at the most take two tries, there are twenty-five Drug Wars missions which unlock weapons at your safe houses.  The Drug War missions are just a quick way to jump into the action.

Another one of the big features are the clubs, such as Maisonette 9, where you can do a ton of things. You can be a bouncer and do patrols around the club watching out for trouble. Or you can come as yourself and do some dancing, which if you do it right, you will get “lucky”. You can take free shots, or take place in a VIP drinking game. Or you could go to Hercules, the homosexual club that Tony owns.

After playing and beating the main story of The Ballad of Gay Tony, I can tell you that it was a heck of a ride, and was sad to see that it was over. The over the top action is what was missed in GTA IV, granted they are two different styles of gameplay between these games. As this is the last installment of DLC for GTA IV, it means that this will be the end of a great game. There is one good thing though, its going to take a really long time to reach 100 percent on every one of those missions.

*Note* The Ballad of Gay Tony Review is written as an expansion of GTA IV not a separate game.

Score: 9.0/10

• Pros:
  • Constant action.
  • New weapons.
  • The new characters are awesome.
• Cons:
  • No new online modes.
  • Air combat is hard to get used to.
  • Mori really needs to shut up.
• Random Fact:
  • It has been rumored that a red-ringed Xbox 360 is hidden in Luis’ apartment.

The Ballad of Gay Tony was developed by Rockstar North, published by Rockstar Games, and released on October 29, 2009.