GTA IV: The Lost and Damned Multiplayer Hands-on

It's a Road Rash redux.

February 12, 2009 - Grand Theft Auto IV is set to get its first piece of downloadable content on February 17, and what a download it will be. You've likely already read our impressions of the 12-20 hour campaign the $20 download offers. Recently, we got a chance to try out the new multiplayer features and game modes being added. That's right, in addition to the all-new campaign, The Lost and Damned download includes six new modes to play on Xbox Live.

Like the main game, The Lost and Damned multiplayer content is accessed through your cell phone from within the campaign. To get to the new multiplayer modes, you'll have to do this through The Lost and Damned. In addition to the normal matchmaking, there will now be an "instant play" feature to quickly hop into a game. There won't be a lift on the rank cap for the multiplayer game, but the new modes bring new character models, weapons, and motorcycles to the multiplayer offerings. The new motorcycles are more of a key addition than you might think since every new multiplayer mode features motorcycles in some way. Of course, this being GTA IV, even if you start the mode on a motorcycle, you can usually get off and just hijack a car if you like.

Click the image above to see The Lost and Damned multiplayer in action (HD available).

The Lost and the Damned offers the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and free modes, but since those aren't any different from what you get in GTA IV, we won't get into them and will instead focus on what you haven't seen in the past.

The first new game type we tried out was my favorite of the bunch. Called "Witness Protection," this mode is a team affair with one squad playing as The Lost biker gang and the other as the N.O.O.S.E. The goal of the N.O.O.S.E. is to deliver three state witnesses to the proper police stations while The Lost try to kill said witnesses. If you're playing as the good guys, one team member gets to drive the van with the witnesses making him the prime target while the rest of the team drives in cop cars. As I found out, it takes quite a bit of firepower to take down the van…and the van is pretty daunting when it starts trying to ram you and you're just chasing it on a small bike.

It's all about teamwork here. You might be tempted to just ride your bike up solo and try to take out the van's driver, but a coordinated attack just as the witness is leaving the van for the police station is most effective. Likewise for the cops running defense. Without staying in constant contact with the van's driver, you won't know where you should go to be most effective. You can get all of the kills you want, but if you don't protect the van you won't win.

That's gonna leave a mark.

Also, when you're on a bike, avoid getting hit by a cop car while on a bridge. It doesn't go over well.

The next mode, "Own the City," is a GTA take on your standard territories match. Each team must try to take over as many territories as possible. There's just one catch: Each territory your team owns is populated by NPC characters to protect it while you're off taking over another. 

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/953/953076p1.html

The more territories you currently hold, the more AI controlled NPCs you'll have on your side. In order to take over a territory, you'll have to clear it of all opposition, both human and AI. Add in a special Gun Van that you can hijack and drive around to upgrade all of your squad's weapons and you've got yourself some extra strategic elements.

The new race mode is a clear homage to the classic motorcycle game Road Rash. The goal is simple: travel through all of the checkpoints and reach the finish first. The catch is that everyone is on bikes and you can hold down the X or B buttons to charge up a baseball bat swing to knock the opposition on their tails.

After a few motorcycle races (and concussions from high speed bat-meets-face collisions), we moved on to "Lone Wolf Biker." If you've played a first-person shooter, you've likely already played a mode just like this. At the outset of the match, one player is selected as the Lone Wolf. Their job is to survive as long as they can while everyone else tries to take them down. Kill the Lone Wolf and you get your shot at being the target. Last the longest as the Lone Wolf and you win.

GTAIV: TL&D is all about mad naval battles.

The last mode we played is called "Chopper vs. Chopper." You can probably guess what that entails. The game is only played by two people, one on a motorcycle and one in a helicopter. If you're on the bike, it's your job to get to as many checkpoints scattered around the city as possible. If you're in the copter, all you need to do is kill the guy on the bike, either by shooting them down or embarrassing them by killing them with the copter blades. Once the player in the motorcycle is killed, the roles are reversed.

There is one more mode, but we didn't get a chance to try it out. This one, called "Club Business" has everyone playing as a member of The Lost. Different tasks are doled out that everyone will race to complete in order to gain favor with the gang. In the team-based version of this, Rockstar says you can gain money for your club by riding in formation.

Kill or be killed.

While playing GTA IV, I always avoided the motorcycles. I tended to crash and burn too often and the rides don't offer much protection from stray bullets. Playing the new multiplayer modes gave me a new appreciation for the two-wheeled hogs, mostly thanks to the new weapons introduced here.

In addition to an automatic 9mm, a pipe bomb, and a grenade launcher, there are two new weapons that can be used while on a motorcycle. The sawed-off shotgun and assault shotgun can be fired while you're driving which makes all of these new modes a heck of a lot more fun. Riding up and blasting someone in the face point blank with a shotgun, without getting off of your bike, and then peeling away is some satisfying gaming ownage.

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/953/953076p2.html

Looks like some meaty DLC.

Will read it in more detail later but from what I have read so far I like the sounds of it. This is 1600 MS points right?

I believe so.

Nice. I'll be getting this. Wonder how big the DLC is?

ThisX360 exclusive DLC: GTA IV: The Lost and Damned will generate more GTA IV game sales and hopefully sell some X360s.
GTA IV DLC will make a lot of profit for MS. There are hardly any costs involved such as distribution, packaging and advertising costs. Only 1.2 million pieces of DLC needs to be sold in order for MS to break even on the $50 million investment.

The MP in this DLC looks much better than GTA IV MP that is in the main game.