Gay Tony adds personality to GTA

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Published by Rockstar Games
Developed by Rockstar North

Perhaps the best news about the most recent piece of downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV, the aptly named The Ballad of Gay Tony, is that a certain Russian slob won’t be calling you every five minutes to go see some “big fat American tit-tees.” Gay Tony provides some much needed flair, and from the bright rainbow-colored title screen to the badly overdressed and over-dramatic characters, to the purple sparkling loading text, this most recent foray into Liberty City has something sorely lacking from previous outings: character.

Bidding good riddance to Nyko, Roman, and most of the other characters from the previous game and it’s first downloadable chapter, The Lost and the Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony puts you in the shoes of Luis Lopez, last seen getting held up in the bank robbery in the initial game. You interact and do jobs for his titular boss and his cadre of friends and enemies.

By the end of it, you’ll meet some friends, make some enemies, hit some golf balls (into people), skydive, and drive an armoured behemoth through downtown Liberty City. And, if you’re the average GTA IV player, you’ll find time to have some sex with hookers, and go on more than a few orgies of violence. It’s more of the same great fun that the series typically provides, but with a couple of twists.

It’s not so much what's in The Ballad of Gay Tony that makes it successful, as much as what isn’t. In the original game, there was a cavalcade of useless time-wasters, and none more evident than your seriously needy and clingy “friends.” Providing help in a gunfight here, or some money or useful utilities there, the original had you hopping from bar to strip club to drug run to satisfy your friends' desires. For every mission there was a zillion requests to go play darts or masturbate or whatever. It was enough to drive a Russian crazy. God help you if you were trying to date a fine-looking lady at the same time.

A majority of those distractions have been removed, and it's to the game's benefit. Girlfriends are replaced with “booty calls,” your plethora of acquaintances are replaced with only a few much less pushy counterparts, and the missions themselves feel tighter and more focused. The story sees business partners Gay Tony and Lopez try to pay off their debts to the mob, as well as make a little profit on the side managing Tony’s two clubs.

The personality is very evident from the get-go, with characters like Tony’s coke-mad boyfriend Evan, and Mori, older brother of fan-favorite Brucie, taking center stage. It comes across as very much larger-than-life, and it really works. Vice City used a similar method to almost universal acclaim and it’s obvious that it really works here.

At the end of the day, GTA IV wasn’t broken; it was just very misdirected. The serious, almost depressing story of Niko Bellic clashed with the roots of the series as an open sandbox game, and it almost felt too dire and serious for its own good. The Ballad of Gay Tony takes away all of the depressing trappings of the first game and replaces them with glitz, glamour, and nightlife. If you enjoyed your previous trips to Liberty City, go ahead and hang out with Gay Tony and Luis, but there isn’t anything new or groundbreaking here besides the atmosphere.