Grand Theft Auto - Episodes from Liberty City (USA)
Xbox 360
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Reviewed in 2009
88
✪ Reviewed on September 14, 2025
82
Episodes from Liberty City packs The Lost and Damned together with The Ballad of Gay Tony, two superbly written and snappy expansions. The grimy bikers and the gilded nights of Anthony Prince form a complementary diptych that casts GTA IV in fresh light.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player18+
Description
GTA IV DLC compilation by Rockstar North and Rockstar Games, June 2010. Brings together The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disc. Two separate storylines in Liberty City with new characters and original missions. Physical version of GTA IV's two major expansions.
Grand Theft Auto - Episodes from Liberty City review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Liberty City recreated with a dense, disenchanted realism, grey light and teeming architecture: the metropolis breathes a raw, living America. The coherence of the world and the density of the streets compose a credible urban theatre. This visual direction, dark and vast, brought the open world to a new maturity.
Two protagonists, two FM bands: Johnny rides on rock and New York hardcore, the sticky guitars of a biker clubhouse, while Tony lives in the continuous bass of nightclubs, house and disco mixed as in his own venues. Switching episodes means changing ears on the same city, and Liberty City has never existed as fully as through its radios.
The two episodes replay GTA IV's score by cutting across it: the diamond briefcase circulating from one plot to another, scenes already witnessed now seen from Johnny's bike or the back seat of Tony's limo, supporting characters promoted to the foreground. That prism-narrative device, three stories intersecting in the same city, was unprecedented at this scale.
North American (NTSC-U) edition of this standalone compilation of GTA IV's two expansions, playable without the original game, extending Liberty City with two new protagonists. Printed widely on the large North American market, it stays accessible and lightly priced. Its interest lies in its status as additional narrative content on physical media, valued by fans of the entry, more than in scarcity, its distribution remaining wide.
A questionable morality
Under the pretext of climbing the criminal ladder, you borrow other people's cars, lose the police and settle every dispute with gunfire, all across open cities built for chaos. The game makes no secret of its irony, yet the thrill of total freedom makes you accept, without flinching, a daily routine of crimes chained together with a slightly guilty grin.
Is Grand Theft Auto - Episodes from Liberty City still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2009 on Xbox 360, Rockstar's standalone release gathers The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two superb GTA IV expansions playable without the base game. Following Johnny in the heart of a biker club, then Luis in the glitz of the night, offers two fresh perspectives on Liberty City, from the dark to the gloriously over the top. The Ballad adds a jubilant excess that contrasts with the original game's grave tone. A few period mechanics have aged. But the writing and the variety stay remarkable. For fans of narrative open worlds and the Rockstar touch, this double bill keeps a strong appeal today.
