Important Note: This review is for the stand-alone retail disc release, which includes both "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony." This disc doesn’t require the original Grand Theft Auto IV. The XBLA releases however do need the original game, so please keep these things in mind when deciding which distribution you may wish to buy.

Hard as it is to imagine, some people missed out on the original Grand Theft Auto IV. These same individuals also didn’t get to play GTA IV’s first expansion pack, and Rockstar realized this was a market worth tapping. With Episodes from Liberty City, they have combined both of GTA IV’s expansion packs into a stand-alone retail disc, and the result is a fantastic pair of action/sandbox games. Set in an obvious proxy of New York City, Episodes lets you experience a life of crime from two very different perspectives.

Despite the different themes, there are many things these games share in common. Like GTA IV before them, these are third person action games that put you in a huge city that you can explore on foot, or by a variety of vehicles. They both advance their story through a series of missions, and offer lots of side content beyond the main plot. These things are all typical for modern GTA games, and they mostly stick to the formula that Rockstar knows will work.

The major differences are in the details. The Lost and Damned focuses on a wild and violent motorcycle gang, while The Ballad of Gay Tony shows us the more refined and methodical side of organized crime. The result is that while both of these games play similarly, their stories are very different. This is good since you’ll be spending a long time in each game, easily around 10 to 20 hours apiece depending on how interested you are in the main missions, exploring a large city, and general ’sandbox’ play.

This difference in theme also leads to some difference in missions; The Lost features several motorcycle chases, vehicular shoot-outs, and gang versus gang battles of a pretty spectacular size. Missions in The Ballad of Gay Tony on the other hand expect you to do more with less; you’re often expected to complete the task alone or with only a small group of allies. Ballad is fair about it however, giving you access to stronger weapons than The Lost or the original GTA IV offer. Regardless of which game you’re playing, the writing is excellent; most of the plot in both games presents an interesting crime story with a real (albeit somewhat exaggerated) human element to it and they kept me interested.

While completing missions is the main point of the game and it’s how you move the story forward, it isn’t all you’ll be doing. Liberty City is a big place, and has enough detail to it that it rewards exploration. You might find some interesting hidden weapons or vehicles, or come across neat tidbits like a functional TV (with several hilarious shows) and even mini-games like air hockey and basic arcade games. An in-game internet and cell phone also help keep you entertained, and using them can help you both unearth new plot points and various game features.

Episodes from Liberty City isn’t just a singleplayer venture, it also offers pretty good online play. Perhaps you just want to roam the city with some friends; you can do that. Or if you want objectives, you can engage in a mix of deathmatch, team deathmatch, racing, a variety of chase scenarios, and more. The online play seems to work fairly well, though the nature of gun controls in these games encourages a more methodical, deliberate pace. I don’t think the online play is the main attraction here, but it is admittedly a very nice addition to a solid singleplayer experience.

Even though Episodes from Liberty City is getting all this praise, I do admit it has some noteworthy problems. The first is the city layout, as it often requires you to make a multi-minute drive to get to your save point. This isn’t a problem when done just once or twice, but after a while the time spent just driving to your save point (and then to the next mission) does start to add up. The other issue is that some missions are quite difficult, though some can be made less so by approaching them creatively. Fortunately the first problem is tolerable, and the second is off-set by it being easy to retry a failed mission. So while these are genuine issues with the game, they are able to be mostly overlooked.

With all these strong points in its favor, I think most people will be thrilled with Episodes from Liberty City. There are only two groups of people I can’t recommend it to... those who already have The Lost and Damned as an XBLA download (this group might be better served buying Ballad as an XBLA download as well), or those who simply aren’t interested in GTA games at all. For everyone else, Episodes is a great deal that will keep you busy for quite a while, and $40 is a fair price.