Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
| Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony | |||
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| Studio | Rockstar North | ||
| Publisher | Rockstar Games | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Xbox 360: October 29, 2009 Windows / PlayStation 3: April 13, 2010 April 16, 2010 Xbox One: February 9, 2017  |
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| platform | Xbox 360 , Xbox One , PlayStation 3 , Windows | ||
| Game engine | RAGE | ||
| genre | Action | ||
| Game mode | Single and multiplayer (online) | ||
| language | Audio: English Subtitles: German |
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Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second add-on to the Grand Theft Auto IV game in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. The game was developed by Rockstar North and released on October 29, 2009 for Xbox 360 and April 16, 2010 for PlayStation 3 and PC. The Ballad of Gay Tony is available either as a paid download game or together with the first expansion The Lost and Damned as a stand-alone game on the later released disc Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City . The add-on initially only appeared on the Xbox 360 and was only later implemented for PC and PlayStation 3.
There was unusual coverage for a game that was initially only designed as a paid download. In addition to the trade press, Spiegel Online, Stern and New York Times as well as 3sat reported.
action
Like the main game of GTA IV , The Ballad of Gay Tony is set in the fictional city of Liberty City , which is modeled on the real New York City . The action of the add-on often overlaps with that of the main game and that of the first add-on, so many of the scenes contained in all parts are experienced from the perspective of the respective protagonist.
In The Ballad of Gay Tony , the player takes control of Luis Fernando Lopez , a 25-year-old son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic who grew up in the United States.
After serving a perennial juvenile prison sentence, Luis came into contact with gay nightclub owner Anthony Prince, known in Liberty City as Gay Tony. Luis himself is not homosexual. Tony quickly recognized Luis' talent and cold bloodedness and hired him as his personal assistant and bodyguard and also made him the co-owner of his nightclubs. A strong friendship developed between the two.
One evening, Luis' old friends, Armando and Henrique, both also Hispanics , try to enter Tony's celebrity club Maisonette 9, but are not let in by the doorman there . Luis was close friends with the two of them in his youth and was involved in drug deals with them at the time, but distanced himself from them after several years of youth imprisonment. When Luis then drives the two of them home, he reconnects with them and learns that both are still involved in drug trafficking. Later in the game he is repeatedly drawn into illegal business by the two of them, even though he had actually finished this part of his life.
In the next few days, Tony's difficult financial situation became more and more apparent: Tony had entered into dubious business deals with criminals and the mafia and is heavily indebted. In order to save the nightclub empire of the two, Luis first has to do various jobs for Tony's lender, the Mafioso "Rocco Pelosi", the Jewish Mori Kibbutz who has returned from Israel or the Arab real estate shark "Yusuf Amir", which are almost always in a shootout or end spectacular action. In view of the increasingly hopeless situation for him, Tony falls into deeper and deeper depression . It also turns out that he became addicted to cocaine through his significant other, Evan .
Finally, Tony and Luis have the opportunity to buy diamonds worth $ 2 million at a bargain price. Both see this as an opportunity to free themselves from their unfortunate financial situation. Together with Evan, the two go to the place of delivery, but are surprised there by the motorcycle gang "The Lost". Evan is killed by members of the motorcycle gang, Luis and Tony narrowly escape with their lives, losing both money and diamonds. In The Lost and Damned , this mission can be played from the point of view of Johnny Klebitz, the leader of the gang.
The two find out that Johnny Klebitz and Niko Bellic, the protagonist from GTA IV, now want to sell the diamonds to a Jewish diamond stealer. Luis finally manages to get the diamonds.
Later he meets the Russian criminal Ray Bulgarin in his nightclub, for whom Luis begins to work. However, it soon turns out that the said diamonds originally belonged to Bulgarin and were stolen from Bulgarin. Bulgarian thinks Luis or Tony are the thieves and hires several killers to kill them.
A little later, Tony's personal friend Gracie is kidnapped by Niko Bellic and an Irish gang. Ultimately, Tony and Luis are ready to pay the diamonds as a ransom, as Tony also owes their father, a Mafioso from the Ancelotti family. Bulgarin continues to threaten both of them with death.
Ultimately, Tony's nightclubs are shut down by the local authorities because Tony could no longer pay his debts. Luis then meets with Rocco and Vince Pelosi, two Italian mafiosi of the Ancelotti family and Tony's main lenders, in Middle Park (a fictional version of New York's Central Park ).
They explain to him that the Ancelotti family is now working with the Russian mafia and that Luis should kill his friend Tony and take over his clubs. They ask Luis to kill Tony, blame him for the diamond theft, take over Tony's nightclub empire and then work with them and Bulgarin. If Luis does not respond, they threaten to kill not only himself, but also his family.
Luis seems to accept the offer first and meets with Tony and the two Italians in one of his now vacant nightclubs. There it actually looks as if he will accept the offer, but at the last moment he points his gun at Vince Pelosi and shoots him. However, Rocco Pelosi escapes and notifies the Russian Mafia of Luis' decision not to cooperate with them. He then leaves Liberty City because he is now also afraid of the Russian mafia because of the failed deal with Luis Lopez.
A few minutes later, the club is stormed and destroyed by Russian killers, but Luis and Tony manage to escape alive.
In order to decisively weaken Bulgarin and his drug empire, Luis now destroys several trucks with heroin deliveries for him. Bulgarin is now financially ruined and tries to return to Russia with his private jet . He threatens Luis to come back to Liberty City soon and get cruel revenge. Luis manages to get on Bulgarin's private jet at the last moment and puts it on the plane. Luis kills Bulgarin there and parachutes out of the plane. Shortly afterwards, Luis meets Tony in a city park. There they realize that all of their enemies are either dead or very far away and that it is time for a fresh start.
Gameplay
The game principle hardly differs from that of the main game. The entire urban area of Liberty City from GTA IV is also accessible in The Ballad of Gay Tony . There are a number of missions that are embedded in the main storyline and almost always represent criminal tasks with the help of weapons and vehicles. In contrast to the main game, The Ballad of Gay Tony starts with very action-packed missions. As in The Lost and Damned , new weapons, vehicles, and radio stations are included. In addition, there is also the option of performing base jumps apart from the main action. Luis has to jump from a tall building with a parachute and land in a marked zone or on the back of a large truck. There are also so-called “drug war” missions. In these missions, Luis and his friends Henrique and Armando handle various drug deals that always end in a shootout. Unlike the main missions, drug wars can also be lost. If the player does not manage to successfully complete a drug war mission, he cannot repeat it, but this has no further negative effects on the course of the game. Another special feature is that the player in the role of Luis can visit the two Tonys night clubs and play various mini-games there, such as dancing, drinking contests or working as a bouncer.
Technically, The Ballad of Gay Tony is almost identical to GTA IV, both of which use the RAGE engine.
reception
The Ballad of Gay Tony received consistently good reviews from magazines and websites, with Eurogamer giving it a rating of 8 out of 10 points. The German game magazine M! Games awarded 92 out of a possible 100 points. Metacritic calculated an average score of 89 out of 100 points.
Trivia
- This is the third game in the GTA series with a black protagonist. Previously, this was in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories ago, and then again in Grand Theft Auto V .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Announcement from Rockstar Games
- ↑ Spiegel.de: Alluded to GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony
- ↑ Stern.de "GTA IV: Ballad of Gay Tony": The ballerina and her ballerina servant
- ↑ Seth Schiesel: The City as FastTrack, Crammed With Explosive Vehicles and Characters. In: The New York Times, Section C, p. 3, October 29, 2009. (English)
- ↑ Video 3sat article about Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014.
- ↑ Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Xbox 360 Review - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
- ↑ Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City | MANIAC.de test ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony for Xbox 360 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic
