Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned - Gameplay

Gameplay

Perhaps the biggest new feature in The Lost and Damned is the availability of mid-mission checkpoints. The player is thus spared repeated trips to a given location in order to trigger a failed mission again — an often criticized aspect of the Grand Theft Auto series. Checkpoints are only available by retrying the mission after it has been previously failed — going to the mission start point begins the mission from scratch.

The Lost and Damned otherwise features similar gameplay to Grand Theft Auto IV. Additions to the game include new weapons and vehicles, such as Johnny's custom-made motorcycle. However, his way of handling vehicles is less proficient than the way he handles any motorcycle. The player is able to telephone various members of the Lost to provide assistance. Terry, for instance, will drive to a location near to Johnny and sell him weapons and armor, while Clay can deliver a bike of the player's choice to him directly.

Another addition to The Lost and Damned is gang wars. Once the player has completed a certain amount of them, weapons spawn in either the clubhouse and/or safehouse depending on how far the player has progressed in the story, and every subsequent 10 gang wars up to 50, a new weapon will spawn. During some missions and gang wars, Johnny is accompanied by a team of bikers. As each biker takes part in more missions, they will gain fighting experience. If, at any time, a biker is killed in a mission or gang war, they will be replaced by another in the next.

In an interview with IGN, the president of Rockstar North stated that The Lost and Damned would have a third of the number of missions as Grand Theft Auto IV, placing its length at approximately 10–15 hours, depending on how focused the player is on the storyline.

The multiplayer modes are:

• Witness Protection - One team is The Lost biker gang and they must try to eliminate a bus carrying witnesses while the other team is NOOSE who try to protect the bus as it delivers the witnesses to police stations around Liberty City.
• Races - Racing on bikes with racers carrying bats and smashing each other, similar to the video game Road Rash.
• Lone Wolf Biker - Free for all style mode where one player is the Lone Wolf and all other players must chase and kill that player to become the Lone Wolf. At the end of the game, whoever was the Lone Wolf for the longest time, wins.
• Own the City - Try to gain control of the city section by section, based on San Andreas' gang wars.
• Club Business - Like the original Mafia mode in GTA IV, but with a total of 8 players riding together as one gang. The player receives calls from Angus who tells you to carry out certain tasks for The Lost.
• Chopper vs. Chopper - Helicopter vs bike. Bike rider tries to get through checkpoints while the helicopter tries to stop the biker.