Are Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories worth playing? What about Episodes from Liberty City?

[Jack-F-2001]

So I'm pretty sure I've never played LCS and VCS before, or if I did, I didn't complete them. I have played EFLC but only a few missions. (This would've been YEARS ago). I was thinking of playing them as they're the only GTAs I haven't played (or completed) and GTA VI isn't gonna be out for a while. Plus it'd be nice to have some of III and VCs backstory explained. I heard they're "meh" though.

Edited January 30 by Jack-F-2001

[universetwisters]

I like Liberty City stories because it's dumb fun. VCS I'm not a fan of but just because the whole game is about building an empire and all the hard work you do within that game just becomes moot by two years later in VC. But if you can look past that, it aint that bad

 

EFLC is def something you really should play! Don't let the losers try to tell you that TLAD is leagues better than TBOGT tho, they're both quite nice in their own ways

[Midnight Hitman]

I loved TLAD and TBOGT, they're definitely worth playing!

[B Dawg]

Yes, yes and yes.

[Krooked_]

I'd say LCS and VCS are both better than III and VC. It's very much worth playing through them.

 

I think VC has the edge when it comes to its protagonist since Tommy seems more ambitious and ruthless than Vic so the whole "building your criminal empire" thing seems more satisfying than in VCS. But other than that VCS does everything else better.

 

LCS is also pretty cool, adding QoL improvements like the ability to sprint with heavier weapons, you can now ride bikes, more varied missions etc. It's great.

 

And EFLC is a must play. It ties a lot of loose ends from GTA IV's story like the plot with the diamonds and it wraps up the whole saga.

[Moncastler]

A big yes to all 3 (well 4 actually), they're great games and it's well worth playing them

 

Personally VCS is my favourite GTA, its soundtrack imo is the best in the entire series, missions are fun (and some of them will be quite challenging on your first tun), the storyline is average (but it's the one I enjoyed the most in the 3D era), the '80s atmosphere is there and it has some crucial SA features like swimming and a decent camera. The major complaint I have with VCS is the empire building, basically glorified SA gang territories... At a certain point during your run you'd probably want to take over every single building so you won't receive any more attacks, but that unfortunately ruins a bit the flow of the main storyline.

 

LCS is another solid title, while it's not in the top spots of my leaderboard I would say it's better and less frustrating than GTA III.

 

TLAD and TBoGT deserve to be played if you enjoyed GTA IV, both games add more context to the main storyline and they improve certain aspects of IV's gameplay. Personally I prefer TBoGT more than TLAD, but again you can't go wrong with either of them.

[2L8]

If i have to choose between Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, i'll would choose LCS instend

don't get me wrong, VCS is a great prequel to VC but my personal problem is 85% of the game experience is mostly the same from VC only with a new 80's atheistic and the 15% are new content added that at least makes it unique

for me i like LCS more then VCS its because LCS has a unique late 90's vibe that i really like, alongside new improvements like more weapons, Liberty City finally having bikes, more side missions, fleshed out characters and story etc, stuff like these honestly makes LCS feel like a better GTA III

as for EFLC, play them both, they expend on the game lore (especially the diamonds, which like played 10% of the vanilla story), adding exclusive content (map, cars, weapons), fleshing out rarely recurring characters and overall having a different atmosphere and vibe to both of them

Edited January 31 by 2L8

[Ondr4H]

EFLC especially TBOGT fixes many gameplay issues that I had with GTA IV.

 

They are definitely worthy time and in my opinion, whole GTA IV trilogy beats GTA V .

[AC Schnitzer]

If You haven't played neither of them, You should right now. LCS and VCS were fantastic games and Episodes are legendarly good - one of the best DLCs ever made. 

[Pistol Bobcat]

An absolute yes to them all!

 

If you loved GTA III, Liberty City Stories is like an expansion pack (but in a good way) and tells a cool, simple mafioso style story that never takes itself too seriously, plus the music and humor for the late 90's was spot on.

 

Vice City Stories while arguably my least favourite 3D era game is still criminally underrated, the map looks gorgeous as ever, the soundtrack is on par if not almost better than the original (I feel this got really underestimated at the time for being on a PSP game) and I enjoyed the fact both story and humor were even darker, edgier than before, it was after all the end of the 3d era before they got more serious with GTA IV.

 

Play the Episodes from Liberty City either in the order they came out, or simultaneously while revisting IV makes you admire how they managed to craft a three way story so well while giving each a contrasting tone, IV and TLAD are gritty while TBOGT feels like rockstar saying "okay we're sorry for a little too much grounded gameplay, here's a golden helicopter, a solid gold uzi and a Noose Tank".

[DR Cherry Bomb]

LCS ain't my favorite GTA but if you want you can play it. My more recommended game is VCS though. GTA LCS is like GTA III + GTA VC, while GTA VCS is more like GTA SA + GTA VC. Notice the difference?

[Jeansowaty]

LCS - not so much, you can skip it and it won't hurt anything

VCS - if you liked VC you'll probably like VCS
EFLC - sure, but don't treat it as something separate from IV imo

[Nicki]

VCS is worth it - swim, fly heli and planes, recruit gang members, build your empire, gang wars, turf wars, better characters, shiny atmosphere etc

LCS - can’t do anything mentioned above not even recruiting Leone members even after Toni becomes made, whole game you’re just a running dog for a mob boss and in the end all you get as a reward is a Elvis Presley suit. 
EFLC - the best DLC to me, the humor, the dialogues, good character writing, fun and cool missions, side activities, night clubs, biker lifestyle, definitely worth playing.

[kobeni]

Yes.