The scourge of concerned parents and moral crusaders everywhere is back in the form of an expansion pack to one of the most highly anticipated games of the past year. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is the first of two planned packages of downloadable content for GTA IV, and although it offers a new cast of characters with some extra weapons and new music tracks, it basically contains the same carnage of its predecessor.

GTA IV was easily one of my favorite games of 2008. It wasn’t quite the perfect 10 that a lot of reviewers made it out to be, but it still had an incredibly immersive environment and a sympathetic hero, and it made me feel like I had an incredible amount of freedom in exploring Liberty City and its grimy urban setting. By the time I reached the end of the story, however, I felt as though I’d done just about everything there was to do. The Lost and Damned helped remedy this problem, if only temporarily.

The game drops you into the role of Johnny Klebitz, a high-ranking member of The Lost Motorcycle Club, and the story opens with great cinematic flair as Johnny and the boys ride their choppers to pick up Billy White, the club president who just got out of rehab. As soon as Billy gets back on his bike, you take control of Johnny as The Lost ride off to the clubhouse with Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” playing on the radio. That’s where the first major new feature comes in. Instead of following a colored line on the radar like in GTA IV, Johnny must follow Billy and stay in formation until the gang reaches its destination.

Little touches like that really made me feel like I was part of a gang, and it helped draw me in to the story. Practically everything that’s new about The Lost and Damned also reinforced this feeling. The game repeatedly encourages you to choose motorcycles instead of cars to get around, whether by putting motorcycles at the clubhouse or by having fellow Lost members bring you a bike when you call them on your cell phone. Instead of normal shotguns, Johnny uses a sawed-off shotgun that can be fired while riding a motorcycle — but not while driving a normal car. Certain missions require you to be riding a motorcycle before you can start them. Riding motorcycles is really at the heart of the experience, and I think the game makes the aesthetic work without making it feel confining or forced.

The game’s story is just as immersive. Johnny must deal with Billy’s impulsive and self-destructive leadership, a rival motorcycle gang, corrupt politicians, a junkie girlfriend and many other obstacles in his quest to position The Lost as the top gang in Liberty City. Along the way, there are multiple callbacks to the plot of GTA IV (some obvious, some obscure) that show a new perspective on some of the game’s key plot points.

I’m probably in the minority, but I really enjoy advancing the story in GTA games. I know lots of people play just to be able to wreak as much havoc as possible, but I like having some sort of context for my character’s actions. The Lost and Damned gave me that, but I don’t think it gave me enough. I knew from the outset that the expansion wouldn’t have the length of GTA IV, but the plot still feels only half finished.

During the course of the game, things fall apart around Johnny and The Lost, until one climactic violent confrontation basically solves all of his problems overnight. Roll credits. There was hardly any build-up of tension, and I couldn’t help but feel a little gypped. One moment, Johnny seems on the verge of self-destruction, and the next, he and The Lost ride triumphantly into the sunset. It was a bit jarring, and no other GTA game I’ve played suffered from this problem.

Still, it was a fun ride while it lasted, and this expansion did make a number of improvements over GTA IV. First and foremost, there are now midmission checkpoints. Let’s say you have to drive to a specific location, kill a group of enemies, then escape. If you die during the fight, the game will let you zip right back to the beginning of the fight instead of making you drive all the way there again. This was a major peeve of mine in GTA IV, and I’m glad to see it go the way of the dodo.

Also, the addition of a sawed-off shotgun was something I enjoyed a lot. It packs a heck of a punch at close proximity, making it invaluable during motorcycle combat. The game lets you partake in “gang war” side missions, which basically consist of Johnny and The Lost members riding their motorcycles into road wars with a group of enemies, and the sawed-off shotgun made the gang wars a breeze.

The game also lets you enter motorcycle races armed with a baseball bat to swat at your opponents, making it feel like a sequel to Road Rash. These races were probably my least favorite part of the game. Maybe I’m just bad at racing, but if I made so much as a single mistake, the computer-controlled racers would immediately pass me, and I would lose. Overall, it was a frustrating experience.

I know plenty of people who don’t care at all about the story in GTA games. They’re content to drive cars, shoot guns and generally cause mayhem to their hearts’ content. The Lost and Damned is not for them. I like having missions to complete, and I like the presence of a story. Before I got the expansion, GTA IV was collecting dust on my shelf. If Rockstar can deliver extra content that continues the quality of what it’s put out so far, it may never gather dust again.