Liberty City is a fictional city in Rockstar Games' video games series Grand Theft Auto, based primarily on several major cities including New York City. There have been different incarnations of the city that have appeared in various generations of the series.
The Grand Theft Auto rendition is portrayed as a city geographically similar to New York City, composed of two large islands. The Grand Theft Auto III rendition (also featured in Grand Theft Auto Advance, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and briefly in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) is portrayed as a more generic metropolitan city that is loosely based on New York City, but consists of elements of other American cities.[1] The Grand Theft Auto IV (also featured in The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars) rendition is portrayed as a caricature of New York City, with Liberty City's landmarks and geography based heavily on New York City's. Liberty City's four boroughs, as well as the adjacent state of Alderney correspond to four of New York City's five boroughs and New Jersey, respectively.
In every rendition of the city, Liberty City is primarily depicted as a large city with a sizable population (4 million in the Grand Theft Auto III rendition,[2] with around 8 million in Grand Theft Auto IV), featuring a complete transportation infrastructure of roads and railways, airports and elevated trains and is located on a geographical configuration of shorelines and islands, similar to that of New York City and Chicago. The city has been described as one suffering from crime and corruption, with the presence of organized crime, feuding street gangs, petty criminals, and rampant misconduct and corruption among city officials and law enforcement. Parts of Liberty City have also suffered major damage and loss from bombings, which are depicted as being orchestrated by local criminals. Some of these damages, however, have been repaired or resulted in complete redevelopment of an entire area.
Liberty City is also located in the same fictional universe as Vice City, Carcer City (Manhunt), Bullworth (Bully) and San Andreas, other locations portrayed in games throughout the series and other Rockstar Games related games.[citation needed] Liberty City is the most used fictional setting in the series: it is prominently featured in six of the ten stand-alone and one expansion pack Grand Theft Auto games, with a cameo appearance in a further two.
Grand Theft Auto rendition [edit]
The map of Liberty City, as depicted in
Grand Theft Auto. Notice the similarity to Manhattan Island.
Liberty City was first featured in the original Grand Theft Auto. The city's geography and alignment of districts was more true to that of New York City, featuring two major mainlands with a Manhattan-like central island (which contains a large park at the center, a reference to Central Park), and several smaller islands along a river of the city, with the mainlands and islands connected primarily by road bridges. Train services with lines running in the city were also present.
Different neighborhoods of New York City and New Jersey were also portrayed, with naming similar to their real-life counterparts. The list of Liberty City's neighborhoods is as followed (north to south):
Grand Theft Auto III era rendition [edit]
The second appearance of Liberty City is in Grand Theft Auto III, assuming a significantly different design from its original version. The location, circa late-autumn 2001, is often referred to as "the worst place in America" by in-game literature, for its rampant crime and corruption; gang wars, theft, and murder are endemic to everyday life to the point where police intervention has become nearly negligible.[3][4] In addition to its appearance alongside Vice City and the state of San Andreas, the city is also located near Carcer City, which is featured in Manhunt, another video game developed by Rockstar Games. Little is known about Liberty City's early history, although dialog exists in GTA III claiming that the city was "a church, a cow pasture and three houses when the telephone was invented",[5] and a map of the city provided in the packaging of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories claims that the city is celebrating its 200th anniversary in 1998,[6] suggesting that the city was founded in 1798. The population of the city is given at four million, as stated in the game's manual.[2] The GTA III website mentions that the city is twinned with Beirut.
Grand Theft Auto IV era rendition [edit]
The fifth appearance of Liberty City is in Grand Theft Auto IV, assuming a very different design that is based much more closely on New York City than previous renditions. This new rendition of Liberty City is larger in scope than any previous version, with highly advanced detail and a greater degree of realism.
References [edit]
External links [edit]
- GTA rendition
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