Liberty City in GTA IV Era

Revision as of 01:11, 6 February 2009 by gtw>Sean93 (→‎Maps)

CITY
Liberty City
File:LCGTAIV.jpg
Appearance(s): Grand Theft Auto IV
State: Liberty State
Mayor: Julio Ochoa
Population: 8,000,000
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"With more sights, shows, restaurants, bars, museums, shopping and borderline psychopaths than you can shake a shotgun at, there is no place quite like Liberty City. Where else can you get sworn at by a senior citizen, accosted by a crackhead, propositioned by a prostitute, and strip-searched by a police officer, all before breakfast? Discover the history, culture and diversity that make a booming metropolis the capital of the world, at least according to the over-caffeinated locals. We encourage you to explore Liberty City's four boroughs and it's islands, each with it's own distinct atmosphere and personality. There is always something for everyone. There is also Liberty City's sister, Alderney State..."

Overview

File:Sunset.jpg
Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV, looking across to Algonquin from a park in Broker.

Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV has been remodeled to look much more like New York City compared to its Grand Theft Auto III renditions. The city has been added more detail, and personality. Many places mock the real-life New York City landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, or the Empire State Building.

This rendition of Liberty City has versions of four of the five boroughs of New York City, plus New Jersey. Brooklyn has become Broker, Manhattan is Algonquin, Queens is Dukes, Bronx is Bohan and New Jersey is Alderney. The only borough not to be recreated in the game is Staten Island. The area code for Liberty City is 948.

As of 2008, the population of Liberty City is 8,000,000. The current mayor is Julio Ochoa while the Deputy Mayor is Bryce Dawkins. Thomas Stubbs III is Liberty City's congressman. The time setting is apparently early-late autumn 2008, evidenced by the color of the trees and ingame dialogue.

The area of the city is compressed in size (as seen with the Empire State Building's proximity to the Broker Bridge in the final shot), and the various landmarks are placed much closer to each other than in real life. The entire map is smaller than that of San Andreas, but is immensely more detailed. This makes Liberty City in GTA IV the most lifelike city to feature in any Grand Theft Auto game yet. From the massive buildings and large mass of traffic on every block of Algonquin, to residential areas of Bohan, Rockstar has successfully compromised quantity for quality, although the lack of pedestrians in normally crowded places such as Star Junction has drawn criticism.

City Information

Locals

Liberty City is an incredibly diverse city and so are its neighborhoods and residents. Such examples of diverse neighborhoods include the large Russian, Italian-American and African-American populations found in various neighborhoods across the city. Liberty City's residents are known for their sarcastic attitude. The name for a Liberty City resident is called a "Libertonian".

Crime

Don't be fooled by the glitz and glamour of Algonquin's bright lights and skyscrapers - organized crime and street gangs remain rife in all of Liberty City's boroughs. There is a famous headbutt used amongst many citizens, known as the "Bohan kiss".

Police

This is the city where anything goes, so long as you don't get caught. There has been a crackdown on crime in recent years and the police are everywhere in the city these days. The force responsible for patrolling and maintaining order in Liberty City and Alderney is the Liberty City Police Department or LCPD.

Nutrition

Much of Liberty City's catering scene comprises of fast food chains and hot dog stands. Two of the most dominant fast food chains within the city are the Cluckin' Bell and Burger Shot franchises. Their restaurants can be found in several locations across the city. Hot Dog vendors can also be found in multiple locations around Liberty City, particularly around Middle Park.

Liberty City Metro Area

Liberty City Metro area is comprised of the four boroughs within Liberty City and the state of Alderney, including Alderney City.


LIBERTY CITY

AlderneyAlgonquinBohanBrokerDukes
The five boroughs of Liberty City in GTA IV

1: Alderney (New Jersey) 2: Algonquin (Manhattan) 3: Bohan (Bronx)
4: Broker (Brooklyn) 5: Dukes (Queens)

State of Liberty

Image Borough Name Archetype's Name Description
File:Panorama.jpg Algonquin Manhattan Self-proclaimed center of everything
A bustling commercial district full of towering skyscrapers and a varied composition of cultures. Here holds various famous landmarks, such as Star Junction (Time Square) and Middle Park (Central Park).
File:Hove Beach.jpg Broker Brooklyn Churches, hipsters and housing projects
A distinct ex-city on its own, it maintains a distinct character apart from the rest of the city. This is the borough in which Niko initially arrives to Liberty City.
File:Hill.jpg Dukes Queens Multicultural ghettoes
An old ethnically-diverse predominantly-residential area, it is the location of the baseball stadium that is home to the Liberty City Swingers, and an Irish pub, the Steinway Beer Garden.
File:Rail.jpg Bohan Bronx Practically upstate
The birthplace of the culture of rap, hip-hop, and drugs. Largely consists of expansive run down housing developments and is home to the St.Mary's Community Project led by Manny Escuela.

State of Alderney

Image State Name Archetype's Name Description
File:Sprunk Sign.JPG Alderney New Jersey Strip malls and condos
A run-down industrial dockland area. Home of the Sprunk brewery.

In addition Liberty City has three smaller islands: Charge Island, Colony Island, and Happiness Island, all within the Borough of Algonquin.

Sightseeing

So many things to see and people to do - deciding where to go can be daunting task in Liberty City. From Middle Park to Star Junction to Firefly Island, this vibrant city is jam-packed with famous sights and landmarks. The Zirconium Building, Grand Easton Terminal, Civic Citadel, Happiness Island and Rotterdam Tower are pieces of classic architecture not to be missed. L.C. also boasts some of the best shopping in the world, so leave some time and room on your credit card to pick up tourist gifts. Many New York landmarks are stylistically replicated.

Streets

Every street in the new Liberty City has a name. Some notable streets include Stillwater Avenue. This is a reference to Stilwater the city in another free-roam game in the same vein as GTA — Saint's Row. All the streets on each island mean something. For example, most streets in Broker are named after famous cowboys

Transportation

File:Booth Tunnel.jpg
The entrance to the Booth Tunnel.

The main form of transport throughout Liberty City is by road, with bridges and tunnels linking all of the four boroughs and Alderney together. Some currently known ones are the Broker and Algonquin Bridges linking Broker with Algonquin and the Booth Tunnel connecting Algonquin with Alderney. There is also an extensive subway system, connecting the many areas of Broker, Dukes, Bohan and Algonquin together.

File:Train.jpg
Liberty City


Helicopters can be flown either by the player or by the game when participating in Helitours and Liberty City has an international airport named Francis International, though the aircraft are not flyable by the player in the game. Boats are also a method of traveling between the islands although the game does not feature a public ferry system as in Liberty City Stories.

Liberty City also features a metropolitan subway system that runs through all four boroughs, and has several main lines. An Inner Alqonquin Line leads into the Bohan Lines, and the Outer Alqonquin Line leads to the East Island (Broker and Dukes) Lines.

Liberty City also has many bridges and freeways. The Liberty City Map offers several expressways to travel easier through the city. The Longest of these to be the Broker-Dukes Expressway that extends along the Eastern Shore of East Island (Island with Broker and Dukes). It begins in Hove Beach when you enter Broker from the Broker Bridge, and extends through Firefly Projects, South Slopes, Schottler, Beechwood City, Francis International Airport, Meadows Park where it finally ends by running into Dukes Boulevard from the North.

Another Major Freeway is the Union Drive East Freeway that extends along the Humboldt River in Algonquin. Beggining from outside the east end of the Castle Tunnel and extending all the way to Topaz Street in Lancaster, the Union Drive East Freeway offers quick transportation and exits to Garnet Street, President Avenue (that leads into Colony Island), the Civilization Comittee, Manganeese Street, and East Borough Bridge to Charge Island.

Union Drive West along the West River can be condsidered a freeway although it's more of an avenue extending from Castle Tunnel to Wardite Street in Northwood. Union Drive West is used when traveling to Castle Garden City, the Rotterdam Tower, Western Alqonquin, the Hickey Bridge (George Washington Bridge) that connects Liberty City and Alderney City.

The Alqonquin-Dukes Expressway is used to transport from Midtown Alqonquin to the Airport and on the way. The Expressway begins when Kunzite Street in Star Junction runs into the Alqonquin Bridge into Dukes. The Expressway features exits at Dukes Boulevard to get access to Broker and areas in Dukes West of Meadows Park, which include East Island City, Steinway, and Cerveza Heights as well as Boabo. The next exit is at Saratoga Avenue, where going south it runs into the Broker-Dukes Expressway and north to Eastern Dukes Neigborhoods such as Willis and Meadow Hills. The Last exit is where it ends at the Broker-Dukes Expressway and also has ramps to get access to the Airport Circle.

Another major Parkway is the Northern Expressway and Boulevard in Bohan which run into eachother. After entering Bohan from Alqonquin, the Boulevard (named Boulevard) begins and runs through Boulevard (Neighborhood) and Fortside. After the intersection at Leavenworth Avenue, it turns into the Northern Expressway that runs around Eastern Bohan. The Expressway runs through Northern Gardens, Little Bay and ends in Industrial. The Expressway does not have exits, instead it had intersections.

The last major expressway in Liberty City really doesnt have much of name, but is composed of the three-way East Borough Bridge which runs directly on top of Charge Island and features and exit down to to the Charge Island Industrial complex. South of the exit to the Alqonquin extension of the bridge is a toll booth, which charges a $5 fare. Escaping the fare by speeding through the booth, breaking the lever results in a one-star wanted level.

Not an expressway but a major transportation highway is the Booth Tunnel which extends from Frankfort Avenue, Purgatory to Asahara Rd in Alderney City.

On the Alderney side of the West River the only major freeway is the huge Plumbers Skyway which is elevated at a great height from its Boyden Ave enterance to it's western Acter part of the highway. The Highway nearly circles and encompasses Residential southern Alderney. The Highway begins directly after the Hickey Bridge and circles Alderney and ends at the intersection of Asahara Avenue and Boyden Avenue. Other than it's Rand Ave intersection directly after the Hickey Bridge, the massive Skyway has 5 exits and the longest highway in the game. Its first exist in on accesible while going on the Outer Loop, leads to Manzano Road, Leftwood. The next exit is only accesible on the inner Loop that intersects Aspdin Drive in Berchem. The next exit is only an exit and no enterance to Western Tudor. The next exit is an exit from the Outer Loop and Enterance to the Inner Loop at Praetorian Ave in the Acter Industrial Park. The last exit is the opposite and an exit going on from Inner Loop, and enterance to the Outer Loop in Eastern Tudor and near Normandy, Alderney; and Port Tudor, Alderney.

Choice of City

When asked why Rockstar Games decided to re-use Liberty City, Dan Houser, Vice President of the company said: "[New York City] is an environment we felt had never been done to the level we were envisioning it in a video game. From looking at all of the locations, this was the one that really stood out to us, and really had that impact. It has

"The texturing of the Algonquin streets, which are filled with crater-like potholes and occasional glimpses of the brick used in a world gone by, are greatly varied in design and something you can't tear your eye from. The visual makeup of the city was something we could capture real well and really understand the minute aspects of its personality. Trying to put that into a videogame is something that we think is unique to the video game medium. It was a way that we could capture some aspects of the experience of living there that you couldn't put into a film, you couldn't put into a TV show, and you couldn't put into a book."

"A big part of New York life is walking around the streets and meeting lunatics. That's something that we definitely tried to put into the game. We are trying to give it that life and difference between the neighborhoods and the difference between the kinds of people. We are tying to capture that Capital of the World aspect of New York."


"It's not the full city, it's an approximation thereof. We make a city that feels like the real thing, but is perfectly tuned for gameplay in the broadest sense. The world is not designed to be a video game. We are trying to make a video game that feels like the world, but still plays like a video game. The design of the city and the missions that unfold within it are designed hand-in-hand and complement each other perfectly. Everything in this world is here for a reason, where it is directly tied to gameplay or simply there to create atmosphere."


Bridges

Maps

See also