Liberty City (HD Universe)

"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


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.

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
Crime is rife in Liberty City, most likely brought about by the large number of gangs in Liberty, each fighting for control of the city and will use any means possible. The Commission is an association of all the major gangs in the city, including the Five Families (the Gambetti Family, the Ancelotti Family, the Pavano Family, the Messina Family and the Lupisella Family. Towards the end of GTA IV, the Pegorino Family are trying to gain a place in The Commission, but are inevitable going to fail as the Five Families think the Pegorino boss Jimmy Pegorino is a joke (or a "fat, fucking joke" as Niko Bellic put it).

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

Liberty City State
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 &mdash; Saint's Row. All the streets on each island mean something. For example, most streets in Broker are named after famous cowboys

Transportation
The main form of transport throughout Liberty City is by road, there is a prominent freeway in each borough, with two in Algonquin and another stretching from Broker to Dukes. A bridge connects each island to Algonquin, with two from Algonquin to Broker and another from Dukes to Bohan.

There is also an extensive subway system, connecting the many areas of Broker, Dukes, Bohan and Algonquin with two main routes. One serves inner Algonquin and Bohan, the other serves outer Algonquin and Broker/Dukes.

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

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."