Liberty City (Grand Theft Auto)



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 inGrand 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 inGrand 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.