The best cities in Rockstar's games

Key insights

• Cities play an important role in Rockstar Games as they bring characters to life.
• Rockstar's attention to detail in urban design shows their commitment.
• Each city in their games, from Liberty to Vice, offers unique experiences.

Rockstar Games has been a fixture in the video game scene for decades, creating some of the best open-world games available to gamers today, with a particular emphasis on gritty realism, violence, crime and high narrative stakes. There are few titles that have managed to conquer spaces in open world games like Rockstar Games, although many have tried, and it is rare for players to engage with an open world in the games GTA or Red Dead Redemption series and find it lacking.

One of the many similarities of Rockstar Games, in addition to the aforementioned crime, violence, criminality, etc., is the presence of cities as important centers of activity. There are many incredible characters in Rockstar, and they all have some connection to the city and the world in which they live. Of all Rockstar's urban centers, these are the ones largest and most vital cities that best support the story Rockstar wants to tell.

8 Alderney City

A business district with lots of mob territory

Alderny City is a melting pot Grand Theft Auto 4 in more ways than one. It is home to many mafia territories that often compete against each other, and most importantly, it is where the Korean mafia is based, using the Korean enclave in Alderney as a base of operations.

Alderney City is a relatively small area in Grand Theft Auto 4but when you look at the details that go into this place, from the mix of businesses that make up the area to the way the population changes to reflect local cultures, it becomes apparent just how much The effort Rockstar puts into their worlds and why their games tend to have a long turnaround time.

7 Escalera

A dangerous place with a powerful history

Located in the middle of Nuevo Paraiso, Escalera is a tense, gloomy town divided into many lines. Rebellion and government forces often clash nearby, and the city's tiered structure is linked to the huge wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens.

This city has an expertly crafted atmosphere, players can feel the melancholy that exists in the lower areas where all the hard work takes place, slowly dissipating as they move upwards, closer to the wealthier parts of the city where the The rich make profits from trade and crime.

6 Las Venturas

San Andreas' own City of Sin

Even a year after publication Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas remains one of Rockstar Studios' greatest games, offering a level of creativity and freedom of exploration that would truly never be matched again GTA 5.

Exclusive to this title's depiction of the wider state of San Andreas is Las Venturas, a glitzy and seedy version of Las Vegas with plenty of vices to indulge in. It's a nice departure from the often gritty sights common in Los Santos, but there's still a lot of crime.

5 1947 Los Angeles

LA Noire does an excellent job of realizing this place and time

LA Noire is a fascinating departure from the norm among Rockstar titles. Okay, there's still an urban open world with crime and violence, but this time players are on the other side of the law and take on the role of detective Cole Phelps, whose phenomenal voice is played by Aaron Staton.

The game's main draw isn't necessarily its open world, but rather its emphasis on detective work and interrogations. Nonetheless, the game offers a great representation of a Los Angeles from another time, functionally a completely new world compared to the Los Angeles-inspired Los Santos, which is more reflective of modern times.

4 Saint Denis

The Jewel of Lemoyne occupies a fascinating geographical and narrative place in the game

In Red Dead Redemption 2There is this contrast between the freedom and danger of individualism and the security but rigidity and corruption of society. As Arthur Morgan, players see the world through the eyes of people living on the fringes of society, living in small towns and camps in the wilderness.

However, Saint Denis stands in stark contrast to the untamed beauty of this game's tri-states. It is a busy industrial center with an advantageous riverside location, electricity access and a booming population. Not only is it just as beautiful (in a special way) as the rest of this game, but seeing towering buildings and tram networks after weeks of trying it out in the wilderness is an almost surreal experience.

3 Los Santos

A sunny city with a grisly underbelly

Grand Theft Auto 5 offers the player a variety of breathtaking locations to stumble across, but the thing that connects them all is the dazzling city of Los Santos. Beautifully executed, there's always something going on in this city that manages to look neat and tidy while hiding countless atrocities underneath.

The city is a strong driving force for the often tragic history of GTA 5 And San Andreasand everyone who has played at least one of these games has had a wonderful city experience.

2 Vice City

A perfect representation of 80s excess

Vice City is a polished, pastel-colored mess. Menacing moors, stylish beaches, glamorous harborside bars and sprawling city streets are the setting for one of the best games ever produced by Rockstar, and Vice City has a personality like no other.

Luxury apartments and stately high-rises compete on the two cities' large islands, and Tommy Vercetti will never be short of things to do on either side of Ocean Bay.

1 Freedom City

It's hard to compete with LC

Only one city has the promise, the inspiration and the symbolic greatness to outshine all others. Players drawn to Liberty City with dreams of a new beginning will see Niko Belic come to terms with how wrong that dream is in real time.

But part of what matters GTA 4 What's so good is that Liberty City remains an iconic place, even as Niko gets a crash course in the flaws of the American dream. The city is dirty and dirty and everyone is mean, and yet it has such an inexplicable appeal. It might be the best representation of New York in any video game.