Key Takeaways

• Cities play a vital role in Rockstar Games, bringing characters to life.
• Rockstar’s attention to detail in city design showcases their dedication.
• 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 now, pioneering some of the best open world games available for gamers today, with a particular emphasis on gritty realism, violence, crime, and high narrative stakes. There are few titles that have managed to capture spaces in open-world games like Rockstar Games, though many have tried, and it seldom happens that players will engage with an open world in the GTA or Red Dead Redemption series and find it lacking.

One of the many common threads among Rockstar Games, besides the aforementioned crime, violence, crime, etc., is the presence of cities as major hubs of activity. Rockstar features plenty of incredible characters, and they all have some kind of relationship with the city and world that houses them. Among all of Rockstar’s urban hubs, these are the greatest, most vital cities that do the best job of supporting the story Rockstar wants to tell.

8 Alderney City

A Business District With Many Mob Territories

Alderny City is a melting pot in Grand Theft Auto 4 in more ways than one. It’s home to many mob territories, all of whom are frequently clashing against one another, and most notably, is where the Korean mob is stationed, using the Korean enclave within Alderney as their base of operations.

Alderney City is a relatively minor area in Grand Theft Auto 4, but seeing the detail that goes into this location, from the mix of businesses that make up the area to the ways that the population will change to reflect the local cultures, shows how much 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 Story

Escalera sits within Nuevo Paraiso as a tense, somber city, divided across many lines. Rebellion and government forces often clash nearby, and the tiered structure of the city correlates to the colossal gap in wealth between the richest and poorest citizens.

This city has an expertly crafted atmosphere, players can feel the melancholy that tends to pervade the lower areas where all the hard work occurs, slowly dissipating as they head upwards, closer to the wealthier parts of town where the rich accrue profits from commerce and crime.

6 Las Venturas

San Andreas’ Own City Of Sin

Even year after release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas remains one of the greatest games to come out of Rockstar Studios, featuring a level of creativity and freedom of exploration that really wouldn’t be met again until GTA 5.

Exclusive to this title’s depiction of the broader San Andreas state is Las Venturas, a glitzy and sleazy riff of Las Vegas with plenty of vices to engage with. It’s a fair departure from the often grim sights more common to Los Santos, but it still comes with its fair share of crime.

5 1947 Los Angeles

L.A. Noire Does An Excellent Job Realizing This Place And Time

L.A. Noire is a fascinating departure from the standard fare 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, playing as detective Cole Phelps, phenomenally voice acted by Aaron Staton.

The game’s main draw is not necessarily its open world, but its emphasis on detective work and interrogations. Nonetheless, the game offers a tremendous rendition of a Los Angeles from a different time, functionally a whole new world compared to the Los Angeles inspired Los Santos that more closely mirrors modernity.

4 Saint Denis

The Jewel Of Lemoyne Occupies A Fascinating Geographical And Narrative Place In-Game

In Red Dead Redemption 2, there is this juxtaposition between the freedom and danger of individualism and the safety but rigidity and corruption of society. As Arthur Morgan, players see the world through the eyes of people who live on the fringes of society, sticking to small towns and camps in the wilderness.

Saint Denis, however, is held in stark contrast to the untamed beauty of this game’s three states. It’s a bustling industrial hub occupying an advantageous position on the riverbank, complete with electricity and a booming population. Not only is it as beautiful (in a distinct way) as the rest of this game, but it’s an almost surreal experience seeing towering buildings and tram networks after hacking it out in the wild for weeks on end.

3 Los Santos

A Sunny City With A Gruesome Underside

Grand Theft Auto 5 has a host of stunning locations for the player to stumble upon, but the thing that ties them all together is the dazzling city of Los Santos. Beautifully realized, there is always something to do in this city that manages to balance looking polished and manicured while also hiding untold levels of gruesomeness beneath.

The city is a potent driving force for the often tragic story of GTA 5 and San Andreas, and anyone who has played at least one of these games has a fond experience of the city to go along with it.

2 Vice City

A Perfect Representation Of 80s Excess

Vice City is a polished, pastel mess. Ominous bogs, stylish beaches, glamorous dockside bars, and sprawling city streets all play host to one of the best games ever produced by Rockstar, and Vice City has a personality like no other.

Luxury apartments and imposing high rises compete with one another across both the cities’ major islands, and Tommy Vercetti will never run out of things to do on both sides of Ocean Bay.

1 Liberty City

It’s Hard To Compete With LC

Only one city has the promise, the inspiration, and the symbolic grandeur to eclipse all others. Drawn to Liberty City with dreams of a fresh start, gamers get to experience, in real time, Niko Belic coming to terms with just how false that dream is.

But part of what makes GTA 4 so good is that Liberty City remains an iconic location, even as Niko gets a crash course in the failings of the American Dream. The city is grimy and dirty, and everyone is mean, and yet there’s such an inexplicable draw to it. It might just be the best representation of New York in any video game.