The release of GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has allowed players to experience GTA 3's Liberty City with an unprecedented level of detail, and this graphical overhaul highlights the differences between GTA 3 and GTA 4's unique Liberty Cities. Liberty City first appeared as a parody of New York City in the original Grand Theft Auto. Another iteration of Liberty City then appeared in GTA 3, the first 3D title in the series, and Rockstar was inspired by New York as well as other East Coast cities.
The same version of the city served as the setting for the later spin-off Liberty City Stories, but the game being a prequel meant that there were some changes to the landscape and appearance. Finally, the third iteration of Liberty City, based even more explicitly on New York City, formed the open world of GTA 4. And it would later appear in expansions and the mobile entry Chinatown Wars.
Outside of obvious graphical differences, the two versions of Liberty City found in GTA 3 and GTA 4 look so different because they exist in separate timelines within the GTA series. The Liberty City seen in GTA 3 and Liberty City Stories is part of the "3D Universe," which includes San Andreas, Vice City, and Vice City Stories. This Liberty City is also seen in the 3D Universe title GTA Advance. Conversely, GTA 4's Liberty City is part of the "HD Universe," which also includes GTA V and its version of San Andreas. This means that while GTA 3 and Liberty City Stories shared the same Liberty City with some minor changes, the cities in GTA 3 and GTA 4 are not at all the same. The layout and district names are completely different, not unlike how GTA 5 and San Andreas have different maps and versions of places such as Grove Street and Los Santos.
GTA 4's Liberty City is More Faithful to New York Than GTA 3's Version
While GTA 3 mixed and matched various real-world locations to create its districts, GTA 4 more closely followed New York City's actual layout, and the game's various boroughs match their counterparts in the real NYC. For example, Algonquin is Manhattan, Dukes is Queens, and Bohan is The Bronx. GTA 3, on the other hand, blends multiple locations (some outside of New York) to create in-game districts such as Portland and Shoreside Vale. While GTA 4 has its own "Statue of Happiness," The tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks soon before GTA 3's release were partly responsible for some of the departures from the real New York, as Rockstar made alterations such as changing the colors of the Liberty City police cars so as not to be identical to what actual NYPD officers drove.
While the atmospheres and location specifics are different, many fans agree that both GTA 3 and GTA 4 are among the best in the franchise. Both versions of Liberty City are iconic video game locations, and despite the differences between the games, there are some similarities. For example, Belleville Park in GTA 3 and Middle Park in GTA 4 are both modelled after NYC's Central Park.
While it seems highly unlikely that a future GTA game would return to GTA 3's map, GTA 4's Liberty City could reappear if Rockstar returns to the HD Universe. After all, roughly the same number of years passed between the releases of GTA 3 and GTA 4, and it has been an entire thirteen years since GTA 4. There have been many changes to the world in that time that could inform a new release, but it's possible that Rockstar could take us to a past decade for a historical version of Liberty City in the next Grand Theft Auto title.