Rank all 5 GTA Maps

[The Journey]

My list:

1. Liberty City (GTA IV)

2. San Andreas (GTA SA)

3. Southern San Andreas (GTA V)

4. Liberty City (GTA III)

5. Vice City (GTA VC)

 

Had a hard time picking between HD Liberty City and 3D San Andreas for #1, went with LC because it’s so detailed.
 

Hoping Leonida will take #1 spot  12 years, it better

Edited March 17, 2024 by The Journey

[Gamerwind]

San Andreas is still the best GTA map in overall size &  geographical diversity and 3 unique cities with their own airports.

 

HD era LC & LS ranked the same both have incredible amount of details but still missing something 

3D era LC & VC aren't much detailed and feels very tiny map 

 

If GTA VI Leonida could replicate San Andreas and give us multiple cities and airport with very detailed and lots of interiors  it would possibly the best GTA map ever made.

[The Journey]

1 hour ago, Gamerwind said:

San Andreas is still the best GTA map in overall size &  geographical diversity and 3 unique cities with their own airports.

 

HD era LC & LS ranked the same both have incredible amount of details but still missing something 

3D era LC & VC aren't much detailed and feels very tiny map 

 

If GTA VI Leonida could replicate San Andreas and give us multiple cities and airport with very detailed and lots of interiors  it would possibly the best GTA map ever made.

I feel like GTA V San Andreas ranks below HD LC and 3D San Andreas, because the city isn’t as good as LC, and the countryside isn’t as good as 3D San Andreas.
 

3D San Andreas and HD Liberty City are pretty much equal tho IMO. 3D SA because of the scale and diversity, and HD LC because of the detail and soul. If Leonida mixes both of these together it’ll be the best map 100%, and it already looks like it from the trailer.

Edited March 17, 2024 by The Journey

[cant remember]

15 hours ago, The Journey said:

My list:

1. Liberty City (GTA IV)

2. San Andreas (GTA SA)

3. Southern San Andreas (GTA V)

4. Liberty City (GTA III)

5. Vice City (GTA VC)

 

Had a hard time picking between HD Liberty City and 3D San Andreas for #1, went with LC because it’s so detailed.
 

Hoping Leonida will take #1 spot  12 years, it better

My ranking is the same. I love to hate Vice City's map.

[Jezus Holy Christ]

1. San Andreas

2. Vice City

3. Liberty City

4. Liberty City and Alderney

5. Los Santos and Blaine County

[The Journey]

17 minutes ago, Jezus Holy Christ said:

1. San Andreas

2. Vice City

3. Liberty City

4. Liberty City and Alderney

5. Los Santos and Blaine County

Bro how u gonna put 3D LC over HD LC

[MCHAVAO]

My Rank

 

Map Details:

1. Liberty City (GTA IV)

2. San Andreas (GTA V)

3. San Andreas (GTA SA)

4. Vice City (GTA VC)

5. Liberty City (GTA III)

 

Variety (Downtown, Country Area, Beaches):

1. San Andreas (GTA SA)

2. San Andreas (GTA V)

3. Liberty City (GTA IV)

4. Vice City (GTA VC)

5. Liberty City (GTA III)

 

Vibes:

1. Vice City (GTA VC)

2. San Andreas (GTA V)

3. San Andreas (GTA SA)

4. Liberty City (GTA IV)

5. Liberty City (GTA III)

 

3D maps can be less detailed than the HD but they make part of the childhood from the most of the GTA fans.

[Jezus Holy Christ]

14 minutes ago, The Journey said:

Bro how u gonna put 3D LC over HD LC

 

3D Liberty City is still special to me for how alien and unreal it feels. Dysfunctional ass city. There's no way for it to exist in reality. The general vibe I get from III is closer to games like Half-Life, Silent Hill, Manhunt, and older 3D games where the map is very clearly "a game map". It's so uncanny and eerie and wrong that it has no business being as immersive as it is.

 

HD Liberty City is just NYC.

[The Journey]

24 minutes ago, Jezus Holy Christ said:

 

3D Liberty City is still special to me for how alien and unreal it feels. Dysfunctional ass city. There's no way for it to exist in reality. The general vibe I get from III is closer to games like Half-Life, Silent Hill, Manhunt, and older 3D games where the map is very clearly "a game map". It's so uncanny and eerie and wrong that it has no business being as immersive as it is.

 

HD Liberty City is just NYC.

That’s true, it does feel more like NYC in LCS tho but the creepy vibe it has in III can be explained by Toni destroying half the city 3 years earlier

 

The prequel treatment the whole ass city got in LCS makes 3D LC more interesting.

Edited March 18, 2024 by The Journey

[LitlleKuba]

So far because I’m sure VC and Leonida from HD universe will be the best

1. LC HD Universe

2. SA HD Universe

3. VC 3D Universe

4. SA 3D Universe

5. LC 3D Universe

 

 

[Pashaforever]

1.HD Universe LC

2.3D Universe SA

3.HD Universe SA

4.3D Universe LC

5.3D Universe VC

 

I might edit this after GTA VI releases.

[TaylorSwiftDies2038]

Here I go.

 

5. 3D Universe Vice City - Honestly, I found this city to be kinda boring in some ways. Yeah, Vice Beach is fairly decently done enough and is interesting to explore, but Mainland Vice feels rushed and there's so much empty space. Where's the highway system? Why are the roads such a pain in the ass to traverse?

 

4. 3D Universe Liberty City - I love this map so much. The vibe and feeling of this city is wonderful. But it's small and rudimentary, and there are some questionable decisions (such as dedicating such a huge space for Francis Int'l).

 

3. HD Universe Los Santos/Blaine County - So much potential, yet there are lots of strange spatial decisions, and outside of Los Santos the map isn't that great. Additionally, Los Santos itself isn't very well-designed and feels like it was made for an I Spy book. It's still a fun map with lots to do, I feel the potential is wasted with so many questionable spatial decisions (such as the relatively useless airfield in Blaine County outside of Trevor, Grapeseed, Paleto Bay not getting enough space, the lack of suburban sprawl, etc.)

 

2. HD Liberty City - Liberty City feels a lot more complete in comparison; each borough has a distinct vibe, there's a good variety in areas, most of the big landmarks are covered (with some glaring exceptions *cough* Yankee Stadium), and Alderney is nearby which feels like another part of the country. I wish there was some Northeast countryside, but this city was well done enough.

 

1. 3D San Andreas - The most variety, and the most interesting. Even if the shape and design is really awkward by today's standards. Los Santos in this version, in some ways, has more character compared to its HD counterpart. San Fierro could've been done better but it's interesting enough and feels a lot like the "Full House" San Francisco of the late 80s/early 90s. Las Venturas is also a well-designed city that isn't too tacky, and the countryside is well designed so much that I feel like I'm traversing a huge state.

[Krymefull]

1. 3D San Andreas

2. HD Liberty City

3. 3D Vice City

4. 3D Liberty City

5. HD San Andreas

Edited March 20, 2024 by AnythingGoner

[Gtaman_92]

1. 3D Vice City

2. HD Liberty City

3. HD Los Santos/San Andreas

4. 3D San Andreas

5. 3D Liberty City

Edited March 21, 2024 by Gtaman_92

[Guest]

1. 3D San Andreas
2. HD Liberty City
3. HD Los Santos & Blaine County
4. 3D Liberty City
5. 3D Vice City 

3D San Andreas and HD Liberty City nail the depth. Vice City is just big meh, not only it's too small, they skip out so many interesting parts of Miami. Glad we'll see a more accurate representation in GTA VI. Lets see where it'll be ranked.

[XNOR]

1. HD Liberty City
2. 3D San Andreas
3. 3D Liberty City
4. HD Southern San Andreas
5. 3D Vice City

I'm a sucker for concrete jungles, so I rate both renditions of LC high. While I'm not a fan of the deserts or the boondocks, 3D San Andreas' geographic diversity and attention to detail is pretty much revolutionary (imo). HD SSA and 3D Vice City were poorly designed tbh. Lots of wasted space.

 

[The Journey]

5 hours ago, XNOR said:

1. HD Liberty City
2. 3D San Andreas
3. 3D Liberty City
4. HD Southern San Andreas
5. 3D Vice City

I'm a sucker for concrete jungles, so I rate both renditions of LC high. While I'm not a fan of the deserts or the boondocks, 3D San Andreas' geographic diversity and attention to detail is pretty much revolutionary (imo). HD SSA and 3D Vice City were poorly designed tbh. Lots of wasted space.

 

I still rate HD San Andreas above 3D Liberty City, because it’s small and Shoreside Vale feels awkward and mostly wasted space, I agree with the rest tho.

[.Ryan.]

1) San Andreas 

2) Liberty City/Alderney

3) 3D Liberty City

4) Vice City

5) Los Santos/Blaine County

[KevinR1990]

From worst to best:

• 3D Universe Vice City. The games set there had a lot of good things going for them, but the map design wasn't one of them. Only the beach side was any good, and even that was powered more by its retro '80s style than anything. The mainland was lifeless, and pairing a much greater focus on water with a player character who still can't swim was a baffling design decision. At the very least, it should've had areas based on the Everglades and the Keys to add some geographic diversity to the map, and Tommy Vercetti should've been able to swim.
• 3D Universe Liberty City. Same problem that Vice City had, which was that the earlier areas felt like they had a lot more effort put into them than the later ones, though not as pronounced. Shoreside Vale in particular felt like an afterthought, like Rockstar didn't know how to create a realistic suburban environment and just had a bunch of roads running all over the place. That said, Staunton Island was still fun to play around in, especially in Liberty City Stories where Fort Staunton became a proper Little Italy-style neighborhood and added some more life to that part of the map.
• HD Universe Southern San Andreas. A decade of overexposure in Online has probably tainted it for me a bit and made me more aware of its faults, but it still does a really good job of capturing a particular Southern California vibe, and the Los Santos side of the map is very good, even if it should've had a better representation of East LA. That said, while Blaine County is beautiful, it needed a lot more work to make it interesting to play in, especially in Paleto Bay, which I've always felt shouldn't have been the podunk cow town it is in the game but a proper small city akin to Santa Barbara or Monterey with a beach-town atmosphere. Had there been a second city on the north end of the map (not as big as Los Santos, but at least somewhere with more to do that wasn't in the city), there likely would've been a lot fewer complaints about Blaine County.
• 3D Universe San Andreas. The seams are a lot more visible with the remaster revealing just how much that map depended on fog to cover up the actual distances between locations, but it still did a great job crafting three good-to-great renditions of real-life cities, as well as countryside in between that felt like you were in the actual wilderness as well as the PS2 would allow.
• HD Universe Liberty City. When it comes to its rendition of New York City, I have very few complaints, mostly superficial. Rockstar understood the assignment here, and they nailed it. I'd take some points off for its rendition of New Jersey (as somebody who grew up in the Garden State, I always felt they kind of botched it and went for the most obvious Sopranos references), but it's not enough to take away from everything it did right.

Edited April 2, 2024 by KevinR1990

[TaylorSwiftDies2038]

On 4/2/2024 at 1:17 PM, KevinR1990 said:

From worst to best:

• 3D Universe Vice City. The games set there had a lot of good things going for them, but the map design wasn't one of them. Only the beach side was any good, and even that was powered more by its retro '80s style than anything. The mainland was lifeless, and pairing a much greater focus on water with a player character who still can't swim was a baffling design decision. At the very least, it should've had areas based on the Everglades and the Keys to add some geographic diversity to the map, and Tommy Vercetti should've been able to swim.
• 3D Universe Liberty City. Same problem that Vice City had, which was that the earlier areas felt like they had a lot more effort put into them than the later ones, though not as pronounced. Shoreside Vale in particular felt like an afterthought, like Rockstar didn't know how to create a realistic suburban environment and just had a bunch of roads running all over the place. That said, Staunton Island was still fun to play around in, especially in Liberty City Stories where Fort Staunton became a proper Little Italy-style neighborhood and added some more life to that part of the map.
• HD Universe Southern San Andreas. A decade of overexposure in Online has probably tainted it for me a bit and made me more aware of its faults, but it still does a really good job of capturing a particular Southern California vibe, and the Los Santos side of the map is very good, even if it should've had a better representation of East LA. That said, while Blaine County is beautiful, it needed a lot more work to make it interesting to play in, especially in Paleto Bay, which I've always felt shouldn't have been the podunk cow town it is in the game but a proper small city akin to Santa Barbara or Monterey with a beach-town atmosphere. Had there been a second city on the north end of the map (not as big as Los Santos, but at least somewhere with more to do that wasn't in the city), there likely would've been a lot fewer complaints about Blaine County.
• 3D Universe San Andreas. The seams are a lot more visible with the remaster revealing just how much that map depended on fog to cover up the actual distances between locations, but it still did a great job crafting three good-to-great renditions of real-life cities, as well as countryside in between that felt like you were in the actual wilderness as well as the PS2 would allow.
• HD Universe Liberty City. When it comes to its rendition of New York City, I have very few complaints, mostly superficial. Rockstar understood the assignment here, and they nailed it. I'd take some points off for its rendition of New Jersey (as somebody who grew up in the Garden State, I always felt they kind of botched it and went for the most obvious Sopranos references), but it's not enough to take away from everything it did right.

 

Yeah, we agree on a lot of points.

 

Honestly, even from release I felt disappointed with GTA V's map. I understand that not every part of SoCal could be featured, but it still felt weird that Grapeseed was supposed to be Bakersfield yet feels nothing like the real town. In fact, I didn't even notice it was supposed to be a settlement. It's just that underwhelming.

 

In hindsight, I think Rockstar should have done southern Leonida in GTA V, and southern San Andreas in GTA VI. Real-life Miami is a very flat and symmetrical gridded city which is perfect for recreating in a GTA map, and Miami proper has about the same number of people as Oakland, California (although Miami has a gigantic metro area, including nearby unincorporated areas). Rockstar could have made Vice City roughly be the same size as Los Santos in GTA V and it would've been fine, as Miami proper isn't big, and the areas would've condensed better.

 

Florida is also less diverse in terms of climate/natural environment compared to California, and is much flatter, so there wouldn't have been an awkward condensing of the countryside like the monstrosity that was the Grand Senora Desert. Just do the Grassrivers, a few other surrounding areas, add some hick towns/Gator Keys and it would've been a good map.

 

Southern San Andreas on GTA VI hardware would've been able to include a lot more towns/cities/suburbs, and the countryside could've been given more space to feel "natural".

[KevinR1990]

9 hours ago, TaylorSwiftDies2038 said:

 

Yeah, we agree on a lot of points.

 

Honestly, even from release I felt disappointed with GTA V's map. I understand that not every part of SoCal could be featured, but it still felt weird that Grapeseed was supposed to be Bakersfield yet feels nothing like the real town. In fact, I didn't even notice it was supposed to be a settlement. It's just that underwhelming.

I always thought Grapeseed was supposed to be the Imperial Valley rather than Bakersfield, and that they just rearranged the geography.

 

If it was, then to go back to a suggestion I've made here before, I think that's where the Cluckin' Bell plant and the rail yard that are currently in Paleto Bay should've been located instead. Grapeseed only winds up used in a couple of missions, the actual town is just one street, and it overall felt like a part of the map that Rockstar didn't really put a lot of effort into. IMO, Grapeseed should've been fleshed out more into a rural farming town akin to El Centro, Lamont, or Fillmore, while Paleto Bay should've been made more of a touristy, upper-middle-class beach town akin to Ventura, Santa Barbara, or Morro Bay. As an added bonus, expanding Grapeseed could've also shrunken down the enormous amount of unused space that's currently dedicated to Mount Chiliad a bit.

[Moncastler]

1) [3D] San Andreas. I'm not a fan of its story and in general it's not one of my favourite entries in the series, but map-wise I think SA is the best. 3 very distinctive cities, small villages and towns in between, lots of variety in what you see. This map always feels bigger than it actually is, but I feel like the amount of time it takes to go from one side to the other is perfect. Good amount of elevation changes, and the changing weather conditions is a plus. 

2) [HD] Liberty City + Alderney. This would have been an easy first for me because the level of detail of this map is simply amazing and it's also fun to traverse. It's a shame they weren't able to add a proper mountainous / countryside region near Alderney, this map IMO needs more natural elevation changes. 

3) [HD] Los Santos + Blaine County. It's a good map, but I feel like they could have done a better job with everything that is north of Los Santos and Vinewood. The mid-north portion feels empty, with just a couple of towns near the Alamo Sea and Paleto Bay at the very top. These towns are a bit bigger than the small villages in SA, but they're not enough to compensate the absence of San Fierro and Las Venturas. I prefer GTA V's rendition of Los Santos tho.

4) [3D] Liberty City. It's a solid map for a game made in 2001, but of course it can't compete with the the other ones for obvious reasons. The old Liberty City also does offer some nice elevation changes.

5) [3D] Vice City. While I still can't figure out how they managed to make VC in under a year, unfortunately mainland Vice City does feel a bit unfinished or rushed. It's also a very small map, with a big portion of Vice Beach completely covered in sand.

 

[TonyRyodan]

3D - San Andreas

HD - San Andreas
HD - Liberty City

3D - Vice City
3D - Liberty City