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Grand Theft Auto III's Liberty City is split into three islands, connected by bridges and a subway, and the campaign progresses through them in strict order. You start on Portland, the bridge to Staunton Island opens after a story event, and Shoreside Vale unlocks late in the game. Each island has a distinct neighborhood character, gang affiliation, and visual palette — and the three-island structure is the architectural ancestor of every multi-zone GTA map since.
Below: what defines each island, real-world templates Rockstar drew from, and what's worth doing in each.
The starting island. Heavily inspired by Brooklyn and Queens in early-2000s New York, with bits of Boston's North End in the Italian neighborhood. Densely-built, working-class, gritty. Portland is where Claude starts — at 8-Ball's bomb shop after the bridge collapse — and where the early-game Mafia missions unfold under Salvatore Leone.
Real-world templates:
What to do in Portland: the Mafia missions for Salvatore Leone anchor the first act. Save up for a real safehouse before the Staunton bridge opens.
The middle island and the visual centerpiece. Modelled on Manhattan, with skyscrapers, a financial district, an explicit Times Square analog, and the largest concentration of high-end vehicles and weapons in the game. Staunton opens after Salvatore Leone's mission "Salvatore Called a Meeting" and is where the second act unfolds.
Real-world templates:
The Yakuza operate out of Staunton (Asuka Kasen's villa); the Cartel has presence here too, and the third-act betrayal arc largely plays out across this island.
What to do in Staunton: the Asuka missions are the centerpiece, plus the stadium events (Liberty Memorial Stadium hosts the unlockable side missions).
The third and final island, unlocked late in the game. Visually completely different from Portland and Staunton — it's suburban, with detached houses, a lake, an airport, and the dam. Heavily inspired by New Jersey and the suburbs around Newark. Open road, light traffic, much less police pressure than the inner two islands.
Real-world templates:
The Cartel runs Shoreside Vale; the campaign's final missions take Claude across the dam, into the airport, and back to the Cochrane Dam confrontation that closes the third act.
What to do in Shoreside Vale: the Donald Love missions (which sometimes start in Staunton but resolve here) and the Catalina finale are the must-play sequence.
The three islands are connected by:
In a clean playthrough, the bridges open in story order. Bridges are physically locked closed pre-mission and physically open mid-cutscene when the mission unlocks. There's no fast-travel; you drive.
Vice City (2002) was built on the GTA III engine and shipped with a similar two-island structure (Vice City Beach + Vice City Mainland). San Andreas (2004) scaled the model up to a state with three full cities. Each later GTA's multi-zone structure — Liberty City IV's four boroughs + Alderney, V's Los Santos + Blaine County — traces design lineage to GTA III's three-island template.
For the broader story that ties the three islands together, see GTA III's Story Primer: 2001 Revisited.
