Retreading Familiar Ground - GTA III: Staunton Island

Hello once again, dear Murder Junkies

This time on Retreading Familiar Ground we continue our look at Grand Theft Atuo III's iconic burroughs by revisiting the second island of the three, Staunton Island. Once again heartfelt thanks go out to the good people of gta.wikia.com.

Crossing the Callahan Bridge into Staunton Island

The name Staunton Island is meant to sound like New York's Staten Island although much of this part of the game is actually based on Manhattan. Staunton Island is the commercial burrough of Liberty City and is made up of eight distinct districts.

Much like its real-life counterpart Staunton Island has a Downtown, a Midtown, and an Uptown. The islands thoroughfares are mainly straight-aways contrasted to Portland's winding roads and sloping hills. This is the part of the game where you can really cut loose with the sportier cars.

Belleville Park

At the north end of the park

The central Midtown district of Belleville Park is home to the player's safehouse in this part of the city and also features a large forested area based off of Central Park. The park features a lake, basketball courts, an underground restroom, an obelisk and several winding footpaths. The park itself is surrounded by tall buildings, presumably redsidential buildings.

And a view from the south end

Newport

Newport is next to Belleville Park and together both areas comprise the middle portion of the island. Newport has several landmarks including a shopping mall, a multistory car park and City Hall on the southern edge.

They say you can't fight city hall, but you can sure as hell try

Behind the car park are a Pay 'n Spray and an 8-Ball's auto shop to get vehicles repaired or outfitted with explosives. To the east at the edge of the island are apartment buildings, one of which you take new missions from, and three marina decks where you can swipe a variety of boats.

Even though I'm standing at a dock in Newport I'm technically in Portland. Go figure.

Outside the mall you see consumers, mostly women, carrying shopping bags. On the western edge of the district is an underground roadway that links to other districts, Bedford Point and Aspatria.

Torrington

Tall buildings and dense urban settings are what it's all about in these games

To the southeast is Torrington, which is based off of Manhattan's financial district and as a result features some of the tallest buildings in the game. Kenji's Casino, Donald Love's Love Media Building and various others make up the major landmarks.

Triangles! That's a video game joke. Because polygons are basically triangles. Think about it...

There is police station as well as multiple corporate art pieces that sit outside in well-manicured lawns in front of their respective skyscrapers.Torrington is under Yakuza control so you will see Yakuza gang members walking about, especially outside the casino.

Posting this image simply to show younger people what high end cell phones looked like in 2001. No joke.

Bedford Point

This is the other major Downtown district. Bedford Point features a church as well as other buildings as landmarks but the main attraction here is the Point itself which is based off of New York's own Time's Square.

Nothing like driving through Bedford Point while listening to the soundtrack from Scarface

Bedford Point is not under control of any particular gang and much of the NPCs walking the streets are your typical consumer types. This area also serves as a hub for the game's subway system which can take players to locations in each of the other two islands of the city.

Here's the Point from on foot

Rockford

At the northern most tip of the island is Rockford, a district featuring a hospital, a subway entrance and some buildings. There isn't a whole lot the distinguishes Rockford from the other disticts, other than maybe the fact that every fourth vehicle that spawns on the street is a large truck or a bus.

View from the back of the hospital. I probably should have tried taking more photos of Rockford.

Aspatria

Next to Rockford in the westernmost corner of Staunton Island is Aspatria, a coastal district with a scenic path running along the west and north. Aspatria features some commercial and residential buildings but the main landmark is a sports stadium called the Liberty Memorial Coliseum.

The stadium isn't actually accessible from on foot but you can fly the Dodo in from the top and glitch the game out.

Aspatria is based off the neighborhood of St. George in Staten Island and the Coliseum is based off the Richmond County Bank Ballpark where the Staten Island Yankees play. This district compliments the Liberty Campus.

Hey guys we're all meeting at the quad later for a sit-in and a drum circle.

Liberty Campus

Liberty Campus is a community college based on Columbia University. It sits snug in a single 2x1 grid on the map and next to the stadium in Aspatria is the only place where you will find University students in varsity jackets walking around.

He stayed debt free by getting his education from the streets.

The campus also has a subway entrance in its northeastern corner and servers as a stop for the subway.

Fort Staunton

Finally we come to Fort Staunton, formerly a site based on Little Italy in GTA: Liberty City Stories and merely a construction site in GTA III under Columbian cartel control. Fort Staunton features two city blocks under construction with a half-finished building you can explore.

Someday this will be an interesting area, but not today.

In-game signage outside the construction site advertises this as the future site of the Staunton Plaza though it is unclear if the gang war betwen the Columbians and Yakuza hindered the development significantly.

Kind of bothered by the fact that I will never get to see this building completed

Overall I have to say that Staunton Island, while featuring plenty of landmarks and an iconic skyline, is probably the least interesting island to explore. The layout is more or less a basic grid with lots of straight-aways which makes for driving at high speeds viable but there are not as many multi-layered spaces as there are in the other two islands.

Locations near the bridges connecting to the other parts of the city as well as a few buildings that are accessible, such as the partially constructed building in Fort Staunton, Kenji's Casino and an unnamed building in Torrington with a stairwell leading to a rooftop add some much needed verticality to this part of the city.

A view of Torrington from Newport

That said, Liberty City in GTA III just would not be the same without Staunton Island and its tall buildings to flesh out the skyline. As an aside, the first time I managed to fly the clipped-wing dodo plane found at the airport high enough I discovered that none of the tallest buildings in the game had rooftops! I guess Rockstar figured they didn't need to model them since the player would never have the ability to get there. However it is possible to get to the rooftop of Donald Love's Love Meda Building, which features a fully modeled zen garden, because this area was made for certain cutscenes which took place there.

That's all for now. Next time I'll round out this series of Retreading Familiar Ground with a look at the final third of GTA III: Shoreside Vale.

Thanks for reading.