Retreading Familiar Ground - GTA III: Shoreside Vale

Hello once again fellow Doomers!

Today we're rounding out the GTA III portion of Retreading Familiar Ground with a look at the game's final burrough, the residential area of Shoreside Vale.

Shoreside Vale is probably the smallest of the three islands despite its large geographic footprint. Half of the island is the airport and the other four districts are comprised of a light industrial area, two residential areas and a dam.

I think Shoreside Vale is really just there to give you more ways to view the rest of the city. From the hills in the north of the island you can stand atop the game world and take in all three islands at once.

The layout itself is probably the most interesting of the three islands. It has hills and lowlying flatlands along with bridges, tunnels and a dam that all serve to connect the two residential neighborhoods with the industrial area, which is separated by a small inlet of ocean.

That said, let's dive in and break it down district by district.

Francis International Aiport

View of the airport from the bridge heading into the Vale

Just as the name suggest this is a big international airport but it is not based on any one location. It has an original frontal terminal and other parts are based of LAX. The airport has a subway entrance, a long term parking lot as well as a fire department.

The terminal at the front of the airport

Behind the terminal and fire department are hangars, two runways, a helipad and lots of parked airliners. Near the helipad to the south is a clipped wing small aircraft called the Dodo that can be flown with enough practice.

Pike Creek

Pike Creek from the street

North of the airport is the light industrial area of Pike Creek, home to warehouses, a police station and hospital as well as another import-export garage. Not a whole lot to say about Pike Creek. It's set up on an elevation so the buildings are kind of stacked up next to each other.

And a view from above

Cedar Grove

On the northeast side of the island is Cedar Grove, a neighborhood of upper-class houses lined up in a row with a street running behind them and behind that, a bunch of hills. Underneath the hills is a tunnel but it's blocked off in GTA III.

A typical house in Cedar Grove

There's not a whole lot to say about Cedar Grove either. It's Columbian turf so you see Columbian Cartel gang members walking around the streets and the mansion at the end of the street is Columbian Cartel HQ.

Wichita Gardens

To the south of Cedar Grove is Wichita Gardens, a lower-class residential district comprised mainly of public housing. This is where your hideout is located for this island and geographically the neighborhood sits underneath Cedar Grove. The two areas are connected by a winding S-shaped road.

Outside the hideout in Wichita Gardens

Wichita Gardens also features a tunnel entrance that links the area up with the airport as well as the other two islands. This is Southside Hood turf and the area itself is based on low income areas of the Bronx.

Cochrane Dam

The centerpiece of the island is Cochrane Dam which also links up the Pike Creek/Airport side with the residential areas. This area serves as the setpiece for the game's final moments where the player takes on the Cartel to rescue Salvatore's former girlfriend, Maria.

It's a dam alright

Not a whole lot to say about this area either but it's a nice piece of architecture and gives the island its own particular character.

Overall Shoreside Vale's geography makes for diverse elevations but also makes it trickier to navigate than the other two islands. Its bridges and tunnels criss cross each other at different elevations making this a fun part of the game to just drive around in and explore.

My favorite thing about this part of the game would have to be the vistas its mountain range to the north provides. At the time this game came out not many other games had just one giant area the player was dumped in to explore and in most games distant buildings and objects could not actually be accessed.

Shoreside Vale from above

By giving the player an immense play area and making it such that anything seen in the distance could be explored Rockstar were able to usher in a new kind of style to video games that was quickly imitated. Open world games are a common occurence now in the Triple-A sector but it was this little game that started the trend.

I enjoyed returning to Liberty City, as I always do, and I hope you got something out of it as well. The next time I return to Retreading Familiar Ground it will be in the sequel to GTA III that no one was expecting: Vice City.

Thanks for reading.