#ryogai

The city is made up of two major islands located on Lake Michigan (something which is more or less confirmed canon by NPC dialogue in SR2), its Northern island consisting of skyscrapers, museums, expensive shops and restaurants, the suburbs, basically what your out-of-touch family member thinks New York is like from any sanitized depiction in certain media. Its Southern half is distinctly more working to lower class, being the home of many different factories, dockyards, the city's resident red light district, and basically anything else you could imagine. The sole exception to this being the Saint's Row district, which had been gentrified to shit and has turned into a sparkling glass utopia; a far cry from its previous depiction as a lower income neighborhood with its lone church acting as the former hideout of the 3rd Street Saints.

Stilwater also happens to be the home of Mount Claflin, a large mountain that consists a forest, a lake, and many winding dirt paths. It's situated right in-between the Arena district and Stilwater University. Personally I like to imagine it as bigger than it's depicted in-game, but I think that's just a given since most fictional cities in video games aren't going to be 1:1 with actual places.

Two more points of interest are Stilwater's very own nuclear power plant and prison, both located on their own respective islands.

Now compared to Stilwater, Steelport was built much more—how would I say—loosely. Founded in 1827 by blue-collar industrialists, and located on Lake Erie (a personal hc of mine), Steelport is a much more heavily industrialized city that's home to many former steel mills, factories, refineries, practically anything you could think of that would've been used when the United States was at its peak in manufacturing. As a rust belt city, Steelport has fallen into economic failure as most of the country had begun to outsource its manufacturing jobs—thus leading to a majority of its buildings either being repurposed or straight up abandoned.

This led to the city being overtaken by the large criminal organization known as the Syndicate, who would use it as their flagship headquarters in managing their global operations. That was until they wound up pissing off the 3rd Street Saints, who would then demolish the Syndicate in its entirety and take over whatever assets they had left over.

As a city built with practically no zoning laws whatsoever (something that was brought up in a developer conference), you're likely to find factories situated closely to say places of residence, municipalities, schools, and so on. Steelport in general feels haphazardly planned, and there's no greater proof of that than its mish-mash of modern day glass towers and 21st century aesthetics, colliding against a mixture of art deco and gothic skyscrapers dotting the Downtown district, while the ghosts of the city's industrial past loom on the outskirts.

The in-game map is actually something I've been highly critical with as I personally believe it didn't fully explore the concept at all. Hence why I tend to use Steelport's concept art as reference when talking to RP partners of what their Muse can expect when visiting the city. A day and night piece can be seen below.

Steelport is considered a 'party city' by most its characters, as with the decline of the manufacturing industry in the United States, there was an obvious need to venture into other businesses in order to pump at least some kind of income into the city's lifeblood. The city is now a hot spot for all manner of clientele looking to indulge in whatever sort of vice they're into; whether that be sex, gambling, drugs, or perhaps something a little more upscale.

A notable monument of Steelport is its statue of the pseudo-legendary American folk hero known as Joe Magarac, located on an island just off its coast. Similar in vein to the Statue of Liberty, this statue is meant to act as both a representation and celebration of the city's humble industrial beginnings, to the point where it's depicted on the city's very own seal.