Google searching Los Santos is a unique experience. The search bar presents you with two options: “OK, Google” and “Google the city from GTA V”. Selecting the first option opens a new tab on your browser with search results from Wikipedia (on fictional locations), Answers, and Encyclopedia.com. These sites present an ambiguous answer to whether or not Los Santos is a real place. However, there are some clues as to what the answer might be if we dig deeper into these websites and their sources.
Is Los Santos A Real Place?
Los Santos is a fictional city in Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, the setting of the game and a separate radio station The remainder of the game takes place in Blaine County, a mountainous area surrounding Los Santos. Los Santos is a city on the West Coast of the United States, located in southern San Andreas. The city is one of two that appear in Grand Theft Auto V, with the other being Blaine Country.
Why Los Santos Is A Real Place?
1. The geography of Los Santos
Los Santos, or “The Saints” in Spanish, is one of the largest cities in the world. Located on the West Coast of the United States, it sits on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The city is the home of several major sports franchises, such as the NBA’s L.S. Clippers and MLB’s L.S. Giants. The city is also home to the world-famous Vinewood sign, as well as several large film studios and entertainment companies. Due to its prime location by the coast, it’s a major hub for trade and a top tourist destination.
2. The geography of Los Santos continued
Los Santos is also situated near several large cities and towns, including Paleto Bay and Blaine County. Paleto Bay, nestled between the cities of Los Santos and San Fierro, is home to the popular Seaside Beach. Blaine County is located north of Los Santos and is a rural and mountainous region. The city is also not far from San Fierro, a neighboring city comprised of several large districts and small neighborhoods.
3. Real-world inspirations for Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos
Los Santos is inspired by a variety of real-world locations, including Los Angeles and San Fierro. Los Angeles is the most obvious inspiration, with the city’s wealth, beach atmosphere, and Hispanic culture represented strongly in Los Santos. San Francisco is also a major inspiration, with the game’s downtown area drawing heavily from the northern California city.
4. Culture in the City of Angels
Los Santos is a city that is as diverse as it is wealthy. The city is home to major Hispanic and Asian communities, including the smaller Little Saigon neighborhood and the larger Chinatown and Little Tokyo neighborhoods. In addition to its Spanish and Asian communities, the city is also home to a major African-American population. The city is also home to a large LGBTQ+ population, with the northern part of the city boasting a strong LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Los Santos is also home to a large and diverse artistic and creative community, including the Arts District and Vinewood.
Is Los Santos Based On Los Angeles?
- The biggest clue that Los Santos is based on Los Angeles is that Rockstar has claimed this in the past. This would explain why the city has a similar topography and climate to Los Angeles.
- Furthermore, the city has cultural similarities to the California metropolis, including Chinatown and Little Tokyo, as well as downtown and Hollywood. The biggest difference between the two cities is their population.
- Los Angeles has almost 4 million people, while GTA V’s Los Santos has only around 1.5 million. This could be explained by the fact that GTA is set in the era before the widespread use of air travel, which could have led to Los Santos being more isolated than Los Angeles is today.
Is Gta V’s Los Santos Based In Mexico?
- The easiest way to answer this question is to list the similarities between Los Santos and real-life Mexican cities. Los Santos has a real police force called the FIB (Federal Investigation Bureau), which is a law enforcement agency like the FBI but in Mexico, Interpol serves the same function.
- Los Santos also has a red light district called “Vinewood” that is based on the real-life district of the same name in Mexico City.
- Both of these locations are also portrayed in Hollywood in real life, so Vinewood is a fitting name for the district.
What Are The Basics Of Los Santos In Gta V?
- Los Santos is the largest city in the fictional state of San Andreas. It’s a port city with a population of about 3 million people—making it the biggest city in real-life Southern California by population. Los Angeles, by comparison, has a population of only about 4 million people.
- Los Santos is situated in a diverse region of Southern California where people of many different ethnicities and social classes live together in close proximity. This is a key theme in GTA V, as the game explores the tensions that arise when people of different backgrounds come together in one place.
- Los Santos is a sprawling, polluted industrial city whose residents are often depicted as casually racist, self-absorbed, and deeply cynical. The city is plagued by frequent gang violence, and many residents seem to live in an endless stupor of opium addiction and alcoholism.
What’s Different About Los Santos In Red Dead Redemption 2?
- Visually, Los Santos in Red Dead Redemption 2 has a more rustic and rural feel. This is consistent with the developers’ statements that the new game takes place in a more rural and less developed part of California than GTA V.
- Again, this is to provide an authentic period setting for the game’s story about a group of gangsters fleeing a botched robbery in New York and ending up on opposite sides of the law in rural Western America. The early 1900s were a time of great technological change in America.
- The first automobiles, airplanes, and radios were being developed and put into use, and engineers were just beginning to build transcontinental telephones and power lines. The internet, of course, would not come into existence until much later.
What Is The Importance Of Horses In Red Dead Redemption 2?
- Horses were a very important part of everyday life in early 20th-century America. These animals were used both for transportation and to perform labor, such as in agricultural fields or in the timber industry.
- Horses were also used in law enforcement, the military, and for sports. Horses were particularly important in the American West, where large swathes of land were more easily traversed by horseback than by automobile.
- The West was also a place where people often relied on horses for survival, such as when drought or other natural disasters threatened crops, or when there was a shortage of drinking water.
Conclusion
Los Santos is most likely a fictionalized version of Southern California as a whole, with elements of both Los Angeles and San Diego. It is unlikely that a city is a specific place in real life. It is possible that the game designers based the city on several different cities, drawing inspiration from their layouts and cultural elements. The name of the city’s police department, the FIB, is a strong hint that Los Santos is based primarily in the United States, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
