Missions:
- The mission involving killing lawyer Tom Goldberg originally called Small Fish in Big Pond.
- Missions American Dad, Jacob’s Ladder, American Dream and I and High were cut.
- In the Deconstruction for Beginners, instead of Niko killing union members, Niko was supposed to destroy some warehouses.
- Originally, It’s Your Call was set at night.
- The mission High-End Assassin was cut.
Characters:
- A mobster, Raymond Alberga, was deleted from the final version.
- Little Jacob originally did not wear glasses.
- Michelle had a different looking face.
- Playboy X used to have a plain maroon hoodie.
- United Liberty Paper had a different voice.
- Real Badman didn’t wear a hat.
- Niko Bellic’s hairstyle was slightly different. It can still be found in the game’s files and used in-game instead of Niko’s original hairstyle through texture swapping or mods.
- Roman Bellic’s face and clothes were different.
- Mikhail Faustin had grey hair and a different hair style.
- Ilyena Faustin had different clothes, as seen in 2nd trailer.
- Ray Bulgarin’s face was paler, and was less detailed.
- Carmen Ortiz had a shorter ponytail.
- Francis McReary was originally to have blonde hair.
City:
- Some areas named Anger Bay (Pelham Bay), Norfolk (NoHo), Jefferson Heights (Hamilton Heights), Acter Bay (South Kearny), Richmond (Richmond Hill) , Frogtown (Turtle Bay), Washington Heights were cut. Two areas called Hedgebury and Goatherd can be seen on roadsigns on the Broker-Dukes Expressway. It is likely that they are two more cut neighborhoods, or they could be beta names of the neighborhoods that are where Hedgebury and Goatherd supposedly lead to (Firefly Projects for Goatherd, and Outlook for Hedgebury).
- According to the GXT Files, Beechwood City was called : Grayfords
- The setting of the game was originally going to be Liberty State, rather than just Liberty City, and it would have included countryside surrounding Liberty City, mountains based on the Adirondacks and Catskills [1], and possibly The Caraways.
- A street called Liberation St was either cut or renamed.
- A street called 128th St was either cut or renamed
- The Statue of Happiness was originally going to be called Statue of Freedom
- The Statue of Happiness had a different face.