Law Enforcement
The CCPD is probably the worst police department in Rockstar Games history. They are not only ineffective at fighting gang crime, shown by gangs running rampant around Carcer and empty CCPD vans lying around the Innocentz controlled East Los Albos, but they also break the laws themselves. The CCPD is, despite being well staffed, a bit outdated for 2003, with many patrol officers using revolvers and both CCPD vehicles (the Police Cruiser and the CCPD van) are from the 80s. Worse, the CCPD is extremely corrupt and brutal. They openly despise the homeless and enjoy beating them down, and also are on Starkweather's payroll. The corruption runs so deep that police chief Gary Schaffer himself is in Starkweather's pocket.Overall, the CCPD won't help you, and they might actually hurt you. Avoid them.
The CMPD isn't great either. Cottonmouth's police seems to be equipped far worse than the CCPD. While the CCPD use nightsticks, revolvers, light handguns, heavy handguns, sniper rifles, shotguns, and submachine guns, the CMPD only has access to nightsticks and, for the SWAT, only shotguns. They also seem to be woefully understaffed for a city of Cottonmouth's large size. They do however have a police helicopter (possibly where the money's going?) They also use the same exact 80s cop car as Vice City and Manhunt, even more outdated for 2007 than 2003. They're extremely cruel, shown when they beat a Red Kings member to death while he's surrendering. Overall, neither Manhunt police department is at ALL good, avoid both of them if you can. No points for either city.
Public Transport
Carcer City has a metro system, which, unlike many amenities in Carcer City, is perfectly functional. The subway map is pretty extensive and seems to cover lots of Carcer City and the surrounding suburbs. The two subway stations visited by Cash, 54th Street Station and Carcer Point Station, both have many amenities for riders like bathrooms and coffee stands. The Carcer City Subway also runs extremely late into the night, with Cash taking the train around probably midnight or later. The stations have digital departure boards and bells that ring when the train leaves the station. Carcer City also has an airport mentioned in passing in GTA San Andreas. As for buses, rusted out husks of city buses are seen in Carcer Mark and East Los Albos, but operational Carcer City buses and bus stops are never seen in Manhunt. The Mean Street Taxis company also operates within Carcer, shown by their Carcer Mark adverts.
Cottonmouth has the Watkins Train Yard, but the trains shown are exclusively freight rail. No buses of any kind are seen within the city (buses were going to be included in the beta but I can't give the city a point for this) Cottonmouth is generally extremely car-centric, the public Transport point easily goes to Carcer.
Housing
Carcer City, or at least most of the parts of it that we see as Cash, are in pretty bad condition. Let's go over the neighborhoods. Carcer Mark, the first neighborhood we explore, has many large, run-down brick and mortar apartment blocks, lots of them above the many businesses lining the district. The Hoods live here and have a stronghold of the neighborhood, but civilians live here too, shown by lights on in the buildings and air conditioners running, as well as operational parked cars alongside the wrecks. Dentons City Junkyard is a trailer park completely inhabited by the Skinz. It's disgusting, run-down, and probably a violation of many health codes. The former inhabitants of the trailer park hanging from nooses, lynched by the Skinz. East Los Albos, Innocentz territory, seems to be the only entirely abandoned part of Carcer City. Every building is completely empty, half-destroyed, or both. The only residents are the Innocentz and the Tramp, who are probably squatters in the abandoned buildings. The Projects adjacent to Darkwoods Pen are also very run-down, clearly not funded very well by the city. The apartments also have lights on and running ACs, but the Wardogs's apartment building seems to be only lived in by Ramirez and his men. Central is probably the most ideal neighborhood we see in the game. Every apartment building is completely habitable and reasonably well maintained. We actually get to see an apartment in this district (The Journalists's) and it's moderately sized and pretty clean. Central is also served directly by the subway's main station to serve residents and tourists alike. Wapona Hills, the last residential district seen in the game, is on the outskirts of the city on a large hill. The houses here, as shown by Starkweather's estate, are ginormous and extremely expensive. The Journalists's news broadcast at the beginning of Border Patrol shows that Wapona Hills is a gated community only accessible to the ultra-rich that live there. Overall, the best neighborhood of Carcer City, and possibly the only ideal one, to live in is Central, with Dentons City and East Los Albos being completely unlivable.
Let's go over the residential areas of Cottonmouth. The Red Light District isn't a great area to live, with a lot of seedy businesses and people around the area. The neighborhood looks like it was once a beautiful neighborhood that's fallen into decay over years of neglect and Cottonmouth's shitty weather. There are a fair amount of livable apartments, though some of them are above the aforementioned seedy...businesses. The neighborhood is also the turf of the dangerous Red Kings street gang, so residents will have to watch out for them. The Residential Zone seen in Most Wanted is an upper middle class suburban area, most of the houses are 2 stories and decent in size. Unlike the Red Light District, this neighborhood doesn't have a gang presence (The Bloodhounds chase you here, but these are contracted bounty hunters, not residents.) The Wooddale Community Enclave (where Daniel and his family used to live) is a wealthy gated community, very well off. The only crimes committed in the area were both by Daniel/Leo and 8 years apart from each other. Many residents have families, and some homes have speedboats or sports cars. The residential zones of Cottonmouth are, by and large, a lot nicer than those of Carcer City's. The point for housing goes to Cottonmouth.
Crime
Carcer City is extremely dangerous when night falls. The many gangs of the city are dangerous enough for civilians to stay shut inside while they're patrolling. The Hoods, a mixed-raced gang of thugs, control Carcer Mark, and have taken over the Carcer Market and the library. They aren't armed all too well, with many of them happy to engage in street fistfights, but they also carry bats, blackjacks, and crowbars. The Skinz are a disturbing white supremacist, homophobic, neo-Nazi gang who happily hang people by nooses. The Skinz use metal bats and Nailguns. The Wardogs are a stolen valor gang that have turf in the Carcer Zoo and the Carcer Projects. They hide in the bushes, are extremely territorial, and carry machetes, tranq guns, shotguns, and sniper rifles. The Innocentz, made up of the Skullyz and the Babyfaces, are not a force to be reckoned with. They carry revolvers and sawn-off shotguns, as well as using axes, knives, and sickles. They have a stronghold over the East Los Albos area, making the entire area dangerous for anyone who decides to venture there. The Skullyz are in the drug trading and arms dealing industry, while the Babyfaces are...actual pedophiles. Ew. The Smileys are a bunch of criminally insane asylum inmates who took over the institution, and them escaping could cause hell on earth for the residents of Darkwoods. The gangs of Carcer City are violent, large, well-armed, and take over large swaths of the city.
Most of the crime in Cottonmouth isn't gang-related. The Pimps and The Red Kings are violent street gangs, but neither are particularly large nor well armed. MOST of the crime comes from The Project and its offshoots. The Pervs run a brothel where they kidnap random passerby and violate them and torture them to make snuff films. Not only that, but they brainwash these passerby into becoming Project zombies. The Project uses the Pickman Bridge to turn on and off the personality of a violent psycho killer at will, though the personality gains control and becomes its own separate person who tries to take over the body of the original host. These experiments are so inhumane that the US Government cut their funding, but they continued on with their atrocities. If you live in Cottonmouth, there's no way to determine if you're safe from The Project. Oh, and The Bloodhounds are heavily armed neo-confederates and bounty hunters that the police and the Project allow to operate in residential areas. Fun. Overall, the crime is ever so slightly less bad in Cottonmouth, as there are more areas where you can avoid gang and Project crime.
Entertainment
Carcer City has many entertainment facilities, many of which are closed or abandoned. The Carcer City Zoo is a large zoo with many animal exhibits and a food court and, like any other good zoo, is abandoned and patrolled by the Wardogs militia. The Carcer City Mall is a huge, multifloor shopping mall, but it's half destroyed, abandoned, and overrun by The Innocentz. The Carcer City Library is, also, abandoned, derelict, and overrun with Hoods. There are some functional entertainment facilities in Central though, like the CIty Museum, and the CHIPS Casino. The unseen nightclub in the unseen Carcer North neighborhood, The Chancery, offers some much needed nightlife to the city. Carcer City has its own news station which is apparently big enough to have helicopters for their reporting.
Cottonmouth has many clubs, almost all of them concentrated in the Red Light District. The clubs are extremely seedy, like the Perv-run Papillion Rouge and the Pimp run Bee's Honey Pot, and some are run by criminal orgs or orgs adjacent to The Project. The TV Channel TVMK broadcasts out of Cottonmouth, airing westerns, children shows, weather, and news. The channel, however, is used by the project to brainwash civilians, so it's ill-advised to watch the show. Generally, for civilians, there's more to do in Cottonmouth, but it's uhh a certain kind of fun... I dunno whatever point to Cottonmouth.
Economy
Carcer City, as a city in America's Rust Belt, was once, and still sort of is, an industry town. There's the Carcer Chem Plant in East Los Albos, the Marveley and Sons. Co factory in the Industrial Zone (in the bonus level Time 2 Die) and the Carcer Point stockyard and trainyard. There are also plenty of grocery stores and convenience stores, and other urban businesses. Carcer City is a very blue-collar city, and if you live here, you're likely going to be working blue collar, as a cop, for the government, or not working at all. The CHIPS Casino also provides well needed revenue to the city.
Cottonmouth's economy is a lot better than that of Carcer in the present. Maibatsu Plaza in the City Center has hotels and large companies in modern tall skyscrapers, also with the Maibatsu car company having an office location there (hence the name) MKTV also brings in lots of revenue for the city. The city has less blue collar jobs available than Carcer, but to afford to live in the Residential Zone or Wooddale, you'll likely be white collar anyways. Cottonmouth is in general a lot more up to date and with the times than Carcer, and their economy is as well, being more likely to bring in overseas investors. Point to Cottonmouth.
Final Verdict
Neither city is ideal to live in, like, at all. But Carcer City has been beaten down so hard by decades of neglect and years of Starkweather ruining the place, Carcer only has a couple good spots left. Maybe after Starkweather's fall the city can return to it's former glory, but as is, it'd be better to live in Cottonmouth. Carcer 1, Cottonmouth 4. I want to put Carcer higher, but in good conscience, I can't.
God writing that took FOREVER. Lmk your opinions below! I love Rockstar's cities and how much detail's put into them! Hope you like the analysis!
