The feeling of water isn't really that pronounced when you're in the city. Along the river, yes, but the lake is pretty far from the buildings so you aren't so aware of it most of the time. It's nothing like New York...which it seems they are trying to make it into...
Also, your screenshot is 10 miles from the lake and it's clearly a rail shipping staging area. The ship canal actually goes through downtown 12 miles northeast. It's not possible for a container ship to go through. I mean, it's not super important, I realize that they wanted to create a city that suited their gameplay, but I don't know why they couldn't just make one up like rockstar does.
I'm saying all this because when the first trailer was released, it suggested that they were making Chicago, which is my favorite city in the world. I was really excited about exploring the virtual-real city and all it's fantastic neighborhoods. But sadly, places like Wicker Park, Oak Park, Wrigleyville, Bucktown, and Logan Square are all in the area that is now, strangely, mountains, and Hyde Park and Chinatown are where the 'wards' are now. Not to mention the area south that was once the site of the worlds fair is now a strange container yard. All of these real areas have unique cultural identities that, I think, could create amazing and unique gameplay, especially within the context of this game. I feel like the areas they've replaced them with are a little cliche, a little generic. It seems like the game is being broken down into the 'rich' area (mad mile or whatever they are calling the Magnificent Mile) and 'poor' areas (wards, docks) when the real situation is more interesting than that, especially as you go south. I feel it's a missed opportunity and a little more generic for it. And once again...seeing Mountains at the edge of downtown Chicago is just weird. Especially because they look like alpine-like mountains, and those are about 2,000km away in Colorado....
Here is the first trailer.
