Assassin's Creed III: Liberation

After starting AC Liberation, the first feeling one gets is that of surprise. Surprise for the visual quality of the game, its extension, and the level of gameplay, which has nothing to envy to its predecessors. All this is surprising because AC Liberation was not released to be played on a computer, but for PlayStation Vita, although the limitations of the console are almost undetectable in the PC version.

The game is a great adaptation of its predecessors' gameplay to a completely different environment. Rome and Constantinople now give way to a New Orleans that, although much smaller in size, is not devoid of life and emotions; although it is true that the city cannot overshadow any other that has been created by the franchise. New Orleans' surrounding, The Bayou, is a network of shallow lagoons, with mangroves and rotting trees. It is a great stage to get lost and jump from branch to branch and from trunk to trunk. Surely here, if it had been a PC game, the scenario would have been much more fantastic. But, with the in-game result, one feels that The Bayou lacks a level of quality in its development to offer to the player all that such scenario could offer.

Now let's talk about Aveline, our heroine. After playing the game, the prevailing feeling is that Aveline is the deadliest assassin in the entire AC saga. Incredible jumps, enormous strength, and steel ankles make her superior to anyone who crosses her path. The great addition of the game is the ability to switch between three different personalities that Aveline can adopt. It is an interesting idea that opens a range of possibilities but, in the end, they sum little and do not justify the effort of constantly changing personality or trying to achieve the objectives for each specific personality. In any case, it's a good idea, and with a little more dedication, it could reappear in an upcoming game.

A decent setting and an interesting protagonist should be enough to ensure the quality of the game, but unfortunately, Ubisoft has not been able to take advantage of those qualities and has limited the potential of AC Liberation with a fast and complicated plot, a brief development of the characters, and a rather shallow immersion in the life and story of Aveline. The scenes follow each other with almost no connection between them. The player jumps between plots as if he was following a single linear story, which confuses and prevents him from entering the story. The development of the characters, especially Aveline, falls far short. Connor, protagonist of AC III released at the same time, presents a much deeper and more detailed story. In the end, the feeling is that Aveline has not been given all the attention it deserved, which was somehow expected knowing that the game was not going to be released on computer or high-end consoles. The historical moment is also not well introduced, and it is difficult to get a good idea of what is happening without a basic knowledge about that period. This demonstrates the importance of Abstergo in the Assassin's Creed games, as Abstergo does not appear in this game, and we do not know which contemporary character is reliving Aveline's adventures.

All that said, it doesn't hurt to spend a few hours with AC Liberation (in fact, the game doesn't last more than 10 hours), to find out what was happening in the southern United States while Connor led their independence on the East Coast.

Greetings from Lithuania.

The only reason i played this game in 2019 was that i received it for free along with "Odyssey". Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (2012) was a very poor game. I finished it, but i couldn't skip this mess anytime and would have saved some time and brain cells. This game has a worst mechanics in the entire franchise, and playing it for me was clear that this game had a very small budget - this is why it felt rushed, unfinished, full of bugs and etc.

Overall - do not bother with this poor game. Its the worst in the series by far.

As a fan of the AC-series I was looking forward to the first game for the Playstation Vita; see how the franchise would tickle the possibilities of the hand-held device. But the result is in fact a disappointing piece of a fast and unfinished production that, very likely, had to be finished for Christmas. No matter of ready or not.

You'll get thrown into the story without any sort of introduction to the situation or the characters. Extremely fast and uncomfortable and that is also the main problem of the storytelling with all of its symptoms. There are many logical errors and many unsolved questions throughout the game, including a mysterious family tragedy about girl between two worlds and the connection to templars and assassins. Some parts of the story are told straight, some parts confusing and not really satisfying.

The game play lacks in so many points, that I don't know where to start. There is no possibility of upgrading armor and weapons, but therefore a strange trading system. The idea might be nice, but it works not well and there is just one single location in the whole game you can use. A situation that becomes even worse because of the countless bugs of "Liberation". For example getting a blind map though you already discovered the whole area. Guards recognize you though you status is absolutely discreet and it happens more than once, that the game crashes. Or as reported, it may happen that your savings mysteriously got lost.

I will not kill the whole game. Indeed of the errors and the lack of storytelling, there is atmosphere and some kind of entertaining suspense. And because the player is controlling a girl, the game play offers some interesting features like playing different social roles. But don't expect these features will help you to overlook the poor quality.

After beating ACIII, I was going to take a break from going through the series but then realized, the remastered version had a whole other game with it. I read up about the story online and had to jump right in. Originally, this was a PS Vita game and since I had no Vita and wasn't playing Assassins Creed back then, I completely missed out.

The story is unfortunately not very interesting, it felt like I could guess the main twist very early on. I did like Aveline as a main character and it was cool that they gave her some new mechanics like charming guys for various bonuses, shooting blow darts and changing disguises. I ended up using the blow darts a lot once I got them. There are interesting moments in her journey so I didn't hate the story or anything but I think with this being originally a portable game, they couldn't or didn't want to get too deep with the plot.

The portability did bring one change that I loved though, the almost mission based structure that this game has. Yes, it has the open world mechanics with side missions and other collectables you can run around and grab, but being able to do a mission in a smaller world felt so much more my speed than the huge open areas in most games that you have to navigate back and forth just to get to the next mission. I know I may sound old but honestly, I hate that every game is open world now. It was cool with GTA but I still prefer missions or levels or even just a little hub, if you have to make it slightly open. Open world games usually feel dragged out with everything they throw in there and yeah, you can ignore it all but then you still have to keep going from point A to point B and they throw stuff at you in between, just let me do the missions and move on to the next one!

Ok, I'm done ranting.

All that to say, I like the more mission based structure this game has, with a smaller world to navigate.

The combat is still the same Assassins Creed style that people love, it flows, it feels good and it annoys me at times, like always. Sneaking around is still fun and even more so with this game letting you climb trees and poison dart people. I was worried that this game would have the boat combat from ACIII but thankfully it doesn't. May be controversial but I hated the boat combat in that game.

It's a pretty good side story and a decent companion to the third game. I just wish the story was more engaging but I'll never hate a game that lets me kill slave masters.

7/10.

It's a shame people don't like it, I on the other hand did not expect it be to so awesome. I particularly love the female lead, Aveline. I really didn't have a lot of hope for it then when I saw it as a dlc, after having played AC3, on Xbox 360 when it was new. Now having gone back and played the remastered version of both games, believe it or not but Liberation in HD actually looks better then AC3 remastered. Sure the game is basically a character swap and Aveline controls just like Haytham, but they added some cool features, like the Lady, Slave and Assassin personas for Aveline to switch back and forth between, depending on what missions call for. Overall I enjoyed it very much, and Aveline is a sorely underrated character and Assassin, compared to others in the franchise. If you haven't played, it free to play with the purchase of AC3 Remastered bundle with all the previously released dlc. I'm giving it a 10.