By Ben Mapp
E3 is reaching its end, but thanks to Ubisoft we have been left with serious hints as to the future of Assassin's Creed. With the series making its next-gen debut this October with Unity, I'm taking the opportunity to take a detailed look back at one of the franchise's most lesser-played titles.
Originally unveiled as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and released exclusively to the PS Vita in 2012, this game is arguably one of the obscurer entries into the series. It features a female Assassin named Aveline who – exerting all of her skills in combat, disguise and infiltration – must expose a conspiracy concerning slaves in her hometown of New Orleans.
E3 is reaching its end, but thanks to Ubisoft we have been left with serious hints as to the future of Assassin's Creed. With the series making its next-gen debut this October with Unity, I'm taking the opportunity to take a detailed look back at one of the franchise's most lesser-played titles.
Originally unveiled as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and released exclusively to the PS Vita in 2012, this game is arguably one of the obscurer entries into the series. It features a female Assassin named Aveline who – exerting all of her skills in combat, disguise and infiltration – must expose a conspiracy concerning slaves in her hometown of New Orleans.
Despite its modest scale in comparison to the main games of the series, the gameplay remains true to the established formula and can be as fun and intense of any of the earlier games. This is probably why Ubisoft eventually opted to remaster the game with updated graphics and then release it on consoles as simply Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD earlier this year.
By dropping the “III” and thereby severing many of the connections it had to the mixed reputation of that game, Ubisoft have given Liberation its own identity as a console title. The game is therefore free to embrace its own distinctiveness which it illustrates in myriad ways. The story mainly takes place in Louisiana towards the end of the French and Indian War, sharing more or less the same time period of Assassin’s Creed III and – contrary to Achilles’ suggestion in that game that Connor is the only Assassin left alive in the new world – a very small Order of them operates out of New Orleans. There are only two of them actually, which is probably why Achilles doesn’t know about them. This Order comprises of just Aveline herself and the Order’s Native American mentor, Agaté. But when a mysterious Templar known as the Company Man arrives in New Orleans, Aveline realises that her Order is in now in immediate danger and makes it her business to weed out all those conspiring with the Templars – through use of three different personas – in order to ‘liberate’ the city.
Despite her mentor’s commands however Aveline also chooses to act on her own initiative and free slaves when she can, due to her own heritage as daughter to slaves, and she subsequently develops a reputation because of this. Her main mission to find and assassinate the Company Man sees her travel from New Orleans to the Bayou swamplands, to the iconic ruins of Chichén Itzá in Mexico and even, briefly, to a very snowy New York. The protagonist is certainly likeable enough although her motives for being an Assassin are truly one-dimensional, which is similar to Connor of Assassin’s Creed III, but there are a couple of other much more eccentric characters which help to balance Aveline’s mildly interesting personality, although none perhaps as iconic as either Ezio, Haytham or Edward. The rest of Liberation’s cast are somewhat clichéd and uninspired (such as the main antagonist or Aveline’s lovesick servant).
By dropping the “III” and thereby severing many of the connections it had to the mixed reputation of that game, Ubisoft have given Liberation its own identity as a console title. The game is therefore free to embrace its own distinctiveness which it illustrates in myriad ways. The story mainly takes place in Louisiana towards the end of the French and Indian War, sharing more or less the same time period of Assassin’s Creed III and – contrary to Achilles’ suggestion in that game that Connor is the only Assassin left alive in the new world – a very small Order of them operates out of New Orleans. There are only two of them actually, which is probably why Achilles doesn’t know about them. This Order comprises of just Aveline herself and the Order’s Native American mentor, Agaté. But when a mysterious Templar known as the Company Man arrives in New Orleans, Aveline realises that her Order is in now in immediate danger and makes it her business to weed out all those conspiring with the Templars – through use of three different personas – in order to ‘liberate’ the city.
Despite her mentor’s commands however Aveline also chooses to act on her own initiative and free slaves when she can, due to her own heritage as daughter to slaves, and she subsequently develops a reputation because of this. Her main mission to find and assassinate the Company Man sees her travel from New Orleans to the Bayou swamplands, to the iconic ruins of Chichén Itzá in Mexico and even, briefly, to a very snowy New York. The protagonist is certainly likeable enough although her motives for being an Assassin are truly one-dimensional, which is similar to Connor of Assassin’s Creed III, but there are a couple of other much more eccentric characters which help to balance Aveline’s mildly interesting personality, although none perhaps as iconic as either Ezio, Haytham or Edward. The rest of Liberation’s cast are somewhat clichéd and uninspired (such as the main antagonist or Aveline’s lovesick servant).
Aveline is evidently more naïve than previous Assassins too, again a little like Connor or even Ezio in the opening chapters of Assassin's Creed II. This can often lead to her being surprised at the various goings-on even when we, as the player, are not – which can be frustrating to say the least. Her abilities also feel somewhat limited although this is a little forgivable, taking into consideration that the game originally ran on the Vita and not on a console. All in all, the overarching storyline isn’t as exciting as some of its predecessors and attempts to be more personal, despite us not having a past relationship with Aveline or any of her friends. The plot could have been expanded to accommodate our alienation to the new protagonist. Some areas even fill in the gaps by having text appear onscreen between Memory Sequences, which makes it feel a little rushed. That said, the gameplay is immediately more liberating (forgive the pun) and engaging than Assassin’s Creed III, as we are dropped straight into the action without all of that achy-breaky plot introduction which ACIII made us wade through, which is very refreshing.
The atmosphere is nowhere near as stale as ACIII either and actually shares more in common with Black Flag, being more of a swashbuckling adventure and not taking itself massively seriously - at least not at first anyway! The game’s tone is helped along by an award-winning soundtrack composed by Winifred Philips, which runs circles around the one that features in ACIII. The diverse Haiti-inspired themes of Liberation share much more in common with those featured in role-playing games than any of the previous Assassin’s Creed installments to date, which makes it stand out a lot and helps to create much more immersion.
The atmosphere is nowhere near as stale as ACIII either and actually shares more in common with Black Flag, being more of a swashbuckling adventure and not taking itself massively seriously - at least not at first anyway! The game’s tone is helped along by an award-winning soundtrack composed by Winifred Philips, which runs circles around the one that features in ACIII. The diverse Haiti-inspired themes of Liberation share much more in common with those featured in role-playing games than any of the previous Assassin’s Creed installments to date, which makes it stand out a lot and helps to create much more immersion.
The stylish, free-flow combat returns and looks better than ever and never feels too difficult or too easy, and Aveline has got her own fighting style which adds to her uniqueness as a character, although sometimes the developers adopt some of the same ‘special move’ animations used in ACIII (which is understandable although kind of lethargic). Liberation’s gameplay also introduces several new mechanics to the series (such as diving and dart-gun weaponry) which are further developed in its successor, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Whereas Black Flag makes excellent use of Edward’s passion for a pirating lifestyle, Liberation embraces the fact that – yes – we are indeed playing as a woman, and women Assassins can actually make for much more decisive killers. Ubisoft therefore introduces us to the Dress/Persona Change mechanic, which makes use of three distinguishing personas for Aveline to disguise herself as, including the Assassin, the Slave and the Lady.
This can actually be a world of fun for a while and offers multiple methods of exploration and challenges, some unique to the persona. Each of Aveline’s different personas has its own advantages and drawbacks when exploring the world of New Orleans. For instance, wearing the Assassin garb adds more challenge to the game as Aveline will never be able to completely get rid of her notoriety, meaning that the guards are always suspicious of you. Whereas whilst using the Slave persona, although limited in combat, guards will not be apprehensive of Aveline at all as she navigates throughout the world, giving her further access to areas she would not have previously been able to visit.
This can actually be a world of fun for a while and offers multiple methods of exploration and challenges, some unique to the persona. Each of Aveline’s different personas has its own advantages and drawbacks when exploring the world of New Orleans. For instance, wearing the Assassin garb adds more challenge to the game as Aveline will never be able to completely get rid of her notoriety, meaning that the guards are always suspicious of you. Whereas whilst using the Slave persona, although limited in combat, guards will not be apprehensive of Aveline at all as she navigates throughout the world, giving her further access to areas she would not have previously been able to visit.
The Lady persona also gives Aveline the option to flirt with various men around town, sometimes leading to conflict if she does it to more than one at a time, which can be advantageous if you’re looking to create a distraction in order to infiltrate a fortress or get past an armed guard stealthily. Regrettably, despite the idea being a solid one, this persona-switching idea was not fleshed out as it ought to have been, meaning that – really – it’s only ever needed when on certain missions. Further customisation of the costumes would have added a nice touch as well as – although you can purchase costumes of varying colours – they all look identical in terms of design. This was also a criticism I had with the Ezio trilogy. I am really hoping to see this idea revisited in a later game featuring another female protagonist, allowing Ubisoft to return to and expand it to its fullest form with actual console technology as opposed to handheld.
The Memory Sequences are quite short as well, which is annoying as the missions are often quite easy to get through, meaning that the entire game is quick to get through within around a day of playing which – although no uncommon for modern games – is unusual for an Assassin’s Creed game. The gameplay throughout feels generally solid, although the game did crash once when I accidentally ‘broke’ a mission by killing a load of rioters instead of helping them start their rebellion, which was as entertaining as it was annoying. Graphically the game is beautiful although - of course - less so than the more recent Assassin's Creed - Black Flag. In Liberation it is particularly the more scenic and tropical landscapes of the Bayou and Chichén Itzá, which work as a great contrast against the grey and often dismal portrayal of New Orleans (which, although beautiful in its own right, is portrayed as very bleak).
The Memory Sequences are quite short as well, which is annoying as the missions are often quite easy to get through, meaning that the entire game is quick to get through within around a day of playing which – although no uncommon for modern games – is unusual for an Assassin’s Creed game. The gameplay throughout feels generally solid, although the game did crash once when I accidentally ‘broke’ a mission by killing a load of rioters instead of helping them start their rebellion, which was as entertaining as it was annoying. Graphically the game is beautiful although - of course - less so than the more recent Assassin's Creed - Black Flag. In Liberation it is particularly the more scenic and tropical landscapes of the Bayou and Chichén Itzá, which work as a great contrast against the grey and often dismal portrayal of New Orleans (which, although beautiful in its own right, is portrayed as very bleak).
Each of the locations feel big enough without being as open-ended as perhaps the cities and over-worlds featured in the other console titles, which is impressive considering that Liberation was originally adapted from an exclusively handheld game. That said however, the facial designs of the characters themselves appear a little dated, being more like those featured in the first couple of Assassin’s Creed games. Aveline herself looks great although unnervingly like pop sensation Rhianna, but the other characters aren’t nearly as intricately put-together. The game’s smaller scale has also helped the developers to stamp out the frame rate issues which have become a staple of this series, thereby adding to its beauty. But the game is not without its graphical glitches. On more than one occasion Aveline was pushing against an invisible wall whilst on the run from the guards.
Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD provides hours of fun, engaging and unique entertainment – but, whilst all of the ideas are solid, there is room for improvement and expansion of them. However, as a standalone game in its own right, Liberation offers one of more unique and adventurous Assassin’s Creed experiences to date.
Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD provides hours of fun, engaging and unique entertainment – but, whilst all of the ideas are solid, there is room for improvement and expansion of them. However, as a standalone game in its own right, Liberation offers one of more unique and adventurous Assassin’s Creed experiences to date.
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