Review: Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation (PlayStation Vita)

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is more than just a handheld version to its console counterpart. It’s an original story that switches the usual assassin/templar conflict for something a little different.

While holding the honor of being the first Assassin’s Creed title on Sony’s powerful new handheld, PLayStation Vita, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation breaks further new ground by introducing the franchise’s first lead female assassin, Aveline de Grandpré.

But does this handheld version stray too far from the establish Assassin’s Creed formula, or have fans of the franchise finally been given the definitive Creed game for ‘on the go’?

The Review

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation has been one of my — if not most — anticipated Vita games since its reveal earlier this year. The idea of exploring an open-world not unlike those found in console titles all in the palm of my hand is indeed attractive. However, and for the most part, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation stumbles short to offer the same level of enjoyably and perhaps playability as the most recent console Assassin’s Creed title.

Don’t get me wrong, all the elements are there. Expansive open-world maps, a nice assortment of side-missions, admirable number of collectables and console-like production values that really flex the muscle of the platform. Only, perhaps the game pushes it a little too far, so much in fact that the Vita struggles to keep up with Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation’s often blistering pace.

The core experience of this franchise is the near-perfect and seamless parkour gameplay, which has steadily evolved with each new game, that sees the players character move swiftly over the environment in spectacular fashion. In this regard Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation almost comes out ahead of its recent console counterpart, with movement speed and fluidity pushed to new levels — though there are still some issues such as Aveline ‘freaking out’ and incorrectly moving in an unwanted direction. When everything does come together however, the game starts to chug and drag itself to almost rage induced frustration.

That Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation tends to drag its feet when you’re in full flight is a little disheartening, since both New Orleans and the Bayou — the swap out-lands surrounding the city — are a gem to explore. While the colour palette of the game tends to be more on the grey side, compared to Assassin’s Creed III’s lush greenery, both have been designed in a way to fully take advantage of the parkour gameplay. The Bayou for example, with it’s vast rivers and lakes requires you to be creative in how you navigate it, seeing you spend a great deal of time swinging and leaping around the tree-tops.

In an attempt to change things up further, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation introduces the concept of persona’s, or in other words, disguises, of which there are three. You have the default assassin persona, as well as the lady and slave persona. The slave persona fits nicely into the themes woven throughout the game’s somewhat undercooked and underwhelming story — but more on that later.

Each persona has its own unique range of skills, including its own ‘notoriety’ meter. Useful if you’re getting tired of climbing through the city with Aveline’s assassin persona and constantly get held up by the constant pursuit of guards. Simply go to one of many ‘dressing chambers’ scattered across the map and bang, instant forgiveness, so to speak. However, outside of the obvious potential of the persona mechanic problems do arise in that both the slave and lady persona are essentially ‘locked’ to all of Aveline’s skill-set — even to the point of taking away the franchise’s core parkour inspired gameplay.

Like I said, the persona mechanic has potential, and while the different persona’s are handled nicely at the beginning, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation really doesn’t make full use of them. The idea behind it I believe was to allow the player to tackle specific missions however they liked by changing between the available persona’s. So, it seems a little strange that at various points in the game two of three of them are locked to the players, forcing you to walk down the pre-set path of the game’s design. That’s fine, but it’s the mixed signals that arise from optional mission objectives encouraging players to use all three.

For the most part you’ll want to assume the assassin persona, since it’s the only one that will give you full access to Aveline’s skill-set, but points in the story will require to take that of the slave or lady. It’s in these sections the persona mechanic really shines, and in respect of slave Aveline helps bridge a connection to Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation’s heavy themes. Slavery was a major part of life in Colonial America, and New Orleans — the games setting — was no exception.

Aveline herself is no stranger to slavery in her personal life, her mother’s freedom being ‘bought’ by a wealthy English business. Her mission as an assassin is to help the slaves of New Orleans find their own personal freedom, and while doing so is pulled into a rather complex Templar/Spanish plot to ensure the continued slavery of the local African community. The themes at play at here are powerful and resonate even by today’s standard, as equality is still contentious in 2012.

However, I couldn’t help feel the story skimmed a lot of the more ‘meaty’ content, almost like part of it was being held back. This perhaps ties into how the game is actually structured. Unlike previous games in the series where players would experience an assassin’s life through the eyes of Desmond Miles, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is instead presented as an Asbergo — the modern front for the Templar’s — product that allows you or I to experience an assassin’s history.

There are hints to suggest this, the most obvious being Citizen E who acts a sort of omnipresent hacker who wants nothing more than for you to see the truth. Finding him in the game world will unlock ‘extended’ version of the game’s cut-scenes that actually helps to shed more light on the game’s story, making it a little easier to follow.

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is certainly ambitious in its goal of offering a console-like open-world game on a handheld. For the most part it delivers on this, large and varied maps to explore, a nice assortment of collectibles and side-missions and a lengthy story, that sadly, suffers from some issues of its own.

PlayStation Vita fans would be wise to pick Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, if only for something to actually play on the handheld. While not a bad game, it certainly doesn’t do the Assassin’s Creed franchise justice.