Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD (360) – whipping into action

The only Assassin’s Creed to put a woman in the starring role arrives on home consoles, but should it have stayed on the PS Vita?

Whatever future the PS Vita has it now seems to be dependent almost entirely on Remote Play. There are no major exclusives scheduled for this year and although playing PlayStation 4 games on a portable is a neat trick it seems one unlikely to keep the Vita afloat all on its own. And yet it’s still hard to predict how and when the Vita’s story will end, only that it won’t take much effort to preserve its very short list of notable exclusives.



Originally released as a portable companion to Assassin’s Creed III, Liberation represents one of the most significant attempts by a third party publisher to create a big budget killer app for the Vita. It wasn’t a big success when released back in October 2012 though and Ubisoft made no attempt to repeat the effort with Assassin’s Creed IV.

Liberation is perhaps most notable for featuring the series’ first female protagonist: mixed race assassin Aveline de Grandpré. Brought up in Spanish-controlled New Orleans the game is set around the closing days of the French and Indian War (really a conflict between Britain and France) and taking in the first half of the American Revolutionary War. As such it’s set midway between the last two numbered sequels, with Aveline having cameoed in her own PlayStation exclusive mission in Assassin’s Creed IV.


Aveline is an immediately sympathetic character, with the series once again daring to show slavery in all its vile reality. It even shines a light on more obscure practices, such as the system of plaçage which gives Aveline her unexpectedly high social standing. But even by video game standards she’s a thinly drawn character, with little in the way of discernible personality. She hasn’t got much of a story arc either, with the game offering up multiple villains but no real drama.

As in Assassin’s Creed IV, the story is presented as an interactive experience from Abstergo, the company behind the Aminus device and front for the evil Templars. That means none of what happens is necessarily historically accurate, with a hacker called Citizen E occasionally butting in to warn you – which is a great idea in theory but severely undersold in practise.

For those that feel Assassin’s Creed III and IV overextended themselves Liberation is much more focused on assassination and stealth, and therefore much closer in style to the first two games. Which also means it has much less variety, in terms of both freeform exploration and story missions.

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD (360) – now even prettier

As well the signature hidden blade Aveline has all manner of whips, blowpipes, and a dart-firing parasol to utilise. But her available equipment depends on which of three outfits she’s wearing at the time (if anyone takes offence that the first special ability Ubisoft thought of for a female protagonist was visiting a clothes shop we’re not sure we can blame them).



When she’s wearing her formal attire Aveline can charm guards and use the James Bond style parasol, but she can’t run or jump. In her default assassin outfit (which thankfully doesn’t involve a silly-looking hoodie) she can leap and run with the best of them, and has access to the widest range of weapons – but she’s more easily spotted by guards and can’t charm them.

The third outfit is that of a servant, which allows her to blend into the background with the greatest ease but is useless for combat. But it’s rarely used outside of specific missions and given the restrictions of the formal wear we ended up using the assassin outfit whenever possible. Which is less than you’d think as quite often the game forces you to use a particular wardrobe.

The fact that you quickly end up trying to circumvent Liberation’s main innovation is obviously a problem, especially as the game offers little to do outside the story missions and side quests. The Louisianan bayou is Liberation’s equivalent of Assassin’s Creed III’s wilderness and although it looks good there’s nothing really to do in it: no animals to hunt (although alligators will happily eat you) and no forts to raid or homesteads to build.

There is a strategy trading game to amuse yourself with, that’s actually quite engaging, but that’s really it in terms of extra distractions. This HD version does add in more missions and story elements but the game’s portable origins are still obvious – not least in terms of how short most quests are. Everything seems far too insubstantial and quickly repetitive, which is a problem that’s magnified further when playing on a home console.


The controls are at least better though, with the original Vita having been saddled with a number of irritating touchscreen puzzles. Indeed this HD upgrade represents a considerable effort all round, rather than just being a quick and dirty port.

The spruced up graphics have had a reasonable amount of work put into them but Liberation still does little to counter the idea that the whole Assassin’s Creed franchise needs a revamp and substantial new ideas, and not just new (or re-released) gimmicks.

In Short: The story set-up is good and there are some interesting new gameplay features, but almost all of them are squandered by sloppy design and inconsequential action.

Pros: Stealth and combat work fine, with arguably the best platforming of the series. Interesting setting and great attention to period detail.

Cons: The persona system is deeply flawed and out of your control for nearly half the game. Poor storytelling and brief, repetitive, missions.

Score: 5/10

Formats: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, and PC

Price: £15.99

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Sofia

Release Date: 15th January 2014

Age Rating: 18

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