Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD (2014)

This AC entry is an enhanced port of the original PlayStation Vita title, the MC is called Aveline de Grandpré, a rare female lead in the series and one of its most distinctive protagonists. It is set in 18th-century New Orleans, the surrounding bayous, and Mayan ruins. The game introduces a unique “persona system,” letting Aveline disguise herself as an Assassin, a Lady, or a Slave, each with distinct abilities and limitations. This mechanic, along with the vibrant historical setting, gives Liberation a unique flavor compared to the mainline Assassin’s Creed entries.

The campaign is notably shorter, clocking in at around 8~10 hours, and the narrative, while intriguing, can feel rushed and occasionally confusing due to abrupt transitions and limited exposition. Mission variety is limited, with several repetitive tailing or eavesdropping tasks, and the AI often behaves inconsistently, swinging between overly alert and strangely oblivious. Though this is expected since this was originally released for a handheld, which has simpler and shorter titles compared to regular consoles.

Combat is serviceable but basic, relying heavily on counter-kill mechanics familiar from earlier games, so no news on this regard, it is the good old AC classic combat. While the visuals are sharper than the Vita version, they don’t match the scale or polish of other Assassin’s Creed titles from the same era. Despite these flaws, many fans appreciate Liberation HD for its fresh perspective, focused scope, and Aveline’s engaging character, I would only recommend this one for hardcore AC fans, otherwise, it is a skippable title.

Assassin's Creed Liberation is a game that only interested me for the first fifteen minutes of gameplay. The game plays the story of a Colonial freed slave named Aveline de Granpré( the first female assassin in the series that we play). Aveline uses her social context of 18th century New Orleans to personify three different personas to help in her assassin tasks. The Assassin persona, the slave persona and the lady persona. Which has drawbacks and advantages, with their notoriety system, and way of playing. Unfortunately, this is probably the only good aspect of the game, everything else is a step down from here. The game is graphically equal to ACIII, yet by being a game developed for the PS Vita it does not have as good of lighting, but that is a minor setback. The gaming mechanics are similar to previous AC games with some choppiness and too simplistic free running due to PS Vita controls. The side quests and collectables are negligible, barely ever being presented in the game besides an icon on the map, with a not easy way to keep track in the menu. The side hustle to make more money on the side works as a colonial freight controller simulator, and a very simplistic one as well.

And then the worst of all is the story, every character is as shallow as an ankle pool, and not even the great plot twist at the end reveals the intention of the characters and nuanced humour or feelings from the characters. Even Aveline seems to be an expressionless protagonist in all of this. Of course, some of this might be explained away by the whole "you are playing this through an Abstergo system therefore the history is tempered with", and I agree that the Citizen E missions were a cool addition, but even these do not lead up to nothing more than revelling the true History. Most of the cutscenes also lack amicability and a way to familiarize ourselves with the characters, the way the characters move, behave talk looks so robotic.

In general, this game made me want to not play it anymore, the story does not engage you and you constantly feel confronted with the robotic reality of all of this programming. Do not play it.

Beat 82% during free trial of Ubisoft +. Again this was a game that I had misgivings about playing, so it was great to play it for free. I focused on the main story while getting side stuff along the way. The combat was the same overly easy fare found in the other middle games, which could see me devastate 20+ enemies at once. I did die a couple times from inconsistent camera and parry icons, and a couple of the bosses that required very specific button presses. The combat was so easy that I only used the chain kill feature a couple times, and cheaped out on upgrading my gear. I did buy most ammo pouches, but used the free starting sword, pistol and Connor's tomahawk for most of the game. Near the end I bought the heavy cavalry saber and hook axe, but never bothered upgrading my gun. Reading a guide after I found out the pocket pistol could be used by the slave and lady, so I should have bought it. I enjoyed the disguise feature, and it was great to see an assassin dress properly for the role instead of wearing those flashy iconic robes; the exact kind of thing a real assassin would not want to wear. The system was a little simple and sometimes what disguise to use was mandatory. I found the slave to be overall the most useful due to its balance of combat, stealth and parkour. Picking up a crate and walking past guards into a restricted area made getting around easy, while she could still climb and jump to get into favourable positions and collectables. The lady was the least useful because of her inability to climb and jump. It made it much more difficult to get around, though she made the best assassin from either charming the target to lure him to a secluded spot or openly using the poison dart parasol. I did not use the bribe feature outside the mission that introduced it, though I did enjoy charming a minion to take with me into combat. I could even blend with my minion to get into some restricted areas; oh that is just a lady and her paramour out on a tryst, nothing to worry about. I did try to get a target to attack me first so that my gentleman would kill him for me, though it was not easy; I had to throw a punch and get into a fight anyway. I wonder if repeatedly pickpocketing from the front would have worked. The assassin persona looked the coolest, had the biggest health bar and the best weapons, but it was the most expensive to operate. She gained notoriety so easily and I almost always ended up littering the street with corpses. Had to drop several grand on bribes, while the lady and slave could reduce notoriety for free.

After I finished the story I went around completing the side content that I missed. I did all side missions for the smugglers and each persona, found all diary pages and fever victims, and most of the other collectables. I am not a fan of collectathon though at least many of the collectables here were not annoying; I don't mind exploring the world to see interesting sights and picking up stuff along the way. It gets annoying when there is nothing interesting to experience and feels like a bland chore. The gator eggs were an example of a bad collectable because every nest was the same with no environmental story telling, and using damn QTEs to defeat the gators was just a chore. I tried to shoot them for easy kills but she would not. I overall found the bayou to be an unpleasant pain in the ass because of how slow it was to get around. I gave up on using the canoes because they seemed no faster than swimming, and were very janky to get in and out of. I ran into a number of janky bugs, and once had to quit the game because I was stuck in the swimming animation while on land. The lack of fast travel made it even more annoying. The game claimed to have fast travel, but those were just map transitions. I did not see much point in buying businesses because they did not give passive income, only discounts. I suppose buying them all before buying the best gear would save some money, but the trading minigame was an extremely easy source of money. The trading was simple enough to not be annoying, so I used it whenever I was at the HQ. Unfortunately, accessing it from a shop hid the mouse cursor and made it a huge pain to operate, so I did not use the feature as much as I could have. By the end I bought a few east indiamens for their highest cargo capacity to ship cotton to Europe, then guns to south America, then I think sugar back to Europe. I went for the long high profit trips. The very last thing I did was the different perspective mission to play as Connor. I had to look up online how to access it, and it was not worth playing. Just a repeat of the standard mission with a bit more generic combat and no boss fight + platforming challenge.

I enjoyed this game more than 3, though it was an objectively lower quality game. And had no naval missions. The story and characters were a little more interesting, though the main reason was better mission design and the disguise mechanics. Many missions failed on detection, but properly using the disguises made it a fun restriction rather than annoyance. There were only 2 missions that I disliked because I failed many times; the race where the timing was unforgiving, and a slave mission in the bayou to take out 4 guys holding a hostage. I tried many times to double hidden blade the 2 guys holding the witness at gun point, but it would not work. I think the hitbox to kill both was ridiculously precise for some reason. I ended up poisoning them with the blow dart, but even that did not properly work. They didnt die, instead just stood there. When I killed them in melee I got mission failure for being detected, but then it suddenly changed to victory. I mostly ignored optional objectives as usual. I am done with the game but if I owned it I could see using the trading to make enough money to buy all pocket watches for the best gun. Shame the disguise mechanics did not return in later games.

7.0/10

This was certainly one of the more interesting AC games I've played. It certainly had the potential for even more, but kind of lost it along the way.

Back in the day, I thoroughly enjoyed playing AC 3, deeming it one of my favorite installments in the series. It took me a long time to pick up this DLC, but I'm kinda glad I did.

The premise is interesting and it's enjoyable to see a narrative that focuses more on the women characters. It's still put in its historical context, but working with that it's nice to see what they did with the story. Even though the initial idea is neat, it doesn't really manage to follow through through the game. The plot feels rushed and the dialog is stale and impersonal. Even when tragedy befalls it's hard to relate to characters that have the same emotional range as a cardboard cutout. It's a shame since I felt like this game really had something special that could have been developed into a full game instead of a DLC.

Gameplaywise it's classic Assassins' Creed-style missions. They are not terribly boring and frustrating, but they are not really fun or smooth either. I was especially not enjoying the swamp environment as I kept falling into the water and wasn't able to climb up anywhere. The whip was a fresh asset to the series at this point. It's extremely primitive but they had to work with the limitations after all. I will also put a note on the graphics of the Switch version, which is quite awful. You're better playing the ps4 remake of even the ps3 original.

It wasn't a terrible experience and I admit I was quite intrigued at some points. If I would have played this when it came out I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it. The best thing was the story and the premise of focusing more on female heroes. They both succeeded and failed with it, leaving me mostly relieved that the game is done.

Over n' out.

If this game had been given a bigger budget and not released as a spin-off it would have ATE

Aveline is THAT BITCH, the story continues the themes of parenthood (focusing on mother-daughter relationships this time), the clothing system was really cool to me (dress is obvs still important today, but historically people relied almost solely on dress as a form of social 'masque'), the setting is delicious (how can anybody dislike New Orleans?)

UNFORTUNATELY they made this as a PSVITA exclusive, filled it with barely any content, made small maps due to the hardware restrictions, the story jumps all over the place without connecting cutscenes or missions etc etc etc

im still mad abt it. Aveline walked so Evie, Kassandra and Eivor could RUN

I gotta be honest. I didn't liked this game. I absolutely loved Aveline and the Lousiana setting, but the game was a bug-ridden mess with an incomplete plot and lots of filler content.

But do you know what I really, REALLY liked? The 'Personas' system. Not because it changed the way you play or the cool outfits, but how they represent the social dynamics of free black people of the end of the XVIII century in America.

I always say that videogames dissapoint a little with the way they separare plot, themes and game mechanics. This is a great example of how bring that together.

And, as you would expect of me, I wrote an article in spanish about that.

Back to Liberation, I really wish a better game for Aveline. She is one of my favorite characters in the franchise and really deserves it.

I had this one back on the PS Vita, yes I'm one of the 5 people that had a Vita, and coming back to replay this game after plaything through all the other Colonial games, it's kind of an oddity.

This game was an AC 3 handheld spin-off developed by one of the backwater Ubisoft teams. It feels like Ubisoft proper just sorta told them to make a handheld game to increase AC 3's publicity and that's about it. Compared to those main line entries it almost doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game. Even Rogue felt like a Black Flag rehash.

While this game shares a lot of the same basic AC gameplay in regard to climbing and combat it does have something that I think should've been in more AC games, social stealth. As assassins I always thought it would make sense for them to try to blend into the crowd, not have those distracting white robes and hoods. In Liberation, your assassin, Aveline, can use disguises to get around. The Lady disguise can get you into secret places by use of bribes and feminine charm. The Slave disguise is sort of your generic disguise. It can get you into some restricted places through the work entrance and you can blend into groups much easier. And finally your Assassin robes, they make you instantly notorious, but you have the best combat abilities. With a little more fleshing out, this could've been a great system to add to the Assassin Creed series.

This story is also a bit odd. A lot of it's issues I think are due to the short length. It seems to start a lot of balls rolling, but never feels like they flesh them out enough. There' s plot lines about finding your mother, running your business, freeing slaves, and fighting Templars. It's a lot for a 10 hour game to achieve. The game actually rarely mentions the word "Templar" and Aveline does her work more to protect slaves and her business. While the usual Ubisoft scene of introducing all the Templars in the beginning like Saturday morning villains is a bit cliche, I kind of missed it here. There's a story beat about finding an ancient artifact but it's never really explained and seems more like it was a Ubisoft mandated inclusion. The story spins all these wheels until the last chapter. That's when we learn, spoilers, your stepmother is the Templar Grandmaster and the plot takes on this theme of girl power. Both of them are ladies with great influence and abilities that they must hide from society because it's 1770. I think there was something there worth developing.

As for the history this game centers around. I don't know much about France's colonies vs England's, but there's not a lot of big moments in here. You get to see New Orleans change hands from the French to the Spanish and a few historic events are mentioned like Mackendal's revolt. You also get to see a Louisiana that is still steeped in voodoo traditions. One thing I disliked is the very limited database this time around. No little tidbits of history about locations you find or events that happen and just a bare little blurb about characters. I realize this is likely a budget issue.

You get to explore a mini version of 1770 New Orleans and a bigger version of the bayou. The city feels different from Boston or New York. Where Boston has that rugged, Northern frontier city, New Orleans feels like an older, well established European city. The bayou can be a bear to navigate. Your best bet is to use a canoe or tree running. Still, it has a good atmosphere with the huge cypress trees and murky, gator infested waters.

Another thing I like about this game that is different from most AC games, there's music! Both the bayou and New Orleans has some ambient music that plays often and there's a lot more music in general. In this shorter, leaner game the music really helps give a little more "umpft" to the world.

The graphics in this HD remake do look a bit nicer than they did in the Vita version, so this remake is a little more worthwhile than the AC 3 one. The voice acting is a little spotty. You've got some well known voice actors like JB Blanc doing their best with some awkward lines and there's voices I don't recognize who give iffy performances with overblown French or Spanish accents. I can't complain, at least these French people had French accents, Unity! Aveline's actress does alright. She delivers lines competently, but I never got a good feel for her personality. At points she's very matter of fact, other times she's a little flirty with her love interest.

All in all, I would consider this an exotic AC game. Liberation has some neat things that I've always wanted in an AC game, namely social stealth. Still, the short run time, rambling story, and general "handheld game" feel to it limits it's impact. If they had more time and a better team working on it, this could've been a worthy spin off assassin game, instead of a prelude to a bigger game. Aveline is an oft forgotten assassin that could use some more love cause she does have an interesting character to dive into.

A pretty disappointing assassin's creed game I'm surprised I managed to finish.

Played on PC, but this is a port of a game from PSP (or PS Vita) that's been brought to PC with updated graphics. But it still shows that this was designed for a smaller console. The world is fairly small, with not too many details. Coming from a newer AC game you can tell the difference.

But the graphics are not what makes a good AC game. So I'll go with what I liked as there's really little of it.

The main character Aveline is a really nice idea for the main hero. Could have been so much better but even despite the bad writing I really liked her as the main protagonist.

Second thing I liked was the inclusion of the bayou as one of the locations of the game. This really felt like an interesting and new setting although with the graphical limitations could have been so much better.

Now onto the bad things which there are quite a lot of. Starting of with a terrible voice acting - comical at times. Might be one of the worst voice acting I've seen for a long time. Story is pretty bland and a lot of time confusing.

While the combat looks good at times - specially the finish moves - it's pretty much what we've known from all the assassin's creed games.

Camera work leaves a lot to desire as well. Especially in a tighter spots like climbing a tower from within it becomes really annoying and more in your way than anything else.

But the worst offense of this game is the extreme hand holding throughout the entire thing. You almost have no choice whatsoever how to approach a mission with very few exceptions. Game forces you to go to certain spot - if it decides it's time to fight - it's time to fight. It chooses paths for you - all you need to do is follow the green way point. This just felt like I had no say in anything - very disappointing.

The new mechanic of cloth changing while interesting does not add anything to the game as the game tells you into which persona you need to dress. There's nothing for you to consider or try out.

For all that I feel my memory of the game will be mostly running. Running from one point to another, from one cut scene to the other and to the bitter end of the game.

Can't really recommend it. If you played all AC games and really want something new - I guess you can try. Or if you're a completionist and want to finish all AC games - pick it up. Otherwise don't. This is not the game you are looking for.

I read somewhere that AC: Liberation was a core game in the series, and shouldn't be skipped. I totally disagree. The only apparent link to the rest of the series is the presence of Assassins & Templars, and a seemingly-inconsequential mention of "Eve". (Oh, and a brief throwaway cameo from a character from a prior game.)

The overall game looks and feels like a low-budget knockoff of Assassin's Creed. It was originally a portable game, and unfortunately the HD remaster does little to hide that.

The story evolves from completely incomprehensible to simply uninteresting by the end. Much of the first half is simply warping you around the world and having you do odd-jobs for no apparent reason.

The control scheme seems good at first compared to prior games, but occasionally slams you into a stone wall of jank (seriously, eff that stupid mine escape mission and its non-working whip-swing and broken jumping).

The only thing that saved this game from getting one star was a much welcomed dialed-back focus on insta-fail stealth missions.

Yuck.

Played on PS3, May 2017

• I did not finish this game because I was not enjoying it that much

Pros: The costume system was interesting, and has potential. It was refreshing to have a female protagonist. I liked the lack of modern day elements.

Cons: Story was not that interesting and a little hard to follow. Gameplay felt a little less polished than other AC games and that is saying something. Specifically I am talking about the free running, it just felt jerky to me.

Do not finish or attempt to start over.