BerlingerTG
New Member
Just a review I put out on PS Motion and thought I would share it here as well.
With all the hype of Assassin’s Creed III, it’s Vita-developed companion game, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation had some hype going to it as well. It has some ties with Assassin’s Creed III (and extra content when you connect the two) and also has the series’ first female protagonist.
Although this game has some ties with it’s home console counterpart, and has a few cameos from that game’s protagonist, Liberation is a stand-alone title. You won’t be lost if this is your first Assassin’s Creed game.
The game’s setting is in Louisiana and starts near the end of the French and Indian War. It takes place in the 18th Century, to be more precise. You follow the footsteps of Aveline de Grandpre, an African-American woman whom is a formal lady by day, Assassin by night, helping slaves and uncovering a mystery that surrounds the community she lives within.
The story is probably the weakest point of this game. The first few chapters of the game just don’t make sense. You’re given bits and pieces of the story, but none of it seems connected in many ways. Once you get about halfway through the game, the pieces start to fit together and make sense. Even so, the events that do fit together don’t form a novel-worthy story. It is entertaining, but nothing great.
The gameplay is where the game shines. It keeps the Assassin’s Creed formula of traversing buildings, assassinating targets, blending with crowds, leaping into haystacks, and also adds a few new things to the mix, all of which you are given user-friendly tutorials for.
New to this game are interchangeable personas. As you traverse the many locations of this game, you can find and buy buildings that become Dressing Rooms for Aveline. These let her change her outfit and persona. There are three personas with separate abilities. They are Assassin, Lady, and Slave. The Assassin is the most agile and has the highest strength when fighting with weapons. The slave is agile. It is not very strong, but can blend well with crowds. Lastly, the Lady is the least acrobatic. She cannot climb anything, but she can entice guards and gain you access to certain areas of the game.
Each persona can also gain and lose their reputation. Basically, the more reputation a persona has, the more quickly guards will recognize you and give chase. Every time you enter combat or kill guards, your reputation goes up. Each persona also has its own way of getting reputation down. If you want the Assassin’s rep to go down, you have to find Magistrates in the open world and bribe them with money. For the Lady persona, you need to find and assassinate witnesses who saw her killing guards. Finally, the slave persona can reduce reputation by finding and tearing down wanted posters throughout the city. These are fairly easy to figure out, as you can pull up your map and set destinations for those targets.
As far as combat and inventory go, it remains similar to previous entries, and you have a wide array of weapons to choose from. From hidden blades to dart pipes to pistols, there is a lot for you to find, buy, and obtain as you play through the game. You can purchase weapons, along with accessories and costumes. For example, you can buy the Assassin Hood to have Aveline look more like a traditional Assassin, rather than with her hat.
The combat is simple, but still can be challenging if you get to the point where you have a lot of enemies on your tail, and if you get hit by a poison dart, your vision will be hampered.
As far as controls go, the game is pretty easy to play. There is very little touchscreen control in the game. You will find letters throughout the game that you use the touchscreen to open or look through to find new locations, but that is minimal. Most of the controls are dealt with by the Vita’s buttons.
You have a lot of free roam in this game, just like other entries. There are main missions, and there are also other things you can do. You can collect journal pages by searching the various locations, which will unlock a special scene. There are also NPCs that are known as “Citizen E” that you need to track down and kill in order to unlock the game’s true ending.
Presentation is another place where the game shines. The game looks really nice on the Vita’s OLED screen. If I had to classify the visual presentation, I would say it is somewhere between PS2 and PS3, which makes sense, for that is what the Vita is, basically. The game looks fluid and the sound and music blend nicely with the atmosphere of the game.
However, the game has many faults that need to be addressed. Liberation is full of glitches, and bad ones. If you play the game, I suggest you immediately download the available patch because you will need it. I encountered many glitches as I played the game. The most notable ones are glitches that make Aveline’s character model glitch and the player will be unable to attack enemies. She will literally do nothing but stand and get pummeled if you hit the Square button to attack. These glitches normally require you to reload your last save file, which is a pain in the butt.
The Verdict
7.0
GOOD
THE GOOD: All in all, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is an acceptable Vita title. It looks great, and is fun to play. There is plenty to do and plenty of locations to explore. Glitches aside, fans will want to play it at least once.
THE BAD: The story stumbles and there are several glitches in the game, even with the patch. Buyers should be wary of that. It won’t keep you from beating the game, but having to reload your save every time the game glitches isn’t very much fun.
With all the hype of Assassin’s Creed III, it’s Vita-developed companion game, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation had some hype going to it as well. It has some ties with Assassin’s Creed III (and extra content when you connect the two) and also has the series’ first female protagonist.
Although this game has some ties with it’s home console counterpart, and has a few cameos from that game’s protagonist, Liberation is a stand-alone title. You won’t be lost if this is your first Assassin’s Creed game.
The game’s setting is in Louisiana and starts near the end of the French and Indian War. It takes place in the 18th Century, to be more precise. You follow the footsteps of Aveline de Grandpre, an African-American woman whom is a formal lady by day, Assassin by night, helping slaves and uncovering a mystery that surrounds the community she lives within.
The story is probably the weakest point of this game. The first few chapters of the game just don’t make sense. You’re given bits and pieces of the story, but none of it seems connected in many ways. Once you get about halfway through the game, the pieces start to fit together and make sense. Even so, the events that do fit together don’t form a novel-worthy story. It is entertaining, but nothing great.
The gameplay is where the game shines. It keeps the Assassin’s Creed formula of traversing buildings, assassinating targets, blending with crowds, leaping into haystacks, and also adds a few new things to the mix, all of which you are given user-friendly tutorials for.
New to this game are interchangeable personas. As you traverse the many locations of this game, you can find and buy buildings that become Dressing Rooms for Aveline. These let her change her outfit and persona. There are three personas with separate abilities. They are Assassin, Lady, and Slave. The Assassin is the most agile and has the highest strength when fighting with weapons. The slave is agile. It is not very strong, but can blend well with crowds. Lastly, the Lady is the least acrobatic. She cannot climb anything, but she can entice guards and gain you access to certain areas of the game.
Each persona can also gain and lose their reputation. Basically, the more reputation a persona has, the more quickly guards will recognize you and give chase. Every time you enter combat or kill guards, your reputation goes up. Each persona also has its own way of getting reputation down. If you want the Assassin’s rep to go down, you have to find Magistrates in the open world and bribe them with money. For the Lady persona, you need to find and assassinate witnesses who saw her killing guards. Finally, the slave persona can reduce reputation by finding and tearing down wanted posters throughout the city. These are fairly easy to figure out, as you can pull up your map and set destinations for those targets.
As far as combat and inventory go, it remains similar to previous entries, and you have a wide array of weapons to choose from. From hidden blades to dart pipes to pistols, there is a lot for you to find, buy, and obtain as you play through the game. You can purchase weapons, along with accessories and costumes. For example, you can buy the Assassin Hood to have Aveline look more like a traditional Assassin, rather than with her hat.
The combat is simple, but still can be challenging if you get to the point where you have a lot of enemies on your tail, and if you get hit by a poison dart, your vision will be hampered.
As far as controls go, the game is pretty easy to play. There is very little touchscreen control in the game. You will find letters throughout the game that you use the touchscreen to open or look through to find new locations, but that is minimal. Most of the controls are dealt with by the Vita’s buttons.
You have a lot of free roam in this game, just like other entries. There are main missions, and there are also other things you can do. You can collect journal pages by searching the various locations, which will unlock a special scene. There are also NPCs that are known as “Citizen E” that you need to track down and kill in order to unlock the game’s true ending.
Presentation is another place where the game shines. The game looks really nice on the Vita’s OLED screen. If I had to classify the visual presentation, I would say it is somewhere between PS2 and PS3, which makes sense, for that is what the Vita is, basically. The game looks fluid and the sound and music blend nicely with the atmosphere of the game.
However, the game has many faults that need to be addressed. Liberation is full of glitches, and bad ones. If you play the game, I suggest you immediately download the available patch because you will need it. I encountered many glitches as I played the game. The most notable ones are glitches that make Aveline’s character model glitch and the player will be unable to attack enemies. She will literally do nothing but stand and get pummeled if you hit the Square button to attack. These glitches normally require you to reload your last save file, which is a pain in the butt.
The Verdict
7.0
GOOD
THE GOOD: All in all, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is an acceptable Vita title. It looks great, and is fun to play. There is plenty to do and plenty of locations to explore. Glitches aside, fans will want to play it at least once.
THE BAD: The story stumbles and there are several glitches in the game, even with the patch. Buyers should be wary of that. It won’t keep you from beating the game, but having to reload your save every time the game glitches isn’t very much fun.
