10 Ways "Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation" Stacks up to "Assassin's Creed 3"

There have been portable Assassin's Creed games in the past, but not one of them can hold a candle to Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation.

At an Ubisoft showcase during Comic-Con, I sat down with one of the developers to watch as he played the PS Vita game Liberation for several minutes. During that time, I picked his brain about the ways the new game will mirror its big brother, the Xbox 360/PS3/PC title Assassin's Creed 3, as well as how they will differ.

Liberation concerns Aveline de Grandpré, an Assassin of African and French descent, and takes place around the same time as Assassin's Creed 3. The demo Ubisoft showed me held few hints in the way of story, but I was able to fill in some gaps as I took in the gameplay. Read on to discover some of the ways Liberation stacks up to Assassin's Creed 3.

Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation is built on the same engine as Assassin's Creed 3: the AnvilMAX Engine.

That allowed Ubisoft to include many of the standard Assassin's Creed features that fans love: large and intricate environments, free-running, fully-rendered, active crowds, and even features new to Assassin's Creed 3, like running assassinations. Plus, it looks gorgeous, of course, on the Vita's gigantic screen.

Aveline de Grandpré, the Assassin at the center of Liberation's story, is an amalgamation of four "very powerful" women from that era, the Ubisoft dev told me. He wouldn't reveal who the four women were, though I'm guessing a major history buff could puzzle it out.

Open your text books to the table of contents and get on that shit, please, because I'm dying to know more about her.

Liberation's story begins in 1768 and spans 15 years, meaning it will likely end in 1783—the same year the story of Assassin's Creed 3 will reportedly conclude. The demo took place about halfway through the game, though it was unclear exactly when in the timeline that was.

Assassin's Creed 3 is said to begin in 1753, 15 years before Liberation begins, but is it possible the two stories will overlap in more than just time? Connor (AC 3's hero) and Aveline de Grandpré would make a badass duo.

Ubisoft is going to great pains to ensure that Assassin's Creed 3 stays as true to history as a game about aliens leaving holy artifacts all over the Earth can be, and Liberation will certainly prove no different.

They've said before that the series won't shy away from possibly inflammatory issues like slavery, and will even strive to portray historical figures like Ben Franklin in more realistic ways than we're used to from text books. The Ubisoft demoer confirmed that slavery is the main trade in Louisiana at the time of Liberation, so we can't wait to see what part it plays, especially in a tale about an African Assassin.

Like AC 3, Liberation will begin before the Revolutionary War and will continue on long past Independence Day, 1776. But for the most part, where AC 3 focuses on the Revolution, Liberation is all about Louisiana Rebellion.

Ubisoft explained that the Rebellion, a smaller war aimed at stopping the French from handing over ownership of the territory to the Spanish, "mirrors" the Revolutionary War in many ways. But its focus on the Spanish rather than the British will surely provide for some very different scenarios.

Watching the Ubisoft developer combat several enemies at once in a ruined, flooded wine cellar, one new ability exclusive to the PS Vita's Liberation struck me: the chain kill.

The new move allows you to pause time and select targets, much like Fallout 3's "V.A.T.S." system. You select targets by tapping them, and when the flow of time resumes, Aveline proceeds to effortlessly take them out. The developer said it makes the game a bit more accessible, and while it does seem a little bit cheap at this point, it's also a little bit awesome.

Liberation will pack a full arsenal into its little package. Aveline's tools of the trade seem to include everything AC fans know and love from the series, and there are bound to be some surprises as well.

During the demo, Aveline brandished familiar weapons like the musket and hidden blades, as well as a machete and blow pipe with poison darts. As fun as they all looked (we really wish we'd been able to actually play the game), we can't wait to see what else she has up her sleeves.

Toward the end of the demo, Aveline made a daring escape on a "borrowed" horse and carriage after successfully taking out her target. This threw the game into a sort of mini-game using the PS Vita's front touch screen.

Tapping the screen whipped the horses, increasing their speed, and holding a finger down reigned in, slowing the carriage down. Other touch functions will include the ability to swipe the back of the system to pickpockets bystanders, something I'll try out before passing judgment, and there are sure to be plenty more functions as well. Obviously, none of these are possible in the console version of Assassin's Creed 3.

One semi-common complaint throughout the Assassin's Creed series has been that button-mashing is far too effective; jamming the attack button is sometimes enough to take down most enemies. This was a more glaring problem in the first game, though, and it looks like button-mashing will be mostly ineffective in Liberation.

The demoer was able to show that button-mashing gets you nowhere fast; when he pressed the attack button indiscriminately, enemies simply locked into a blocking stance, rendering Aveline's strikes futile. When he began timing his attacks more carefully, though, he quickly overpowered and annihilated them.

I didn't get to see any multiplayer during this particular demo, but Ubisoft has said in the past that Liberation's will be "tailored" specifically to the PS Vita's strengths. What that means is anyone's guess, though we'll be happy to have a multiplayer AC experience on the go no matter what it is.

We know from past announcements that Liberation will take advantage of the Vita's rear touch pad and front touch screen, gyroscope, and camera, but we're not sure how all of these will fit together, or whether they'll be utilized by Liberation's unique multiplayer mode.

Got any guesses? How do you think the game is shaping up so far? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.