Image via Complex Original
Assassin's Creed has stepped off home consoles and into the portable space before, but never in a way as ambitious or meaningful as Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation. Part of that has been made possible by the considerable power of the PS Vita, but Liberation adds plenty of new facets to the Assassin's Creed formula in addition to that.
Of course, it shares Assassin's Creed 3's brand new setting, which sends the saga to the time and place of the American Revolution. But it also introduces the series' first playable female Assassin, Aveline.
And as if playing as a female wasn't a big enough change, she's also black during a time of slavery in America. It's like Ubisoft is just asking to stir up trouble. Be that as it may, we have complete faith in them to do this ambitious concept justice. And after playing the game we can confirm that there are plenty of things it does right—here are five of them.
Aveline stands out
The first thing we noticed when we began playing Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation was that Aveline truly stands out. She's a first for the series in so many ways, and the dynamic between her and her world is very different. As a black female in the 1700s, she's treated differently from other characters we've seen in the series.
But she isn't sexualized at all, and Ubisoft appears to have done a very good job of allowing her to use her female strengths to her advantage without becoming a caricature.
She's also got some exclusive tools: a sugar cane machete plays the same role as Connor's tomahawk in Assassin's Creed 3, and a blowgun inspired by her African roots can shoot darts that kill enemies or make them go berserk and attack their friends.
Playing dress-up
One of the ways Aveline uses her gender to her advantage is by changing "personas" on the fly in the dressing rooms found around New Orleans and other locales.
Each persona comes with different abilities. The Assassin has a full set of armor, and is the most proficient in combat and generally parkouring around the environment.
The Slave puts on rags, losing the armor and most of the gear that the Assassin uses, but gaining the ability to more easily blend into crowds and go unnoticed in crowded areas.
The Lady keeps some items, like the hidden blades, but has no armor and can't run or climb. She can, however, charm and bribe her foes, and people in general are more receptive to Aveline when she's dolled up in her finery.
Some missions will require you to switch between them to complete different objectives, while others will leave it up to you to decide which persona is best. The personas system goes beyond anything in past Assassin's Creed games and adds a truly unique facet to the gameplay.
Using the Vita's touch screen
Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation uses the PS Vita's touch screen for some dubious purposes—for example, tapping or holding a finger down to speed up or slow down during an on-rails escape sequence.
But those moments will hopefully be few and far between, and what you'll mostly be using the touch screen for is inventory management, map navigation and other things that feel appropriate.
The weapon and tools wheels open up on either side of the screen, and changing your equipment is easy. This is what touch screens were meant for, and it truly adds to the game to have such an easy-to-use interface.
Combat is solid, with some additions
Those who've been paying attention to the news about Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation may be slightly worried about one of the new additions to the game's combat: a touch-to-kill system that lets you pause time and tap enemies to have Aveline effortlessly take them out.
It's completely optional, and we found that it was actually sort of nice in certain situations—when you don't want to spend a long time getting bogged down by multiple enemies, you can tap them all out fairly easily.
Presumably, it won't always work, though we didn't get to test it out as extensively as we will when we actually review the game.
But other than that, the combat in Liberation felt satisfyingly similar to that in the core Assassin's Creed 3 game on consoles. Slashing, countering and using items all felt natural after we'd spent so much time playing AC 3, and that's saying something for a portable game.
Technologically, it stands up to "Assassin's Creed 3"
The combat in Liberation wasn't the only thing to stack up nicely next to Assassin's Creed 3. Technologically, this may be the most advanced game the PS Vita has ever seen, and Ubisoft's attention to detail here really shows. They clearly want this to be a complete and standalone Assassin's Creed experience, despite it being on a portable system and not being bookended by Desmond's modern-day plight.
Graphically, it's simply gorgeous. Every line of dialogue is voice-acted, the environments (outdoors as well as within New Orlean's city walls) are huge, and there are a staggering number of NPCs and enemies on-screen at once for a portable game.
The demo we played sent us into an enemy fort, where we took out soldiers with our blowgun from the safety of the rooftops and later chased an officer to the top of the fort's wall. Later, we switched between disguises in New Orleans so we could steal a wagon, and incited a riot with the help of some friends.
It's all there, folks, and Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation is poised to be one of the PS Vita's killer apps for sure.
