Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD is a HD remaster of the Vita exclusive Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. As you'd expect of a port to the big screen, the graphics are updated to support HD resolutions, as well as improved audio, animations and environmental objects. That being said, there are more than a few moments where the portable origin of the game shines through, such as stiff animations during cutscenes, fuzzy environments and disappointing water effects. Liberation follows the series' first female protagonist, Aveline. She is effectively introduced immediately as an assassin with all her abilities, as she sets out to free the slaves in New Orleans. For what it is worth, the story isn't too horrible but like all Assassin's Creed games, it isn't very engaging or coherent. There is too much filler surrounding an already barebones plot. With its short length, it doesn't get into the swing of things and as a result, it ends up being shallow. However, it is much easier to follow and understand compared to other Assassin's Creed games and for that, it remains entertaining. The ending falters though, being underwhelming and cements the fact that this game does not add anything to the overall Assassin's Creed storyline. The story is told via cutscenes during each story mission. Despite the improved animations, character models can still have that deadeye look, stiff movement and slightly-off voice syncing.
Some of the voice actors use questionable accents which sticks out a lot in the game. One thing that breaks the flow of the story is the choppy editing, scenes will awkwardly jerk from one angle to another making it confusing to follow. The gameplay remains similar to previous Assassin's Creed games, with most of the additions found in Assassin's Creed III. You free run using the right shoulder button. This means you can run and climb your way up the varied environments from wooden buildings of New Orleans to the trees in the Bayou. Unfortunately, due to the setting, there isn't that many high leveled buildings, which discourages you from traversing over the rooftops, instead opting for running in the streets. It was surprising to see the implementation of the tree running an it feels good here. The occasional hiccup such as climbing something you didn't want, or a random invisible object blocking your way will occur, which makes it annoying. It is magnified during some of the game's platforming segments where it can get frustrating. The graphics are quite good and while some of the environments indicate that this is a port, it just manages to stack up compared to other PS3 games. As mentioned, the water effects, and also the snow effects are underwhelming and looks horrible.
Other technical hiccups include bad enemy AI, guards aren't very smart, they don't end up climbing buildings when chasing you and often get stuck behind objects (but makes it easier for you to escape). Objects will disappear in front of you from time to time. Aveline doens't have as many weapons at her disposal, having only a sword, hidden blades, smoke bombs, blowpipe, a small weapon and a gun. The combat system remains unchanged, meaning that counters are still the way to go. There is the addition of a chain kill ability where you can freeze the scene, select up to three enemies to kill immediately after you unfreeze. It's pretty cool to look at. A key feature is Aveline's three different personas: Assassin, Slave and Lady. Each persona has slightly different abilities, the Assassin remain the same. The Slave has lower health and weaker attack but can blend in with crowds and be ignored by guards when carrying crates. The Lady persona cannot climb buildings or free run but can charm guards. While this is a good idea, missions effectively restrict you to a specific persona so it's not as if you can have different approaches to each mission. The three personas play very similar to each other as well, so it is not the revolutionary mechanic the developers were hoping for.
Mission objectives are repetitive and nothing we haven't seen before. You'll have a huge amount of tailing missions and fetch quests. The saving grace is that the game is easy, no frustration means you can relax. The missions are very linear, straying from the intended path means failure. The story takes around 6 hours to finish but there are additional side missions added into this HD release. The side missions are mainly more of the same as the story missions including fetch quests, combat sequences and races. They still remain easy and enjoyable, and are linked to some Silver Trophies. The only bad ting is that since there is no fast travel int he game, it forces you to run through huge parts of the map in order to get to the next mission, which wastes a lot of time. Overall, Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD gets a lot of hate, with some saying that it is one of the worst game in the series. However, Liberation HD was actually quite fun and enjoyable. There wasn't too many frustrating moments, the world is a decent size without being too small and cramped, and at least the story is understandable even if it was aimless. This game is worth playing if you are a fan of the series.
---------------------------------------------------
For more game reviews, check out this page.