Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Message Board

Aveline de Grandpré is no stranger to PlayStation Assassins. Making her debut as the first playable female Assassin on PS Vita a little over a year ago, Aveline has quickly grown to be one of the most popular and praised Assassins in the series. She even took on a few missions on the PS3 and PS4 versions of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag (And if you haven’t played those yet, be sure to download them for free from the AC4 main menu!).

Now, Aveline will arrive on PS3 in the fully-upgraded Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD!

Liberation HD includes a complete graphical overhaul, fully-remastered audio, and all-new, never-before-played missions designed to engulf you even further into Aveline’s world. For the first time on PS3, you’ll be able to use Aveline’s trademark whip in both combat and navigation. Stalk secretly while hiding in plain sight, dressed in any of Aveline’s three disguises. Dash effortlessly through the trees of the bayou, across verdant jungles and Mayan ruins, or perch over the sprawling port city of New Orleans.

Don’t miss out on your chance to play as one of our most deadly Assassins yet.

After staggering demand, we’re extremely pleased to announce that Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD — originally released last year on PS Vita — is set to arrive on PSN as a digital download in beautifully re-mastered HD!

Starring our first ever female playable assassin, Aveline de Grandpré, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation has received a comprehensive overhaul in preparation for its debut on consoles. Aveline has quickly become a fan favorite within the Assassin’s Creed universe, and we’re excited to bring her machete-swinging, poison-dart blowpiping, whip-snapping, and pistol-wielding action to a broader audience!

The groundbreaking AnvilNext engine returns to bring the steamy Louisiana bayou and mystical Mayan ruins to life with its unique tree navigation system, detailed physics simulation, and smooth animation.

Liberation HD capitalizes on the move to more powerful hardware in every possible way, with improved graphics, re-mastered music and new sound effects, and added gameplay bonuses like new missions!

Play a pivotal role in the turbulent birth of a new nation as you fight for freedom, not only for yourself, but for your fellow citizens in Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD!

As we’ve noted in the past few months, PlayStation stands for gamers. And because we stand with you, the PlayStation Nation, we want to offer you incredible deals on Black Friday to show our appreciation. If you don’t own PS Vita or PS3, now’s the time. PlayStation platforms will be paired with the biggest and best franchises in gaming, proving once again that PlayStation is the best place to play.

PS Vita

PS Vita’s game library is growing rapidly, and some of the biggest franchises in gaming are launching on the platform this holiday. In addition to the PlayStation Plus announcement providing an instant game collection for PS Vita, we are also celebrating the holidays with several incredible deals. The Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes PS Vita bundles will be available for $199.99 (MSRP)* on Black Friday and Saturday only. Here are the details (check your local retailers for availability):

PS3

Black Friday is also a big day for PlayStation 3, where we continue to offer incredible value and the only platform that continuously celebrates the gamer. Two of the most popular first party PS3 franchises will be combined to bring you the Ultimate PlayStation 3 Value Bundle for only $199 (MSRP). This bundle includes a 250GB PS3 System, 30 Day PlayStation Plus Trial, Uncharted Dual Pack (including Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2), and inFAMOUS Collection (including inFAMOUS 1 and inFAMOUS 2), giving you over $119 in savings.

There will also be special pricing available for new and existing colors of DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controllers at select retailers nationwide. Find a variety of DS3 controllers for only $39.99 (MSRP).

All of these bundles are in limited supply so don’t wait to take advantage of and save on these deals. Happy shopping PlayStation fans — we hope you have a happy holiday!

* Please check local retailers for pricing and availability.

If the PlayStation Vita does not develop into a successful handheld platform, then one need only look to a game like Assassin's Creed III: Liberation to understand why. Liberation is emblematic of many of the problems with Sony's technically advanced handheld system. At first glance, it looks astoundingly good, like the true realization of a console-quality experience on a handheld system. Then you dig further into it, and realize why maybe that's not such a great idea.

Essentially, Liberation is big where it should be stripped down, and stripped down where it should be more elaborate. In spurts, it's a great deal of fun, letting you experience the myriad thrills of stealth assassination any time you're on the go. But in between those thrilling moments are as many moments spent languishing in tedium.

Nowhere are these issues more apparent than in Liberation's plot. Taking place in the same general era as Assassin's Creed III, Liberation shifts its focus southward from the console game's Revolutionary War setting to New Orleans and its surrounding areas. This is a time of transition for the city, as French rule comes to a close and the Spanish begin to step in. You play as Aveline de Grandpré, a half-French, half-African woman raised by her white father, after her freed-slave mother disappeared as a child. As you would expect, Aveline's adult life is more than meets the eye. She is of the Assassin's Brotherhood, much like Connor, Ezio, and Altair before her. However, her mission, and the reasoning behind it, remains muddled.

Perhaps because of its handheld nature, Liberation's developers waste little time dropping players into the game's plot. You start out as Aveline as a young girl, suddenly ripped away from her mother in the crowded New Orleans streets. Then, all of a sudden, you're transported to her adult life, where she is already engaged with the Brotherhood. While some details about Aveline's life and history are touched upon, many seemingly important details remain unclear. This is partly due to the game's story framing device, namely that the simulation you are experiencing has nothing to do with the continuing adventures of series protagonist Desmond, but rather is created as part of a program from evil corporation Abstergo.

An unreliable narration device sounds like kind of a neat idea, but it's not constructed well here. The idea is that because of Abstergo's interference, you're only getting the details they want you to see. A subplot involving a hacker pops in later in the game, wherein he begins offering you "the truth" in the form of some lengthy cutscenes, but actually finding that guy and getting access to those scenes is arguably a lot more of a pain than it ought to have been.

Because of this, Liberation's story never fully coheres. Which is a shame, because Aveline is an incredibly interesting character. Her back story alone is enough to pique a player's interest, but so little of it is properly addressed that I found myself less and less engaged with the story as it plodded along. Aveline's sensitive role within the hot-button racial issues of the time is fascinating, but without a strong, coherent narrative, much of that potential is wasted.

Similar issues plague the gameplay. While there is no mistaking Liberation for anything other than an Assassin's Creed game, some of those hallmark gameplay elements don't quite work as well as they should. Combat remains fluid, but enemies are often pretty brain dead. The game attempts to counterbalance this by forcing you into more required stealth sequences than in other recent franchise entries. Fortunately, the stealth functionality works well. I only ran into a few weird spots where I found it incredibly difficult to stay hidden, or otherwise keeping enemies unaware of my presence. Then again, they're not very smart to begin with, and sneaking up on them rarely requires much effort. I must have pickpocketed a dozen enemies while they were literally staring in my direction.

Still, traversing Liberation's lavishly recreated New Orleans can be a lot of fun. The controls for jumping, swinging, and climbing around the game's scenery are responsive and intuitive, and the city just looks flat-out great. Streets and corridors might be a bit narrower than what you're used to in this series, which sometimes can make fights against soldiers a bit of a pain (mostly due to camera placement), but I never felt anything but joy darting around the city like a bad ass assassin.

It's strange, then, that whole sections of Liberation either take the focus away from that, or flat-out don't let you do it. Mostly this comes into play when engaging one of Aveline's different "personas." Apart from her assassin gear, Aveline can also don a slave costume, which lets her blend in with workers and even incite riots among the people. That persona proves to be less of an issue than the "lady" persona, where Aveline loses all ability to jump and traverse in favor of being able to charm and bribe guards. While this is okay in small doses, the game has a tendency to force you into specific personas for longer periods of time than you'd like, especially early on. You're given more freedom later, but it's still a drag to have to gingerly jog around the world to get back to a costume-change area when you know you could just be jumping over a goddamn rooftop.

Liberation also falters when it comes to supplementing the core gameplay with more objectives. When you get outside of New Orleans, only some of the late game areas are particularly fun to explore. More often you'll find yourself in the swampy bayou just outside the city, and that area is a terrible slog to dig through, not to mention surprisingly bereft of any additional activity outside of story missions. The game also features a multiplayer component, albeit a barely amusing one. Here, you're asked to choose a side (Templars or Assassins) and a hometown. It's not a fleshed-out multiplayer mode like in the console games, mind you. It basically boils down to a card-battling game, and how it actually works is poorly explained within the game itself, meaning you'll have to spend more time than you'll likely want to figuring out how to play it effectively.

Liberation is a game you'll want to like. Its protagonist is an intriguing one, and her mission frequently teases greatness. But it never quite arrives, due to the developers' inability to marry the "full-fledged" Assassin's Creed gameplay to the Vita's form and function. There is undoubtedly a happy medium out there somewhere for this series on handhelds. There are things you can strip away to make a game like this more palatable to handheld players, and there are as many things you can keep to ensure that the grandiose spirit of the larger games is kept. Unfortunately, Liberation never quite nails those things down, resulting in a game that only delivers the goods in fits and starts.

Are you gearing up for New York Comic Con next week? Well, we are too; we have a killer lineup on the show floor this year. If you’re on the East Coast and want to experience some of PlayStation’s biggest upcoming titles — including PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, God of War: Ascension, LittleBigPlanet Karting and The Last of Us — before they launch, here’s your guide to PlayStation’s activities at the show.

God of War: Ascension’s single-player demo will be at New York Comic Con, giving fans a taste of what to expect next March. In addition, multi-player stations will also be available, where attendees will have a chance to check out the newest way to play God of War.

Ready for Battle? At the PlayStation All-Stars kiosk, you can get your hands on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita versions of the game, and see for yourself what everyone’s been talking about.

You can also snag a voucher for a 30-day trial of PlayStation Plus if you swing by the booth (#1728). Why is that a big deal? ‘Cause that’s going to give you early access to try out the Beta when it goes live later this month. Stay tuned to PS.Blog, as the All-Stars team will have more news on the Beta front very soon. But, if you can’t wait until Friday to get your hands on PlayStation All-Stars, come out to our Community Meet-Up on Thursday, October 10th from 7:00PM to 9:00PM at Skylight West, where you can enter the PlayStation All-Stars tournament . Be sure to get there early to get your hands on All-Stars and practice your fighting skills. The final four fighters will win a free copy of PlayStation All-Stars for PS3 and PS Vita, and the tournament champion will win one of our brand new UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception Game of the Year Edition Hardware bundles for the new slim PS3 console.

And lastly, who isn’t excited about LittleBigPlanet Karting? Race over to the booth and give it a go! You can play a track, an arena, or even a dinosaur destroying a city (yep!) – this game has a ton to offer. We’ll be there all four days, and we’ve got four separate stations for you to play at, so be sure to stop by and test drive the fastest LittleBigPlanet yet!

If you’re looking for titles for your PS Vita, step up to the Vita Bar to play: Nico Nico, Samurai & Dragons, PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale, Ragnarok Odessey, Soul Sacrifice, Rocketbirds, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Persona 4 Golden, Lego Lord of The Rings, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, When Vikings Attack!, and Guacamelee.

Looking for fresh news about The Last of Us and Naughty Dog? Naughty Dog will be at New York Comic Con on a very special panel, where they’ll reveal some new information about The Last of Us. More details will be coming next week on the Naughty Dog blog and from other sources, so keep your eyes peeled. Additionally, ESC-Toy will have new, NYCC-exclusive UNCHARTED vinyl figures available for purchase at booth #3015. Be sure to check out Erick Scarecrow’s latest UNCHARTED creations.

Last week, Ubisoft graciously offered members of the gaming media the first opportunity to go hands-on with Assassin’s Creed III for PS3 and Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, the upcoming PS Vita-bound chapter set against the backdrop of Spanish occupation in 18th century Louisiana.

Both games, of course, demonstrated plenty of promise: ACIII for its Revolutionary War-era pomp and Skyrim-rivalling scale, ACIII: Liberation for its sultry new setting and uncanny attention to detail. But in the five days since the hands-on session, I’ve unexpectedly found myself reflecting more on my experiences with Liberation. Seeing the series’ sprawling, hyper-detailed environments and fluid gameplay so faithfully recreated on PS Vita’s luminous 5’’ screen bordered on startling. Protagonist Aveline also struck me as an interesting character with unique motivations, and the game’s untapped 18th-century Louisiana setting seems like it could pay off in a big way.

Refined by leaps and bounds compared to its early E3 showing, the updated build of Liberation I played was fully able to strut its stuff on PS Vita — enough so that, at times, it seemed to come within throat-slitting distance of ACII or ACIII on PS3. Taking control of Aveline, I explored the teeming streets of New Orleans, admiring the details that swirled around me. The town looked alive. Pushing my way through the throngs of townspeople that clogged the thoroughfare, I spotted a local shopkeeper sweeping his stoop, a lazy dog slouched in the sun, and flies buzzing thickly in the oppressive heat. The technical details are all in place — the textures looked sharp, the lighting realistic, the draw distances expansive — but it’s the way Liberation weaves them all into a convincing illusion of 18-century New Orleans that left the most lasting impression.

Liberation also pleased in the gameplay department, borrowing the core control scheme and myriad refinements of ACIII while adding subtle yet profound PS Vita-specific niceties. Aveline climbed and tumbled every bit as gracefully as Ezio or Connor, and the familiar controls enabled me to clamber up walls, through balconies, and over rooftops without so much as a second thought. Combat also felt nimble and natural as I deflected incoming strikes using the Circle button only to lash out with Aveline’s brutal sugar cane machete (the kill animations for this weapon are wince-worthy). One mission tasked me with silently eliminating five guards in a crowded square, and here the poison blowgun came in handy. New Orlean’s scorching sunlight, I learned, creates plenty of dark shadows. I was able to slink through ivy-covered terraces and darkened porches in order to get the perfect vantage point on my prey.

I even fired off a few Chain Kills, which are touchscreen-directed cinematic slaughters that make Aveline slice, stab, blast, and eviscerate multiple enemies at all distances at the drop of a hat. But the touchscreen-based UI really started to feel indispensible when it came time to swap weapons and gear, a job that takes several button presses and a bit of practice to accomplish on PS3 but here is accomplished effortlessly. Outside of combat and navigation, much of the game’s is logically directed via the touchscreen, and results felt quick, responsive, and lightweight. The rear touchpad gets some time in the sun, too — you can swipe it to pickpocket nearby passersby, or use it to manage your rowing speed during bayou boating sequences.

Liberation’s October 30th release is weeks away, and yet tantalizing questions persist. Ubisoft has revealed some details about the bonus content that will be unlocked by owning both ACIII for PS3 and Liberation for PS Vita, but the PS Vita-unique multiplayer mode remains cloaked in mystery. No matter — we’ll be following up to learn more about on of this fall’s most intriguing action-adventure titles.

Here at gamescom 2012, Ubisoft finally granted hands-on access to its newest assassin, Aveline, star of Assassin’s Creed III Liberation. In this video, story writer Richard Farrese walks us through some of the new features found in PS Vita’s first entry in the series.

Liberation takes full advantage of the new Assassin’s Creed III game engine and its simplified control scheme. Gone are the days of leaning on the shoulder button and playing defense during encounters. Press Square for melee attacks, hold and release Triangle to aim and fire ranged weapons, Circle counters, X is used for block-breakers and other moves. It’s a bit of an adjustment to begin thinking offense first in an Assassin’s Creed game, but ultimately it’s likely to be seen as an improvement.

Ubisoft is taking advantage of PS Vita’s touchscreen in logical ways: tapping the screen brings up a split weapon wheel where you can select melee weapons (machete, hidden blades) on the left and ranged weapons (blowgun, whip) on the right. Of note: with the whip equipped, Aveline improves her parkour abilities, latching onto structures much as Ezio used the hook blade in Assassin’s Creed Revelations. You may have seen a shot in the gamescom trailer showing Aveline paddling a canoe using the rear touch panel, though that’s entirely optional.

If you’ve watched any videos for Liberation, you’ve likely seen the “Chain Kill” system in action. Reminiscent of Fallout 3’s VATS mechanic, a tap of the Right button on the D-pad pauses the game and allows you to select enemies to target for cinematic insta-kills. While the number of enemies you can target will grow as the campaign progresses, don’t think you’re going to Chain Kill your way through the game. At best, it’s likely to tilt overwhelming odds slightly more in your favor, much as Ezio could call in his assassin buddies from time to time in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Revelations.

After trying out these features in a bayou setting, a Ubisoft staffer took the reins to show off Liberation’s “Persona” feature. No, you’re not evoking parts of your psyche to attack evil creatures. Rather, this system refers to Aveline’s ability to get the job done by blending in with the denizens of old New Orleans. Or not.

We were shown three ways to dispatch a well-guarded, high value target. The first — Assassin mode — follows the traditional Assassin’s Creed formula: Sneak or fight your way to the target, execute a flashy takedown, and get the hell out of there with guards in pursuit.

Next, we reset the mission and changed into the “Lady Persona.” Decked out in a fancy dress and feathered hat, high society Aveline can’t run, climb, or battle assassin-style. Rather, the Lady engages in “social stealth,” relying on bribery, feminine charms, and the hidden blade to accomplish the task completely undetected.

Splitting the difference is the “Servant Persona.” Posing as a member of the working class, Aveline can infiltrate pretty much anywhere, get the job done, then take to the rooftops to escape. Just don’t get into a protracted battle in this persona – in the demo we watched, the lightly-armored Servant fell in just two blows.

We were told that while you’ll occasionally be forced to tackle a mission in a particular persona, for much of the game Aveline will assume the guise of your choosing.

I was able to squeeze a few story tidbits out of our demonstrator. Series mainstay Desmond is not the one in control of Aveline via the Animus. Rather, the tale is being played out as a part of a Templar-controlled Abstergo project. Assassin’s Creed III Liberation is, however, related to the PS3’s Assassin’s Creed III, which takes place during the same American Revolution time period. Aveline will encounter ACIII protagonist Connor during the course of Liberation, perhaps swapping weapons with him (I saw his trademark tomahawk in the menus). Fittingly, both titles arrive on the same day, this October 30th.

Take a look at some of the arsenal available to Vita assassins in Assassin's Creed III: Liberation on PlayStation's newest portable!

The first feature female assassin runs wild during the Louisiana Rebellion in Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

Link to your PS3 and receive special items, plus pick up the bundle with a crystal white WiFi Vita and Assassins Creed III: Liberation.