Assassin's Creed III: Liberation

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Sofia[1] Ubisoft Milan[2]
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Director(s)	Julian Gollop[3][4]
Producer(s)	Martin Capel[5]
Writer(s)	Richard Farrese Jill Murray[5]
Composer(s)	Winifred Phillips Music produced by Winnie Waldron[6]
Series	Assassin's Creed
Engine	AnvilNext
Platform(s)	PlayStation Vita PlayStation 3 Microsoft Windows Xbox 360
Release date(s)	PlayStation Vita JP November 15, 2012 NA October 30, 2012 EU October 31, 2012 Liberation HD PlayStation Network NA January 14, 2014[7] EU January 15, 2014[7] Windows & Xbox Live Arcade WW January 15, 2014[7][8]
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer[1]

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is a 2012 action-adventure video game developed and published by Ubisoft, initially as an exclusive title for PlayStation Vita. Sony announced the game at its press conference during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, few days after first leaks about the game presented in Game Informer.^[9] It was released on October 30, 2012 alongside Assassin's Creed III, with which it can be linked.^[10] The game was re-released as Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows via the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam,^[7][11] respectively. It was later packed as part of "Assassin's Creed The Americas Collection" for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, along with Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

The plot is set in a fictional history of real world events and follows the centuries-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight for peace with free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through control. The game is set between 1765 and 1777, and primarily features the series' first female protagonist, Aveline de Grandpré, an African-French Assassin around the end of the French and Indian War, in 18th century New Orleans.^[1][10]

Gameplay

Liberation makes use of the Vita's touchscreen and rear touch pad, cameras and gyroscope. These include Chain Kill combat, and the ability to pickpocket people.^[12] By linking the game to Assassin's Creed III, the player will receive an in-game version of Connor's tomahawk, an exclusive character skin, a multiplayer character and a complete upgrade of all ammunition pouches.^[10] The game uses the same engine that runs Assassin's Creed III, allowing for the same gameplay experience as a console release. Aveline also has her own new set of animations as well as have the ability to dual-wield weapons, such as the new blowpipe as well as the familiar swords, knives, pistols and hidden blade.^[13]

The multiplayer, exclusive to the original Vita version, consists of players tapping nodes on a map, using characters (represented with static portraits) to capture bases and collect supplies, among other things. This differs from the series usual competitive multiplayer which had players assassinating each other for sport.

Plot

In the modern day, Abstergo Entertainment, a subsidiary of Abstergo which is in charge of producing multimedia goods, releases their first major product, Liberation, a video game about the life of the Assassin Aveline de Grandpré. The game, however, is heavily censored, with any details regarding the Assassins - Templar war being omitted, in an attempt to portray the Assassins as the villainous force. As the player progresses through the game, they are greeted by messages from a group of hackers known as Erudito, giving them access to the full story hidden behind Abstergo's censoring attempts.

The main portion of the game takes place in Louisiana near the end of the French and Indian War, where France's defeat caused the city of New Orleans to be taken over by the Spanish government. The citizens were upset over the transition from French to Spanish control and Spain's new occupation within the city. However, in 1765, the French governor Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie made a negotiation with Templar Rafael Joaquín de Ferrer to stay as governor of New Orleans. This plot was later uncovered by Aveline, who infiltrated the governor's mansion and assassinated him.

Following this, de Ferrer made another deal with a man named Baptiste, who was hoping to defect from the Assassins to the Templar Order. Baptiste took on the identity of the recently deceased François Mackandal, as a ruse to attract followers to his cause. His plan was to poison New Orleans' nobles and take control of smuggling operations within the Louisiana Bayou, although his sole purpose was actually to force Agaté, Assassin and mentor to Aveline, out of hiding in the bayou. His plot failed however, as Aveline tracked Baptiste down, killed his followers and assassinated the false Mackandal.

In 1766, the Templar Antonio de Ulloa arrived in New Orleans, to serve as the Spanish governor. However, he left control of the area to French officials and allowed the French flag to remain over the city. Two years afterwards, he made strict trade restrictions and set up a covert slave-trading operation to transport slaves to a Templar worksite in Mexico, creating a rebellion among French officials and the citizens of New Orleans.

Agaté ordered Aveline to assassinate de Ulloa to eradicate Templar presence in New Orleans. Aveline ambushed de Ulloa's carriage and confronted the governor, who told her that slaves had been taken to Chichén Itzá. However, Aveline spared his life and let Ulloa leave the city, in return for a lens used to decode Templar documents and a map leading her to the Templar worksite in Chichén Itzá. Aveline's act of mercy destroyed any trust Agaté had in his student, as she had disobeyed his explicit orders.

Aveline disguised herself as a slave bound for Mexico and made her way to the Templar worksite at Chichén Itzá. Whilst there, she came across a defiant slave who mentioned that Jeanne, Aveline's mother, was stationed in Chichén Itzá. Aveline investigated thoroughly and uncovered a page from Jeanne's diary and a map that lead to an artifact located inside a cenote. Upon exploring this cave system, she came across an ancient chamber filled with ruins from the First Civilization, along with a fragment of the artifact she was searching for, known as the Prophecy Disk. Aveline then encountered de Ferrer, and killed him and his men. She was reunited with her mother, who warned her not to let the disk fall into Agaté's hands.

Two years later, Aveline returned to New Orleans to find that a man by the name of Vázquez was using Spanish soldiers to seize control of the bayou. She suspected him to be the head Templar of Louisiana, a.k.a. the Company Man, who de Ferrer had mentioned in Chichén Itzá. After retrieving the final piece of the Prophecy Disk in Chichén Itzá, Aveline went back to New Orleans once more to begin her quest in freeing slaves in the city. Her stepmother, Madeleine de L'Isle, became aware of her work and asked her to help a slave named George escape north. Whilst escorting him through the swamp, she met with her smuggler allies Élise Lafleur and Roussillon, helping them to deliver supplies to American Patriots who were fighting in the American Revolutionary War. Vázquez attempted to stop Aveline and her allies by sending Spanish soldiers their way, but Aveline defeated them and ensured George and the supplies reached their destination. After returning to the city, Aveline attended a governor's ball under disguise and managed to get close to Vázquez and assassinate him. However, to her surprise, Vázquez revealed that he was not the Company Man. Following this, Aveline learned that her father, who had been ill for some time, had died.

In 1777, Aveline headed to the New York Frontier, and teamed up with the Assassin Connor to find a Templar officer who was working for the Company Man. She discovered the officer to be George, the same slave she had freed years before, and the Company Man was none other than Madeleine. After confronting her stepmother at her mansion, Aveline traveled to the bayou and met with Agaté to inform him of her discovery. Agaté was unable to accept his failure and believing that Aveline had sided with the Templars, attacked her. Aveline overpowered him and attempted to convince him to leave Louisiana for his own safety, but Agaté could not live with the humiliation and instead chose to dive to his death. On realizing this, Aveline quickly attempted to save him, but only managed to grasp his necklace which tore away from his neck.

Following her mentor's death, Aveline saw her situation as an opportunity to infiltrate the Templars and eradicate it from within. Upon returning to New Orleans, she made her way to the Saint Louis Cathedral and gave Madeleine Agaté's necklace to show her allegiance. Following this, she was inducted into the Templar Order by her stepmother. Aveline then gave her the two halves of the Prophecy Disk, which Madeleine placed on an altar and added another piece to hold the two fragments together. However, she could not make sense of the scrambled messages within. Aveline saw this as her moment to strike and reclaim the Prophecy Disk. She eliminated all the Templars inside the cathedral and assassinated Madeleine.

Now alone inside the cathedral, Aveline stepped up to the altar where the Prophecy Disk had been placed. She connected the locket she wore around her neck, which once belonged to her mother, to the artifact, causing it to display a holographic recording detailing a message from the time of the First Civilization. This message recounted the election of Eve as the leader of the rebellion during the Human-First Civilization War.

Release

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation was released on October 30, 2012, the same day as Assassin's Creed III. The game is available in a PS Vita bundle pack with a new crystal white Wi-Fi Vita and a 4GB memory card.^[10] In Japan it was released under the title Assassin's Creed III: Lady Liberty.^[14]

It was announced on September 10, 2013, that the game would be re-released as Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows via the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam, respectively, in 2014. The game features visuals closer to III as well as updated audio, AI and facial animations. Additional missions have been added and some of the Vita-specific touch screen missions have been removed, as well as the nodes multiplayer and a minor Quick Time Event minigame.^[11] The game was released on the PlayStation 3 on January 14, 2014 in North America and January 15, 2014 in Europe. The Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 versions were released worldwide on January 15, 2014.^[7][8]

Additional content

Purchasing Assassin's Creed III for the PlayStation 3 gives the player the ability to connect Liberation and receive an exclusive mission to play in Liberation as Connor or Aveline, a Multiplayer Skin and an Ammunition Pouch. There was also a promotional DLC, titled Mysteries of the Bayou pack, that came with pre-orders of the game in PAL regions. It included an exclusive weapon, an alligator hunting hat, a Multiplayer Skin and Ammunition Pouches for smoke bombs and poison darts.

These all feature in the HD remaster, save for the multiplayer skin, as that feature was removed.

Music

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
ArtasticGaming.com	A+[15]
GSoundtracks.com	[16]
MundoBSO.com	[17]
FilmMusicMedia.com	[18]

The music in the game was composed by Winifred Phillips and produced by Winnie Waldron.^[6] The soundtrack album was released by Ubisoft Music on the same day as the release of the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation video game, October 30, 2012.^[19] Together with music producer Winnie Waldron, Winifred Phillips won several awards for her work on this project. For the music composition of the Assassin's Creed III Liberation video game, Phillips won a Global Music Award for musical excellence.^[20] Composer Winifred Phillips and music producer Winnie Waldron won a 2012 Hollywood Music in Media Award for the music score for Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.^[21] The main theme music of the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation video game won a G.A.N.G. Award from the Game Audio Network Guild in the category of "Best Original Vocal Song — Choral."'^[22] The music of Assassin's Creed III Liberation won a GameFocus Award for Best Music of 2012.^[23] The game's musical score also received nominations in several year-end award competitions, including the GameZone Awards,^[24] the Best of IGN Awards,^[25] and the G4TV X-Play Best of 2012 Awards.^[26]

The music of Assassin's Creed III Liberation was very well received by both game and music critics. Robert Workman of GameZone wrote, "The music is superb,"^[27] and Evan Narcisse of Kotaku called the soundtrack, "a stealthy success."^[28] Jen Bosier of VideoGameWriters said that the music of Assassin's Creed III Liberation was "without question, the best soundtrack the series has seen to date."^[29] Music critic Randall Larson of BuySoundtrax.com stated, "This is a fine score and one that even non-gamers should applaud for its cinematic, dynamic and immersive drive." Reviewer Lucas Smith of Piki Geek asserted that "the soundtrack will go down as one of the year's best."^[30]

Reception

Initial reviews for Assassin's Creed III: Liberation were mixed. Metacritic, which assigns a score based on reviews from industry leaders, has the game scored at 70/100 based on 64 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[35]

Shaun McInnis, reviewer for GameSpot, gave the game a score of 6.5/10, praising the protagonist as "...a woman born from the romance between a wealthy father and a slave mother, someone who has overcome her uncertain upbringing to find a new life in the Assassin Brotherhood". McInnis also commended the setting, writing "...a brilliant version of 18th-century New Orleans, one that beautifully reflects the diverse cultural ambience formed over years of operating as a French trading port". However, he also wrote that the game "squanders its most unique ideas...Liberation takes little advantage of its own narrative format" and that the plot is "largely aimless and hastily delivered".^[41]

IGN's Greg Miller stated, "The moves and kills you'd expect are here, but the story is boiled down to be easy to jump in and out of. That takes away some of the excitement in playing through it", giving it 7.2/10.^[42] In December 2015, Game Informer ranked the game as the 10th best game in the Assassin's Creed series to date.^[43]

References

External links

• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation at Ubi.com
• Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD at Ubi.com