Ubisoft has decided that Assassin's Creed: Liberation's heroine, Aveline de Grandpré, is just too good to leave on the PS Vita. A reworked, remastered version of Liberation, complete with 15 new missions, is coming to the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live in "early, early 2014". At this week's Digital Days event in Paris, I finally had the opportunity to go hands-on with the franchise's first female protagonist.
Set mostly in and around Louisiana, Liberation takes place against the backdrop of the American Revolution - shortly after the French took control of New Orleans from the Spanish, when slavery formed a considerable part of the region's economy. Aveline, the daughter of a French merchant and his plaçage bride, was brought up in relative privilege, but soon began to question and ultimately fight against the injustice all around her. On top of that, she has the usual Assassins versus Templars carry-on to deal with. Plenty to keep you busy, then.
"We thought she was a great character, so we wanted to work on this [console port] right after Liberation came out," Liberation's associate producer Momchil Gindyanov told me after my hands-on. "It was a decision mainly based on the great community reaction to Aveline. We wanted to tell her story to a wider audience, you know."
Given the premise and setting, it "just felt right to have a female character," Gindyanov went on. "And we knew that it was dangerous. We knew there were so many ways to not get it right. And it's a sensitive issue, but through a lot of work, a lot of iterations - we worked very closely with the team that holds the brand together, and with the other teams that work on Assassins - I think we managed to pull it off. And it's worth it."
Leaping down from the treetops, I waded through waisthigh swamp water to find the next objective marker. After a hurried conversation with an ally, I was suddenly obliged to rassle [Ed's note: Aoife assures me this is a real word] with an alligator, because that's just how Aveline rolls. Fighting off wildlife in this way is a question of quicktime prompts, much like beating up wolves and bears in AC3. Soon after, my ally and I jumped into some conveniently placed canoes, paddling off down the river to an enemy encampment. Where the Vita original offered quirky touch controls, Liberation HD's controls are more or less exactly those of the other console releases.
Aveline carries herself differently to the other assassins - during combat her sword is kept down at her side, almost arrogantly, as she awaits your next move. Where characters like Ezio and Altair rely on brute strength, she's more considered and elegant in her movement. The enemies on the ground dispatched, I reached into the folds of her coat for my blowpipe, took aim and dispatched an enemy on a platform high above the rest of the camp. There wasn't much story to this section of the demo, which may be pause for thought - the Vita version was criticised for its muddled narrative. According to Gindyanov, Ubisoft Sofia has taken the opportunity of a second pass at the game to address this particular complaint.
9 comments so far...
Bugsquat on 12 Sep '13 said:
Rassle: part-'Wrestle', part-'Wrangle'
CunningSmile on 13 Sep '13 said:
I think that pretty much sums up one of the biggest problem with AC3 as well. Far too much of the story, and indeed even simple machanics, were explained in side missions you may not have actually done by the time that knowledge becomes important to the flow of the main storyline. To compound that further much of the modern day arc hinged on plot developments (rogue Assassins, Abstergo gaining the upper hand etc) that had happened in a comic that was and still is only available in French or German.
I'm a big fan of a multimedia approach to a franchise, indeed it's impossible to be a Star Wars fan unless you do embrace it, but Ubisoft really need to remember that you can't exclude people who aren't following every aspect of every franchise, especially if (and I can't emphasis this enough) part of that story IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN BLOODY FRENCH!
FishyGinger on 13 Sep '13 said:
Je ne comprends pas.
Anyways didn't you know, GTA is bigger than star wars.
SilentDark on 13 Sep '13 said:
No. It. Isn't!
Seriously though, what is it with portable games getting big boy toy re-releases these days. Peacewalker, Resident Evil Revelations, and now this. What next, Golden Sun HD on the Wii U?
CunningSmile on 13 Sep '13 said:
I think it's one of two things depending on how cynical you are (and in this case I'm as cynical as you so I'm going for point 2)
1) The tech gap between the handheld Vita and 'last gen' consoles like the 360 has narrowed to such a point it's easy to transfer a successful handheld game to a wider market allowing us all to enjoy the goodness
2) The most successful game ever for the Vita still only sold three copies because people wouldn't buy a Vita if it came with a free ferrari. After spending years and millions in development the studios are left with a product that will never claw back it's expenses because it's exclusive to a console that no one has. They get desperate and throw more money at the problem to transfer it to the 360 and PS3...allowing us all to enjoy the goodness.
Either way I'm quite happy as a few of these Vita spin offs have been getting better reviews than their big brothers and I don't want a ferrari.
SilentDark on 13 Sep '13 said:
Are you insane. £170 for the console, you could just sell the ferrari and make enough money to buy the PS4 and Xbox One, all launch games and still have enough for a sandwich from Harrods.
CunningSmile on 13 Sep '13 said:
You just can't bring yourself to agree with me can you?
SilentDark on 13 Sep '13 said:
Not really, it's just so unnatural. Nice sig by the way.
CunningSmile on 13 Sep '13 said:
Thought you'd like it