Wololo has a long tradition of following the underground scene, and that won’t change. But today, we would like to widen our scope and offer a new type of content to our audience. So what is la critique?

La critique is a new type of game review. It is guided by three main principles:

• It does not strive to suppress the author’s subjectivity and personal way of speaking (i.e. “I thought the graphics sucked" does not become “the graphics were not satisfying");
• It strives to achieve some level of objectivity by including various sources;
• It is not bound to follow current events of the scene. That means the chosen games won’t necessarily be the newest ones. The choices will vary with my mood.

Finally, why that name? Because I’m a frenchy, a big frog, that’s why (la means “the" and critique is a French word from the start).

 

Assassin’s creed? Really? Yep. A large majority of Vita gamers have probably played this one. I thought this choice was also a chance to get back to the birth of our beloved console. Whatever we think has happened since, we all have to recognize that we were ecstatic on February 22nd 2012 when the machine came out. The potential was absolutely unseen and insane for a handheld. And what was the game I absolutely wanted to play later that year when I bought my first Vita? AC3, that’s why I chose that game for today’s review.

 

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After going through the new-console ritual of checking the hardware and software emotionally, I went for it and started the game. My first impression was very good as I told myself “wow, they didn’t make a reduction, it seems like a real Assassin’s creed". Gameinformer agrees: “Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is the first portable entry to feel like a real Assassin’s Creed game". I felt a little annoyed from the start by the artistic choices regarding the ambiance of the game: a bit gloomy for my taste. But that wasn’t betraying the general AC brand, and I enjoyed the experience very much.

The gameplay was following the tradition closely, making this game very comfortable most of the time (climb s***, enjoy the view, jump in haystack, kill dude). Never mind the clumsy tries to include all Vita features. On this, IGN seems to agree, branding it “the franchise’s trademark gameplay". Jeuxvideo.com also says that “within minutes, a player familiar with the series will find his/her marks, the gameplay being similar to other episodes on home consoles". However, there was something new that I hated straight from the start. Let’s meme that:

That what I call killing your own step forward. Not only was it hardly a good idea, it was also annoying in my eyes (you sometimes don’t have a choice). On this point, most video gaming websites disagree with me, highlighting the fact that different appearances give Aveline different advantages. For example, dressed as a lady, she can bribe guards. Dressed as a slave, she can trigger riots or remain unnoticed by faking slave work. I agree with these things but felt that the game forced me using those features.

What about the content of that title? As always, you can feel history happening while you play. God, the Creeds are good at that… Here is a little bit of background both personal and historical. Aveline is the daughter of a rich French trader and Jeanne, a slave that disappeared while Aveline was a child (the game starts with a scene about that). The story takes place during the American revolution, France just ceded East Louisiana to the Spanish, and the vast majority of French settlers don’t like that. Numerous slaves come to disappear in that context and Aveline starts investigating. That is going to lead her to discover more about her mother’s disappearance. The game allows the players to explore some of New Orleans and its surroundings. Later, Aveline goes to Mexico where some nice Maya stuff is to be seen.

How was the reception of this game? Let’s now expose some of the formal evaluations I found while searching around on the net:

 

Nature of the information	Source	Overall grade
Score given by a single website	IGN.com	7.2/10
	Jeuxvideo.com	16/20
	Destructoid.com	8/10
	Eurogamer.net	7/10
	Gameinformer.com	7.75/10
	Gamespot.com	6.5/10
	Gamekult.com	6/10
	G4.com	3.5/5
	Aggregate score	Gamerankings.com	71.74%
		Metacritic.com	70/100

 

What I interpret from these grades is that AC3 Liberation caused quite a large set of reactions ranging from a bit of disappointment to clear joy. This game is clearly a good game but has not achieved the point of being a “system seller" which was what the Vita needed at the time. I do not want to finish with formal grades so I will now list the pros and cons most frequently related:

Pros	Cons
Lots of content A real handheld AC AC back to stealth History happening in a game (I found the Bayou awesome!)	Framerate issues (I don’t agree, I was never annoyed with that) Clumsy inclusion of Vita features Ambiance maybe too dark

 

Now is the time for my pro and con:

• Pro: there is a minigame that you can play from every hideout. It allows you to by ships and transports merchandise from port to port in the region in order to sell it. It is very profitable if you do it well and I found it very nice. Some bad thing like pirates and storms can happen so you are never sure that you ship will safely deliver. That’s a small add-on that I personally found super entertaining;
• Con: the multiplayer mode. What. The. heck. It seems so annoying that it took me ages to finally test it seriously, and boy when I did, I regretted it very much. Stay away from that thing.

 

What is the general conclusion to that game? I’m not part of the guys that will describe it going “yeah, fine game but I expected more". I thought that game was the first to show what the Vita was truly capable of. It surely didn’t become the block buster everyone wanted it to be, but in my mind, it really was a step forward for the handheld world. From that game, the separation between handheld and home systems started to blur in my head.

I thought it was really cool to play AC Liberation in order to write that review. What did you guys think of that title?

 

The_Guigew