Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD a worthy port?

When the original Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation launched in October 2012 for the portable PS Vita, it received generally good marks and settled on 70% according to Metacritic’s average.

The HD remake of the original, billed as Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD, has launched on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and in comparison it’s not doing as well.

Xbox 360: 59% based on 9 critics.
PS3: 66% based on 8 critics.

It’s priced at R189 on the PlayStation Store, R169 on Xbox Live, and around R200 on PC, depending where you shop and what the exchange rate is doing that day.

So the question is, is this game it worth the money? Below is a roundup of critic’s opinion on the game.

AC Liberation HD vs PS Vita comparison – click to enlarge

IGN – 52%

For a multitude of reasons, Aveline is the kind of character I’d like to see more of in gaming, and watching her flounder through this game all over again hurt. I wanted to see her tale succeed, but Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD is just too lacking in too many areas to make it happen. There’s no one thing to point to as overtly broken; it simply dies by a thousand tiny cuts. Its craft is sloppy, its design remains shackled by ill-conceived new ideas, as well as the limitations of the platform it hails from. It’s the definitive version of a game that had very little going for it in the first place.

NowGamer – 65%

A good attempt at bringing a handheld game to a home console, although one let down by the same problems that affected the original. Not a bad game, but one with untapped potential. If you’ve played the original Vita version, there’s no reason for you to take the plunge again. If you’ve not played the original, only the most diehard of Assassin’s Creed fans are going to find something of value.

Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD

Official Xbox Magazine – 60%

On a hand-held, you’d think “well done chaps, this is a good boiled-down version which keeps the core of the game intact”. But on a console, and so soon after Black Flag, it feels like an over-long chunk of watery DLC.

VideoGamer – 60%

With its most obvious original appeal – ‘real’ Ass Creed on a handheld – gone, Liberation’s appeal is diminished. While it does have some interesting ideas, which the main series itself would benefit from trying to integrate, this is the same old Creed, with the same old problems.

Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD

About Assassin’s Creed Liberation

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation featured the series’ first female protagonist, Adeline, and proved to be a hit on the PS Vita.

Aveline is the daughter of a French merchant and an African servant, and uses her beauty, money, and deadly skills to her advantage.

The game is set in new Orleans during 1771. The Spanish have taken control of the city from the French, and elsewhere in North America, the Revolutionary War is raging.

This places it in the same time frame as its big brother game, Assassins Creed 3.