you know what? I really feel sorry for Assassin's creed III: Liberation. It was supposed to be one of Vita's killer apps (and by all means it should be), but that ever looming threat of its older brother ruined its chances of being considered great.
Seriously, compare that game to anything on Vita, PSP, DS, or 3DS in the last year, and nothing comes close in terms of scope, graphics, and content (except maybe Pokemon Black and White 2, which are known for their scale and depth).
think about it. It's a full world with a city, a wilderness area, and dozens of side missions. Just the campaign alone is 8-10 hours long, which is on par with any console action/adventure game, not to mention the collectibles and stuff could easily last you 25-30 hours, which, again, is on par with console games, and in many ways is better (Good luck taking 25 hours to get platinum on Call of Duty or Uncharted or pretty much any other game in the action/adventure genres.)
Graphically, I can't think of many games that look better on handhelds. Uncharted Golden Abyss looked better, and I suppose LittlebigPlanet Vita did as well, but it's still one of the best looking, designed, and animated games on the system.
IT had two flaws, three if you count the bugs and glitches that will be patched. 1 - The story wasn't as epic or grand as it could have been, and 2 - It's not as good as Assassin's creed III.
Basically, the only reason this game isn't considered a system selling killer app is because no matter how good it is, Assassin's Creed III will always be hovering over it as the better game with the better story and characters. If this game truly was judged on its own merits and compared to its actual competition (Action/Adventure games on handhelds), it'd be getting high 8's/low 9's.
I gave this game a score of 7.8 because that's what my content editors felt was fitting in the review (thanks to the fact that I DID in fact compare it to its console counterpart). Now that I've had a month or so to think about it and reflect on what it was and what it represented, I truly wish I'd have given it the better score. My personal score for the game is an 8.8. Not quite a 9 gem, but still a load of fun and really awesome.
Sadly, instead it's basically the poster boy for why the Vita fails at emulating console quality, even though it's really not TRYING to. IT looks like it is, but if you really took the game's level design and missions into consideration, it'd be very clear that it was certainly tailored to its system. No wonder games get shitty reviews on handhelds: Reviewers are too busy comparing it to Console games to realize what is important and what works better on handhelds.
R.I.P. Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.
My Console Library:
PS5, Switch, XSX
PS4, PS3, PS2, PS1, WiiU, Wii, GCN, N64 SNES, XBO, 360
3DS, DS, GBA, Vita, PSP, Android
