Assassins Creed 3

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation: Aveline's Deadly Wardrobe


First and foremost, Aveline is an assassin. She has the same swiftness of foot and acrobatic grace that you would expect from Altair or Ezio; she also shares their capacity for focussed violence. But she’s also a master of disguise.

In a demo at Gamescom today, we learned about Aveline’s ability to change her appearance by entering clothes shops located around the city of New Orleans. Unlike GTA’s many clothing stores, it isn’t a superficial change, nor is it simply a way of throwing alerted enemies off your scent; it has a bigger effect on gameplay than that.

Clothes say a lot about a person. They reveal one’s standing in society, and have a subtle yet powerful effect on the way people perceive and treat others. Aveline’s default costume is, of course, her assassin’s getup, which is heavily stylised and has visible weaponry, including her dual firearms. It’s conspicuous, and understandably makes guards uneasy. This outfit encourages you to play the game like any other in the franchise, sprinting across roof tiles and taking out guards, before quietly stalking your prey.

But Aveline is not just an assassin. She is also the daughter of a wealthy French merchant. And her real identity can function as a powerful disguise. Confined in a garment more befitting a lady of leisure than a trained killed – tight bodice, hat, bustle – she is able to use her elevated social standing as a powerful weapon. In the level I saw – titled Rotten Barracks – the aristocratic Aveline was able to stroll freely around the town and into a heavily-protected fort without any worries. Guards were automatically deferential to this well-known, respected citizen. The outfit ditches much of Aveline’s weaponry, increasing the player’s vulnerability. She does, however, have a spring-loaded poison dart gun disguised as a dainty parasol. It’s a powerful tool but takes an eternity to reload. It’s a necessary trade-off; otherwise, the outfit would be just too powerful. Similarly, Aveline’s movement is severely restricted. As you can imagine, a corset isn’t ideal for scaling walls and hurdling obstacles. She must use her wits to escape if detected.



At the opposite end of the class spectrum is the pauper, Aveline’s other disguise. Dressed in a ragged skirt, with her hair scruffily tied up in a headscarf, Aveline is practically invisible. People choose to ignore the poor and the downtrodden, which conveniently lets Aveline wander into protected areas. If she’s carrying a box, for instance, she’s likely to be confused for a manual labourer. Nobody asks any questions of the poor girl. She is able to call on help from her fellow paupers, playing on their sense of solidarity. This outfit is a lot less restrictive than that of the aristocrat, allowing Aveline to free-run, but it still doesn’t allow as much equipment as her standard Assassin’s uniform.

Costume changes sound gimmicky, at first; in Liberation, It’s all done in the interest of player choice. The demo was repeated three times, with Aveline sporting a different outfit each playthrough; it effectively highlighted the impact each garment has on the way in which you interact with the world and how other characters to react to you. It could potentially make Liberation an expectedly varied Assassin’s Creed experience