Why Assassin’s Creed Liberation’s Plot Twist Is Ingenious

Recently, I have made a point of playing through all the Assassin’s Creed games. That also includes Assassin’s Creed Liberation. Originally released for the PS Vita, it was ported to the PC a couple of years later. I never really cared much for it, but I thought, for completionist’s sake, I’d include it in my playthrough of the series. I really didn’t know what I was getting into when I booted up the game for the first time, but it ended up being one of the most intriguing gaming experiences I have ever had. The story is not what it seems at first glance, which really left me stunned for a moment when I finally figured out how I had been deceived throughout the entire game. Let me explain why the plot twist in Assassin’s Creed Liberation left me so speechless. And, obviously, spoiler warning.

The Premise

Assassin’s Creed Liberation is a game inside of a game. You play as someone who is, in turn, playing an Abstergo Entertainment product called Assassin’s Creed Liberation. This means that some details have been tampered with to fit the Abstergo agenda. This will play a major factor in how the story unfolds. I find this premise incredibly interesting because, as far as I know, this is the only Assassin’s Creed game that has you playing an actual game in its world. All of the other Assassin’s Creed games have you reliving the literal memories of your ancestors, which can not be manipulated by any outside forces. If you are a bit confused right about now, then I hope this next section will answer the questions you have.

The Story

The story follows the 18th Century, female Assassin Aveline De Grandpré during her adventures in French-Lousiana. I’ll be honest, during most of my playthrough of Assassin’s Creed Liberation, I was bored out of my mind. It just felt like I was playing re-hashed missions from previous Assassin’s Creed games and was really looking forward to the experience being over. However, at some point in the game, you will encounter the so-called Citizen E. A glitch in the software that shows you what actually happened instead of what the game, and therefore Abstergo, want you to believe what happened. 

One of the Citizen E sequences.

You see, at certain key points in the game, the protagonist, Aveline—an Assassin, is portrayed in a less than flattering light. This is clearly meant to show the supposed shortcomings of the Assassin Brotherhood and cast the Templars, i.e Abstergo, as the sympathetic party that is fighting for the good of mankind. This all culminates in the supposed ending of the game. 

The Ending

There are two versions here. The Abstergo-approved version and the what-actually-happened version. In the Abstergo version, Aveline sees the error of her ways and proceeds to join the Templars and abandon her Assassin past. After this, the credits scroll by, but as you might notice, the developers are the in-universe characters that work for Abstergo. I noticed this when I saw the last name. The last person mentioned is Dr. Warren Vidic who, as people who have played the previous games know, is the main antagonist in the modern-day timeline. So I realized that something wasn’t right here and, sure enough, the game drops you into one last Citizen E segment. In this part, you see that Aveline actually remained in the Assassin Brotherhood. 

The fake credits.

Now, what makes this twist so ingenious? Well, this revelation that the story was constructed to make the Assassins look bad only hit me when I saw the ending. As I said, it was mindnumbing playing through the story because I wasn’t paying much attention to what the game was trying to tell me. This meant that the final twist really took me a moment to comprehend completely, and it messed with my view of the game.

Conclusion

I was fully intending to write a scathing indictment of Assassin’s Creed Liberation, but after that rollercoaster ride of a plot twist, I was just left stunned. Assassin’s Creed Liberation really pulled an Uno reverse card on me with its ending and it is now one of the most interesting gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I can’t quite put into words the mix of emotions I was going through in that moment; it all hit me like a train going at full speed. It completely shattered my previous image of Assassin’s Creed Liberation. I think I have gone on long enough about my playthrough of Assassin’s Creed Liberation and I hope I was able to somewhat convey what I was feeling right after finishing the game.

What did you think of Assassin’s Creed Liberation?