Assassin's Creed III: Liberation retains the "franchise's trademark open world and gameplay",[12] while making use of the PlayStation Vita's touchscreen and rear touch pad, cameras and gyroscope. The player's character, Aveline de Grandpré, controls similarly to other Assassin protagonists of the series, being able to free run, use 'social stealth', and fight enemies using a counter-based combat system. Because the game uses the same engine as Assassin's Creed III, most of the animations from that game are reused. However, Aveline does have several unique animations, as well as the ability to dual-wield weapons, such as the new blowpipe as well as the familiar swords, knives, pistols and hidden blades.[13]
New gameplay mechanics exclusive to Liberation include a Chain Kill ability, which allows Aveline to chain attacks together to kill multiple enemies at once; a trade system, in which Aveline manages her father's trade network by purchasing goods and selling them to other cities via ship; and the ability to switch between Aveline's three distinct personas, each providing its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the Assassin persona performs better in combat, but is very quickly detected by enemies; the Slave persona can blend in with other slaves or carry crates to pass by suspicious enemies, but has access to fewer weapons; and the Lady persona can charm or bribe guards to enter restricted areas and is detected slower than the other personas, but cannot free run.[14]
The multiplayer component, exclusive to the original PlayStation Vita version, consists of players tapping nodes on a map, using characters (represented with static portraits) to capture bases and collect supplies, among other things. This differs from the series usual competitive multiplayer which had players assassinating each other for sport.
