Movies like Dragonheart and the Lord of the Rings trilogy definitely had a strong influence on Lair, which was developed by Factor 5, the team behind the excellent Rouge Squadron Star Wars games. Set in a world where dragons and men fight side by side, you play a warrior named Rohn, who is one of the best dragon riders in the Asylian sky guard; your skills are put to the test as you and your fellow dragon riders go up against the Mokai army who are attempting to conquer your land.
Presentation-wise, Lair is spectacular with visuals that jump out of the screen, displaying huge battles on land, sea, and of course in the air. Now the problem is making all this action control smoothly, which is Lair’s main issue that drags all the other decent aspects of the game down a dark hole. This is mainly a Sixaxis controlled game, offering no analog support at all for air battles, which has become its curse. On paper it sounds great, but when you’re sitting in front of your TV swinging your controller like a madman trying to make your dragon turn left or make a 180 degree turn, the thrill is gone.
As indicated by the on-screen tutorial, turning the Sixaxis left, right, up or down will make your character mirror your actions, and giving the controller a quick snap forward will make you go faster in an instant. Okay, sometimes this works, but most of the time it will take multiple tries to make the simplest action occur. Who knows what went down in Factor 5’s QA department, but some heads should be smacked…Hard! For a game that requires so much action and quick movements, it is completely unacceptable to have such difficulty making your character do basic tasks. And what makes this look even worse, is that a game like Warhawk, which is pretty much using a similar control scheme, locks it down perfectly.
And if you think controlling your dragon is nerve-racking, try locking onto a target and hitting something. When the enemy is in site you must hold down the R1 or L1 button (and pray that your target actually locks), then press the square button to open fire (literally) on your foe. When it works, it’s great, but there are just too many times when you’ll be screaming obscenities because your targeting system failed you at a crucial moment.
There are times in the game when your dragon will need to land on the ground, and here you’ll actually be able to use the analog controls to move around, which is a complete breath of relief. It makes you wonder why the developers didn’t make using the Sixaxis motion controls optional, rather than required, because when you’re performing ground missions, things are not so bad. Ground battles are just as detailed as the air missions, with waves of soldiers rushing in to join the fight, castle walls being destroyed, and blazing fireballs striking the ground; and thanks to analog you can actually enjoy most of this.
The missions are pretty long, some taking up to thirty minutes, with multiple tasks that must be completed in the later levels. This would be fine if there were checkpoints (like every other game on the market offers), but with Lair if you screw up on the last thing you needed to accomplish, you will be forced to go back to the start of the level and do it all again. And being that the controls can be a nightmare, this is not adding to the fun factor at all.
But enough with crucifying Lair; the game does have some positive things to note. First of all it’s an incredible looking game displaying crisp 1080p visuals that will jump out of your HDTV. The scale of this game is huge, and even though it’s not an open world, there are plenty of beautiful sights to see. When you’re on your dragon’s back soaring across the water, you can look down to see how every wave and ripple is perfectly highlighted with sunbeams and the shadows of everything that passes over it. Also, the air battles (when the controls are in your favor) can get exiting, reminding you of Factor 5’s Rogue Squadron games, as you swoop through openings in the cliff walls and around targets, like the Millennium Falcon dodging asteroids.
Somewhere deep inside Lair is a good game, but it didn’t make it completely to the surface. There are moments where something awesome will occur, but then three things that will piss you off follow. If this game had more time to cook in the development oven instead of being rushed onto store shelves to fill the void of PS3 games, it would have been a kick ass experience, but instead the game that was delivered is not the game that was bragged about for months by Sony execs. Maybe they should rename this game “LIAR” instead of “LAIR.”
Lair’s visuals are definitely the highlight of the show in all its 1080p glory. The playing ground is huge, with moments when there is action occurring on both the ground and in the skies above in perfect detail. The cut scenes are very impressive (not Heavenly Sword impressive) but offer plenty of eye candy. The dragons themselves (who are the real stars of the game) are very impressive, with multiple layers of textured skin. It would have been great if more work went into making the fire that the dragons unleash look more amazing, but instead the balls of flames look like leftovers from Spyro the Dragon. From time to time there were frame rate hiccup issues, especially when the screen becomes packed with action; and there were several times when my dragon walked directly through structures that were on the ground, like catapults and huts, as if they were completely invisible.
If you have a lot of patience to overlook the control issues, you can probably knock this game out in about ten hours or so. Then if you dare to return, you can attempt to unlock all the gold medals awarded for perfectly playing through each mission. There are no multi-player game options, but an online leaderboard allows you to compare your accomplishments against other players.
The PS3 still does not have its killer app, and Lair will not be making any top ten lists this year (positive list, that is). Many were looking forward to this game, and some of those may actually be satisfied. If you lower your expectations and ignore the crappy controls, this would be a good game; but after shelling out $400 or $500 for a console (depending on the configuration) and another $60 for a game that has been hyped for so long, you’re entitled to something better. We know that Factor 5 can make better games, but this time somebody dropped the ball. If you want a great flying game that makes perfect use of the Sixaxis controller, pick up a copy of Warhawk instead.
