Lair - 4/10

Just like PS3 exclusives Heavenly Sword, Resistance Fall of Man and MotorStorm, Lair was a very hyped up game before the PS3's mighty shadow dawned on this earth. The results of the 3 titles i mentioned in the first sentence all proved rather successful exclusives for the PS3 console, having said that, maybe Lair can continue this routine? Well, sadly, you'd be wrong in thinking that, not entirely wrong mind you, as Lair still is quite an original game and visually, looks stunning, but you would be wrong in thinking that its better than Heavenly Sword, RFOM and MotorStorm, it loses quite badly when compared to those three titles actually, but then again, it is unfair to compare Lair to those titles as it is completely different experience and genre to those mentioned titles. In the weird and unpredictable world of a consoles life cycle, there is always going to be a slip up along the way, a disapointment, sadly, Lair is that disapointment for the PS3. Dont be fooled by the fanfare this recieved earlier, some games just arent meant to be special.


If there was one thing that gave Lair any hope of being a successful game, it was going to be its visuals and its heavy emphasis on the SIXAXIS motion sensor, one works, the other fails, granted, the visuals in Lair are absolutely gorgeous, right up there with visual monsters such as Heavenly Sword and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction. Lair obviously enjoys showboating its visuals, and when a game looks as good as this, then it has every right to show off. The cut scenes are film-like, every visual sequence and imagery on show is very cinematic to look at and is crafted and rendered in a true cinema style feel. One look at witnessing huge lifelike roaring dragons sweeping across in there droves across an enormous landscape of foggy skies, misty mountains, stone buildings and a rippling sheet of icey oceans will make you rub your eyes more than once and that is guaranteed. In fact one play through of Lair will almost convince you that you're on the set of a braveheart movie, its very atmospheric, quite similar to movies like Lord of The Rings and even Dragon Heart. The visual impact will almost knock you off your chair, it really is a beautiful sight to behold, rent it just to see what you're missing, because from a visual side of things, its one of the most spectacular looking games on the PS3.


Hell's hardest dragons are the show stealer of Lair, you will love these flying flame puking dinosaurs, their huge long flapping wings move as fluidly as bed sheets blowing in the wind, the fire they breath flickers in the strong gust of breeze, there scaley skin looks incredibly realistic and just the way they glide through the planes with such silky smooth motion will surely give you a frightening sense of vertigo. In fact the dragons are so awesome to look at alone you will forget about the characters riding them through the skies, and they're nicely detailed characters too i might add. Many people may complain that the colour pallette in Lairs visuals are abit washed out and blurry, but i think the colour fade matches this games looks and feel perfectly, to me it seems intentional and it paid off.


The story isnt anything that really alarms the brain, its short, simple and precise. You are in the heavy warrior boots of dragon knight, Rohn, whom is the guy that will be piloting these war trained fire breathing creatures through the heavens in a painfully stereotypical fantasy world full of gandalf lookalikes and torn apart kingdoms. At first glance, the LOTR/ Peter Jackson esque majesty that sweeps across the screen in a blaze of glory really sets the player up for a great experience, well, thats what you think, but until you get the grips with the motion sensing controlling, it all goes downhill in a blaze of glory. Once you're in the air and above the mountains, there is simply no turning back, this is it from here, shoddy controls that are frustrating to use, and get use to it for the rest of the game. I hope you enjoy it, because, personally, i was too busy pulling my hair out in frustration whilst trying to master the control scheme. In any normal video game, controls are something you look through the manual and learn pretty much from the get go, but in Lair's case, the controls are the crust and core of the game, the meat of Lair as an entire game, in my life time of gaming i have never thought i would come across a game that depends on its control scheme to reap success, sadly this is the case with Lair, if you dont like the controls, then you wont like Lair regardless of how god damn brilliant it looks and that is what really hurts this game.


On paper, it all sounds very inituitive to move, but when you have the controller in hand and are trying to pull off that 180 reverse turn in the sky, it involves you to tilt the controller upwards, tilt it too fast and your beast will continue to fly upwards, too slow and it will hardly move at all, you need it steady and precise and trying to get that right balance is painful and can take a long time, all this, just to move your dragon in one direction....if that sounds like fun then go ahead, but for me, its frustrating to try and pull all this off just in order to get your dragon to turn slightly to the left. If you tilt the controller in any direction too quickly, your dragon will automatically go into a burst of speed, if you try to turn left or right, sometimes the tilt function wont respond straight away, resulting in more irritation and less fun.


These slight delays are pretty much the cause of disapointment to the controls. Jolting the controller in all directions just to perform some simple functions is far from amusing, dragon attacks are much more easier to pull off, charge attacks, fireballs, swoops, talon swipes and claw jabs are all executed by the X button and so on but that is no relief from the painful motion sensing that is required to steer your beast forward. The highlight in gameplay is killing your enemy and watching him and his dragon drop from the sky, which isnt really much of a highlight at all to be honest. Its embarrassing to think that Lair's selling point was way too reliant on the motion sensing tilt function especially when Heavenly Sword used the motion sensor SIXAXIS function superbly with Kai's Twing Twang missions, in fact if you want a game for its motion sensing capability, than you would be far far better off with Heavenly Sword then with Lair.



I'd be surprised if you're still reading this review up until now, as it only gets worse and worse. The on foot sections are just as bad, if not worse then the lizard flying combat. The on foot sections act similar to games like Dynasty Warriors and as you steer your dragon through the flocks of generic looking enemy soldiers, you will be counting the long frustrating minutes until you actually get back into the sky again. The on foot combat also lacks gore, there is no blood or grisly kills to speak of, it is simply non existent, granted it didnt really need gore, but when the on foot battles are as shallow as they are, then gore would have maybe helped a little. On foot sections, airborne combat and the boss battles are all way too old fashioned and the overly fussy controls certainly dont help. Dont expect any memorable boss battles either, whilst fighting an enemy dragon all i could think about was fighting the tubby man baby that shoots blood and spills its guts in Clive Barkers Jericho.



Lair's only saving grace is its visuals, this is without doubt one of PS3's posterchilds, it looks fantastic, no gamer can argue with how Lair looks, it is a stunner, everything from the dragons, epic battles to the terrain you fly over is all richly detailed. Sadly, everything from the narrative, gameplay, camera angles, controls and missions are poorly executed. Lair is a big disapointment for the PS3, the motion sensing fails to entertain which pretty much results in the gameplay becoming frustrating, tedious and repetitive. Full marks to the developers for atleast attempting something different but take those marks off because that attempt falls flat in the ocean. Avoid this polished turd of a game because that is exactly what it is, you did not buy a PS3 to play half assed attempts like this, and with games such as Haze, Assassins Creed and Uncharted Drakes Fortune just around the corner, Lair is a game that wont stay in your mind for long.

Submitted by callan5 09/11/2007 10

Join MyPS3 to vote for your favourite story!

More Info:

Lair

Other Reviews:

• callan5 Review 4/10 by callan5

Related Videos:

• 
  Simpsons, The
• 
  Darkness, The
• 
  NCAA Football 08
• 
  Street Fighter IV