Title Lair (review #2) Date 09.07.2007 Genre Action, Flying Platform PlayStation 3 Developer Factor 5 Publisher SCEA

Editor's Note: Because of the controversy the game has caused regarding the gameplay and its control scheme, we've decided to provide two opinions, in order for you to derive the most out of our review of Lair. Review #1 can be found here

Pros
+Motion controls for the most part work well
+Blasting dragons out of the sky is always fun
+1-on-1 dragon duels!
+Ground combat is overly satisfying
+Decent story
+Strong production values
+Quite possibly the best looking and sounding PS3 game out now.
+Replay value for those who want to unlock everything.

Cons
-Motion controls will either be loved or hated
-Shallow gameplay
-Good luck pulling off 180 degree turns
-Lock-on system close to broken
-Objectives hard to find sometimes
-Wish there was a level that was just a ground mission :)

"Oh No, it's Lair!! Women and children first!!"
Sound familiar? This is what everyone is apparently implying about Lair, the PS3 exclusive title developed by Factor 5, the makers of the Rouge Squadron series of Star Wars games. Basically, the many reviews and raving fanboys are declaring Lair a disaster. However, unlike the raving fanboys (and maybe some of the reviewers) I have actually played Lair all the way to the end. Does it have it's fair share of gameplay annoyances? Yes. Is it as Horrible a game that it is made out to be? No, it isn't. Read on to see why Lair is at least worth a look for PS3 owners.

RISE FROM STORY
Lair takes place in an ancient world torn apart by volcanoes. Dragons and other beasts also roam the land. Humans are split between two different societies: The Asylians and the Mokai. Tensions between the two societies finally reach a boiling point during a day when supposedly a peace treaty is to be signed between the two empires. Instead of peace, however, the Mokai send in their dragons to scorch Asylian to the ground. You, as Rohn, an elite member of the Asylian sky guard, must now mount your dragon and take to the skies.

Thus begins a decent story with various twists and turns that most people will probably see coming. However, it is captivating enough to play through the entire game to see how it ends. Unless of course.......

RISE FROM GAMEPLAY
Now comes to the meat of the complaints that are tossed at Lair: The required SIXAXIS motion controls used to steer your dragon. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I found the controls to actually be quite responsive and for the most part easy to use. You control your flying pet just like a plane: tilt the controller up, the dragon goes up. Tilt it down, the dragon goes down, and so on. It may take some practice, but you will get used to it eventually. I highly recommend that you do the all the training mission that are in the game to fully grasp them. These controls are far from perfect however, which brings me to 180 degree turns and forward dashes. You see, 180 degree turns are done by snapping the controller upwards, while the dashes are done by snapping the controller forwards.

Seems fair enough... if it actually worked most of the time! Almost every time I went to turn 180, my dragon would instead dash forward. Almost every time I say! It's pretty infuriating when I want to take a breather from a heated dogfight, or maybe I just passed over an objective and want to turn around and go back with my super awesome 180 degree turn. But no, instead when I snap the controller up, the game says to itself: Time for a forward dash! I was only able to successful do 180 turns when I really focused and snapped the controller up slow, which is hard to do in the middle of a chaotic dragon battlefield. So yeah, wished that worked better.

Lair's gameplay is split between air and ground combat. Those who are familiar with the Rouge Squadron series should feel right at home with air combat. While you steer your dragon with the SIXAXIS, you use the square button to shoot fireballs at your targets. Holding down the square button causes the dragon to shoot a stream of fire forward like a flamethrower. Tapping the X button makes your dragon accelerate. The L2 and R2 buttons make the dragon brake, while pressing both L2 and R2 together will cause it to hover. Press both of those buttons near land will cause the dragon to land for ground combat, which I'll get to later. Now for the most part, air combat is pretty cool.

Nothing beats blowing legions of enemy dragons out of the sky, and the auto-targeting system the game has for this works fairly well. The game also has a lock-on function, which is activated by pressing L1 or R1. Locking on to objects such as cannons, turrets, and land beasts will cause your dragon to dive it and tear them apart with its talons. Using the lock-on against other dragons and pressing the circle button will initiate pursuit mode, where you use SIXAXIS controls to ram into them to try to take them out. You can also hit the triangle button in pursuit mode to initiate a 1-on-1 mid-air dragon duel to the death, which I thought worked well and was pretty cool.

However, not all is well in the lock-on system world. You see, in order to lock-on to something, you must get close enough to it to see a white hue form around it. You then press the lock-on button and the white hue changes to red, which signifies a successful lock-on. The only problem is that you have no control over what you lock-on to, the game chooses for you, and there's not way to change targets once you’re locked on unless you break the lock-on. So let's say you need to target cannons on a nearby outpost, so you get close to it to get a lock-on. However, a group of dragons just happen to fly-by right in front of your target, so you hit the lock-on button to target the cannon, only to have the game target one of the dragons. So your dragon now follows the locked on dragon around, away from the cannons you were supposed to destroy, and the now you have to cancel the lock-on and fly back to the cannon and try again. This happened to me numerous times throughout the game, and I feel if a better lock-on system were implemented (like say, using one of the analogue sticks to change targets manually) this game could have been so much better than it is.

Speaking of objectives, that's another area Lair needed extra work on. Your objectives consist of either destroying enemies or protecting something by destroying enemies, with a few boss battles sprinkled in. So you really don't have much variety in your missions. Also, at times it can be quite hard to find your objectives in the mostly huge levels. All you really have to go on is what you hear the characters say in regards to an objective, and an arrow in the top right of your screen pointing the way to it. You can press in R3 to remind you of your current objective, so that's a little helpful.

You can also activate rage vision, which is basically your dragon's targeting computer, by pressing down on the d-pad. This makes you go into a first person view and shows your enemies as bright red. I mean, EVERY enemy turns up as bright red, even your objectives. Was way too hard to make objectives a different color, huh Factor 5? Purple maybe? Black? I mean if I have to take out dark dragons and there are still regular dragon enemies in the sky, how am I supposed to know who to attack? Apparently you just want use to wing it, so congratulations to Factor 5 on that one. Also, kudos for interrupting me with scenes of my Army/Navy/Mantas being destroyed. I KNOW I need to protect them, but it's kind of hard when to do that when I'm shown each and every one exploding every 30 seconds.

No let's go to ground combat, which suffers less problems than air combat and is actually quite fun. While hovering close to the ground, pressing R2 + L2 will cause your dragon to land. Now when the situation calls for ground combat, that usually means it's time for your dragon to cut a bloody path through thousand of unsuspecting ground troops. Let me tell ya, scorching and clawing your way through these helpless victims is quite the satisfying experience. No SIXAXIS controls here, you move your dragon with the left stick, and besides your fireball, flamethrower, and claw attacks, you can hold the triangle button to chow down on an random soldier and gain a health boost. The nice touch of close-up, matrix-like shots of soldiers flying in the air from your attacks in slow motion just adds to the coolness.

RISE FROM GRAPHICS
One word: phenomenal. Lair runs in up to 1080p, and the level of detail and the grand scale of the levels is nothing short of breathtaking. Everything is the game, from buildings, mountains, water, bridges, etc. look gorgeous. The dragons themselves are equally impressive; you can almost make out every scale on their bodies. FMV's that are shown at the beginning and end of levels are just as stunning and well made. When I first saw the giant sea snake boss in level 6 come up from the ocean and snatch one of my flying mantas, I was floored!

I did notice some occasional screen tearing and frame-rate chugs, but overall a great package. This is definitely the type of game you would show to demonstrate what the PS3 can do.

RISE FROM SOUND
Can I say it again: phenomenal. The THX-certified sound runs in Dolby Digital 5.1, and for you audiophiles out there, 7.1 uncompressed PCM sound (thanks, of course, to Blu-Ray). Dragons whooshing overhead, fireballs whizzing by, explosions, and the various roars and sounds of the dragons and other beasts are excellent. The orchestrated music score is also quite impressive and fits the game perfectly. The voice acting is also pretty well done. Just like with visuals, this is the type of game you would use to show off the PS3's sound capabilities.

RISE FROM THE ASHES?
During gameplay, the more destruction you deal out with your dragon, the more carnage points you earn. You can also fill the rage meter at the right side of the screen, and when activated by pressing up on the d-pad, causes time to slowdown and allows your dragon to rack up even more carnage points. You can also perform takedowns, when is activated in pursuit mode by pressing triangle. These context-based instant kills raise your carnage even more. At the end of each level, your carnage points are factored in with other things and you are given a medal based on how you did. Each level can earn you a bronze, silver, or gold medal, which will unlock new dragons to use, new attacks, various "making of" videos, concept galleries, art galleries, all that good stuff. So there is replay value here for that ones who want to unlock everything and get a gold (or the ultra tough platinum) medal in each of the 14 levels.

All in all, it comes down to the controls. You either love them or you hate them. It was obvious most of the work that went into Lair went into it's production values. Aside from a few bad things, I found the controls to work pretty well, and I urge you to at least give Lair a rental before passing judgment on it. Even if you do end up hating the gameplay, at least you got to see one of the best looking and sounding games on the PS3 in action.

Game Score

C+

Reviewed By: Contributed