Lair

THE BAD:
-glitches
-sometimes a bit confusing

SUMMARY:


To begin with, we'll cut straight to gameplay.
You're started off with mission selection, which allows you to horizontally control the dragon to your heart's content until you select a mission.


First mission starts with a quick flight tutorial before cutting to the first mission. You're presented with the basic mechanics of controlling the dragon; turning, up and down, boost and 180, and basic firebreath attacks. You are required to fly through a line-up of rings before you go to mission 1.


This is the first time you realize that this game in no way is unresponsive. In fact, most might realize that the game is actually almost too responsive. Once you get into it, controlling the dragon is second nature.
Fire breathing is easy; pressing square gets you a fireball, holding it down gets you a firestream. R1 is lock on, and circle causes your dragon to dash to the target once lock is achieved.


When you attack a dragon, you will be required to bash the other dragon a couple times, which will subsequently launch you into a midair melee brawl with your opponent, given the enemy wasn't killed by the bashing beforehand. Triangle is for biting, square is for fire attack, and circle and square are for slashing with your claws. R1, L1, or R2 and L2 together is for blocking attacks. These sequences are nicely done, but once or twice throughout the campaign the two dragons' animations may freeze up, so you don't know when an attack is coming. You may want to block for a little while, and then just guess a little bit; the animations will come back.


You also have the option of Takedown attacks. These are cinematic attack which involves you either jumping from your dragon to kill the rider and then the beast, or a dramatic dragon attack. These require some player input to complete, but they're not overly immersive. They're still awesome to watch though.


If you get confused as to what characters are enemies and what are allies, hold down on the D-pad; you will activate Rage Vision, or a sort of infrared vision that highlights enemies in red. Easy to use and efficient. Also available is Rage: pressing up on the D-pad slows time down, but you still move in normal time while everyone else is slowed down. Almost like superspeed without the blurs. This can be moderately useful if you get overwhelmed. But it's not always available; you must build up energy to use it.


You will also be required to interact with certain objects, or do a special attack on certain beasts at some points in the game. These objects will let you lock on to them; some can be taken out with one or more fireballs, but sometimes they must be specially destroyed. Lock on to these objects, press circle to fly up to them, and your dragon will grab onto them. Shake the controller up and down to start pulling on it. Either you will pull them out and fly away with them to throw them away to your disposal, or they will just blow up.


Some beasts, specifically Rhinos, Tauros and Warbeasts, are vulnerable to specific attacks. With Tauros, either you get down on the ground and kill them, or lock onto them, press circle to dash to them and carry them away, to then throw wherever you like. Rhinos have headplates that you must yank off, which you do by shaking the controller up and down while holding on. I don't see how this kills them, but it does. Warbeasts are like AT-ATs from Star Wars, or like Mumakil from Lord of the Rings; big lumbering beasts with warriors and ordanace on them. Destroy the platforms on their backs, and then fly low and slow beside them, press triangle to latch on, and then flick the controller forward to boost, pulling the beast over. These special attacks are for the most part easy to do, and look cool too. Warbeasts are a bit hard if you don't destroy the positions on their backs.


You also have the option in certain levels to get down in the weeds and kill things things with your bare hands. To land on the ground, you must slow down a bit, get close to the ground, and press R2 and L2; your dragon will land. There are a few different attacks: using Circle or jerking the controller left and right will cause the dragon to swipe its claws. Square is for fireball, or firestream if you hold it down. Jerk the controller down and the dragon will open its wings and sweep a blast of air, throwing soldiers off their feet. Press triangle to munch on a solider, replenishing some health. At some points time will slow down, and you can move the camera by moving the left stick or tilting the controller. The camera is a bit limited here, but since most of the time you're on flat surfaces, it doesn't really matter. Altogether, the ground combat is pretty good, and rewarding.


The first mission isn't all that hard, and gives you a few pointers as you go along. The second mission might require one or two restarts, but after that, the missions are fairly straightforward. They increase in difficulty as you go along, and one or two missions are a little more difficult than others. The final missions is quite interesting, as it involves plugging up an erupting volcano's vents to prevent utter destruction. Each missions is diverse, and halfway through you will switch dragons; you can choose from two dragons in whichever mission you please after beating the game. You may also go back to the training level whenever you please to polish up on your flying or ground skill.


Altogether, the gameplay itself is easy to slip into. The dragons fly nicely, and feel natural with SIXAXIS. While Factor 5 may have saved a bit of face by including analog control, nothing was really done wrong here. Gameplay is great, and certainly nothing like reviewers make it out to be. What makes it better is that at one point, you have to face a giant sea serpent. Best. Boss. Ever.



Next is the graphics. This is where the game also shines. The detail of everything is done to the very last grain of sand. What the games does is add detail to objects the closer and closer you get to them. At far distance they are detailed, and are still detailed once you get up close to them. Every object looks amazing, and light reacts on them like they really would.


The water is expertly modelled, and acts in real time: the waves aren't scripted, and affects things as they move; if you're low to the water, you'll be moved upward if a ave rises under you. From any distance, the water is jaw dropping. Light reflects off of it and sparkled photo-realistically.


The light in this game is very well done, and reacts very well when hitting objects.


The dragons are also stunning. They are sharp and detailed, and their animations are awesome. On your first dragon, light dulls as it hits the rough skin. The second dragon you get is scaly, and light reflects off of it sharply, almost making it look wet (realistically so). In general, the dragons are great.


The cutscene characters are stunningly detailed. Of course they're not perfect, but their textures are precise; you can almost touch the stubble of the shaven beard of some of the characters. They move right, and look good. Although for some reason, sometimes the in-game environments look better than the cutscene ones. Only sometimes.


On the downside, the clouds could definitely use some work. At distance, they look like they are made of large blurred puffy pixels if you look at them long enough. If you get close, they look a tad more natural, but still aren't great.


All in all, Lair is one of the best-looking games on the PS3 to date.



Next we have sound.


The sounds of the dragons are very well done. The flapping of the wings sounds realistic and believable, and the roars are quite real, even as no real animal could ever make such a noise. The characters sounds are done well, thanks to the pro foley artists at Factor 5.


The soundtrack is epic, oh so epic. You almost feel as if you're playing a movie sometimes. In one mission, everything goes silent, except for the sounds of your dragon, characters voices, and a sad vocal piece playing as you go along. Quite immersive, and the music always fits the action. Whoever did the soundtrack deserves an award,


Everything from voice acting to sound effects are expertly put together. Kudos to the Lair Sound Team.



The game also has unlockable extras, such as behind the scenes videos, concept art, soundtrack player and other items. You also have access to Leaderboards, but for some reason mine keeps freezing up.



Altogether Lair was an unforgettable experience. Definitely one of the better games I've played in my gaming history. While I am a bit of a sucker for fantasy-medieval games, this game still pleases. Lots of replayability. If possible, I even sometimes just fly around for the heck of it.


However, I always advise you rent before you buy. Not everyone likes every game. Everyone's different.

4.9/5

THE BAD:
-Framerate stutters at times
-SIXAXIS use isn't perfect
-Some slight glitches
-Confusing objectives at times
-First 2-3 missions are blah
-Only takes about 15 or so hours to beat the first time through

SUMMARY:
Alright, so this game has gotten some REALLY poor reviews, and I basically know why.

The SIXAXIS use in this game is pretty specific. If you try to control your dragon by throwing the controller left to right, up to down, it just plain isn't gonna work. You have to control the dragon smoothly, not by jerking around the controller. Something I noticed is that a lot of people that I've let play this game try to jerk the controller around and then get mad because it "Isnt working right". This problem was remedied when I got them to 'flow' from side to side and up to down.

Let me give you a quick outline of how the controls work. To steer your dragon, you tilt the controller to the left or right, depending on which way you want to go. To dash forward, you have to jerk the controller forward. To do a 180 degree turn, you quickly jerk the controller upwards about 12 inches. To shoot a fireball, tap the square button, and to spray fire, hold the square button. To lock onto objects, hold L1 or R1, and tap the other one to switch targets (Example: If you're using L1 to lock on, tap R1 to switch targets, and vice versa). To slow your dragon down, hold L2 or R2, and to halt it in midair or land, hold both L2 and R2. To get your dragon to flap it's wings quicker and get a bit of a speed boost, repeatedly tap the X button. For Rage Vision (which lets you see your enemies) press the down button on the D-pad. That about sums it up, other than when you're in a dragon to dragon battle. When you're in one of those, the square button is still used for fire, X and O are used to slash, and Triangle is used to bite.

Now to the way the controls actually work. Like I said, this game isn't perfect in terms of controls. It will sometimes mistake dash forward (jerk controller forward) for 180 (jerk controller up 12 or so inches) and vice versa. This can lead to you accidentally flying away from your objective, which is never a good thing. I really liked the implementation of SIXAXIS though. It took me about 3 missions to get used to it, but once I did, I was loving it!

Now, like I said earlier, the first 3 missions are kinda blah. It's all about fly here, attack this, fly the other way, attempt to kill him, take out this inanimate object, fly away, you're done.

HOWEVER, once you get past those 3 missions, the game gets interesting. How? Because the game starts throwing so many things at you! In order to be successful at this game, you have to be good at multitasking. It throws so many things at you in such a short period of time, that at times, it gets confusing, but at the same time, usually remains fun.

At times, the objective isn't really clear because of it, but the game usually does stay fun. I'll give you an example. In one of the later missions, one second you're defending your army, the next second, "OUR FLEET IS UNDER ATTACK, DEFEND IT!".... As soon as I start defending it, "ATTACK THE OUTPOSTS", I start attacking them, "DEFEND THE FLEET!", I start defending it, "DEFEND THE ARMY!", I start flying towards it, "DEFEND THE FLEET!". It really gets confusing as to what your primary objective should be at times, which can sometimes end up making you fail the mission. There have been times when I didn't know if I should be attacking Rhinos, or attacking the enemy's fleet.

Now lets get to some of the better aspects of the game!

The graphics.... WOW! This game is absolutely beautiful. If the framerate was always steady (It's usually at around 25-30 FPS, but sometimes drops to about 10-15) the graphics would be well ahead of what any game has ever looked like less than one year after the console's launch. The textures look stunning, the HDR adds a great touch, and at 1080p, it looks even better! If the stuttering truly ticks you off (Which it never did to me, it was just a slight nuisance for me), then tell the PS3 that your TV only supports up to 720p, and the stutters will go down in quantity.

Lets get to the audio now. This game's music is jaw dropping. I would have NEVER expected this quality of music from a game. It puts anything that Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or Ace Combat have ever had to SHAME. Hell, I wouldn't even expect music this great from the top Hollywood movies. If they ever release a soundtrack, I will be the first to get it. This game also supports 7.1 surround sound, so you're all set with the native 1080p and 7.1 support!

This game's audio also works amazingly well with it's storyline. The music is just as epic as the story, which is filled with deceit, traitors, death, war, and tragedy. The story is about two nations (Assylia and Mokai) that were once one, but massive volcanic eruptions separated them, and led to differing beliefs among others, with both nations believing that the gods being mad at the other nation is what caused the volcanic eruptions, and this led to war.

One of the last things I love about this game is the remote play feature. This is the first PS3 game that can be played on the PSP VIA remote play. This may not sound too amazing, but it really is. Playing a PS3 game on your PSP is awesome. =)

To wrap up my review, this game isn't perfect, but I truly enjoyed it and I do think that it is well worth the $65 I paid for it. Great job Factor 5!

THE BAD:
Some bugs.
Doing 180's can result in forward dash.
Too much cut-scenes during a battle.
Sometimes the games graphics look like a ps2 game.

SUMMARY:
Well lair is defiantly not as bad as most of the reviews done by major websites. This is defiantly not a 4.9/10 game. But it isn't perfect either. Lair has fun gameplay were it has you killing dragons and destroying cities. It might be difficult to tell between if its a friendly dragon or a foe as they look the same from a distance.
This game defiantly shines in the sound and graphic department. The levels look so great and are very detailed. And the music is perfect to listen to in 5.1 surround sound. It really has the epic feel of a movie such as Lord of the rings.
One of the biggest complaints of the game is the sixaxis. All I can say is if you completely hate Sixaxis you will hate this game. But the controles are not that bad. It takes a while to get used to it and then its very good. But sometimes its hard to pull of a 180 when you really need it. And shaking the sixaxis like a maniac to destroy a catapult gets tiring.
There are some bugs in the game. Such as when you get into a battle with a dragon, sometimes your dragons just stand there frozen for a few seconds. Also when locking on, the camera gets screwed up.
Another problem is the way the game introduces you to a new objective. It just cuts to a video and shows you what to do. Now that may not be a problem, if it didn't happen so freaking much.
Now I know I said the graphics are great. But that doesn't hold true to most parts of the game. Sometimes there are cut scenes were the game looks like a ps2 game, and other cut scenes it could look like, well like a ps3 game should. And the same for the water effects. During gameplay the water looks very cool but in a cut scene it looks like a bunch of squares moving all over the place.
This game is defiantly not for everyone. If your not sure, rent it. It has fun gameplay that might get repetitive for some, it does have some bug problems but its pretty fun to play. I can tell you though that this is defiantly not a 4.9/10 game.
The game storyline is pretty good. You get to see as your character realises his wrong doing and has to test himself to do what is right. Even if that means you have to kill your own people.

So to sum it up, the game is good, but has a few more bugs then it should.