PlayStation Hardware & Games

Lair is the perfect game to get you screaming at your display.

A game about flying a fire-breathing dragon into battle? Yes, please. The concept sounds like a dream, and previews looked absolutely gorgeous. Sure, the controls seemed a little wonky, but either they’d make them more manageable, or I’d get used to them after a few levels. Right? Please….

In Lair, you play as Rohn, an Asylian dragon rider. Your people were attacked, unprovoked, by the heathen Mokai. A war ensues between the Asylians and the Mokai because of their differing religious views—the reason for most wars. As the story continues, it becomes apparent that the Asylians are under the control of a man determined to turn Asylia into a theocracy (sounds eerily familiar). The question is, how will Rohn deal with it?

The game is utterly beautiful. Sony obviously put a great amount of work into making everything about Lair visually stunning. Landscapes seem to go on for miles; the detail on the dragons is breathtaking; and the water of the seas invites you in to take a swim. The cut scenes are just as visually enticing as they move an engaging story forward. To complement the visual is a wonderful, epic soundtrack. The music is well written, with horns and strings blending at times to create stunning climaxes, all the while supporting the action on the screen. The sounds of carnage echo around as the battle proceeds. Unfortunately, at times, the expletives I shout at the screen overshadow all of this. To fly your dragon, you use the SIXAXIS controller. Sounds easy, but alas, it is not. Very often, the maneuver I try to pull off goes awry and sends me hurtling away from the action I’m so desperately trying to join. Any time you hit a wall, it sends you careening off in an unexpected direction. Being out over the open sea, these problems aren’t as readily apparent, and any miscalculations in flying are easy to rectify. Flying around in canyons is a whole other matter—hence the expletives.

Targeting is also a mess. While you can target by pressing the L1 or R1 button, you can’t choose what to target. When you want to kill a rhino and end up grabbing a soldier for the fourth time, it becomes very frustrating—again, the expletives. There is Rage Vision that helps you identify enemies while you’re in the heat of battle. When you activate Rage Vision, everything turns black and white, except for enemies that glow red, orange, or yellow, depending on their objective importance. In order to take down your enemies, you have a few options. Breathing fire at them is always a good bet. But some dragons—and buildings—are resistant to fire. For the dragons, you can target them and press the O button to spear them. This usually forces them from the skies, although it sometimes allows you to enter hand-to-hand (or claw-to-claw) combat with the opposing dragon. There’s also a Takedown option available when your Rage meter reaches its capacity. Cinematically, these are extremely cool, but there’s very little that needs to be accomplished with the controller to execute these maneuvers. And the instructions are listed on the screen for you to follow.

In order to keep you on track, mini-cutaways remind you of your objectives. However, they disrupt playing the game (even more expletives), occasionally coming with just a few seconds in between. While I understand the idea behind this, the audio of people yelling to take out the navy ships is enough to tell me what I need to do.

Quite possibly, the most disappointing aspects of the game include a few technical issues that pop up. When too many units appear on the screen, there’s a drop in frame rate. It’s not enough to cause the game to come to a grinding halt, but it’s noticeable. There are also moments when the geometry breaks apart, allowing a soldier I just picked up and tossed away to fly through the side of a mountain. This wouldn’t be that apparent if the camera didn’t follow alongside him as he flew through the mountain.

The beauty and detail of the sound and visuals of Lair lay an impressive groundwork for a phenomenal game. Unfortunately, the inaccuracies in the controls lead to a frustrating play experience. Hopefully, in the future, Lair 2 will keep the striking design and storytelling and pair it with spectacular control. Here’s hoping.

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