One aspect of Lair that doesn’t hold up that well is the story. Sure, it is very well presented and reasonably well directed but really doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before. You could say the same of a lot of RPG’s, but Lair is never really able to shake the feeling (beginning till the very end) that you’ve seen it all before and this means the game comes off as extremely predictable. It’s quite a shame given the world that has been created, as it’s something of a cross between a medieval story and some elements that seem to have been inspired by Lord of the Rings. Lair tells the story from the perspective of a “Burner” (guys who ride dragons) named Rohn. He’s caught in the middle of a war between the two races of the world, where a maniacal religious dictator is attempting to eradicate the opposing race. Of course, the story delves into issues such as your typical, “who is really good and who is really evil”, and things like trust and betrayal, but really, it’s wholly predictable. Not the mention, the characters have no, well, character. They’re bland, stereotyped and not really interesting.
As mentioned above, Factor 5 earned its reputation through some of the most technically proficient performances on consoles. Upon watching the magnificent opening cut-scene, it’s likely to evoke the same feelings. That is, until the actual game starts. The absolute first bit that you’ll see of the gameplay is a real let down after the brilliant cut-scenes. However, we digress. That’s not to say that the Lair looks bad, it’s just that the wonderful CG is not doing the actual game any favours. In fact, Lair has many aspects to its visual presentation that are downright awesome. However, Factor 5 have let themselves down a little bit, with a technical performance somewhat below what you’d expect from them.
At least the screenshots look good.
All the individual details in Lair look brilliant. Let’s get that out of the way. The dragons, the other beasts, the landscape, the architecture, the water, the scope; they all look fantastic. And the amount that what is going on screen at any one time is nothing short of stunning. However, for some reason, when everything is in motion, there are a quite a few occasions where they just don’t ‘fit’, as is often seen in games that try too hard to look realistic. That, and the amount that is happening on screen probably is what was leading to a lot of the technical hitches. These include no short amount of tearing and chugging. It can be discernible at times, when the images chug as you try to turn. So while Lair has the aspects of awesome looking game, it either needed more time in the cooker, or Factor 5 may need to revise their development procedures.
In terms of sound, just because the game has a symphonic score, doesn’t make it awesome. When done right, you’ve got an awesome experience, as can be seen in Shadow of the Colossus. Lair isn’t necessarily wrong but it just doesn’t evoke the same feelings that you expect to get from such a score. It doesn’t really ride with the emotions in the game. The sound effects have definitely got it right, and while the voicing comes off as somewhat clichéd, it at least feels like some effort has been put into it. However, the sound effects aren’t always attached to what is happening on screen and voice queues get very repetitive and are often wrong or useless.
Now onto the gameplay. Lair has been criticised in places for shoehorning players into only being able to manoeuvre using the sixaxis, and that the movement leads to compromising situations. To an extent, it’s true but for the most part, the criticisms have been heavily exaggerated. Essentially, Lair is a flight sim, but instead of planes, you’re flying dragons. So the movements of the sixaxis will be the main way of controlling you dragon. The face buttons control the dragons actions such as shooting fireballs and dash attacks. The L2 button is something of a brake for your dragon, while either R1 or L1 can be used to lock-on. Holding R2 and L2 while close to the ground will allow your dragon to start attacking on the ground on all fours. You’ll control the dragon using the analog stick in this case.
Medium or well-done?
Contrary to the general reaction that has been about, the motion controls work reasonably well. Within the first few missions, we stopped reaching for the analog stick and were able to fully grasp the movements that were available for us. So long as you accept that the controls are the reins of a dragon and NOT a rally car or a high-tech fighter plane, and play accordingly, you’ll generally find that the actual motions are fine. The only one that is seemed to persistently go unrecognised was the motion to turn the dragon 180 degrees. Even when we thrusted the controller over our heads (simulating what kind of an action you would perform with reins in hand), it was still inconsistent. Still, we were actually more frustrated when the face buttons or shoulder buttons didn’t respond.
While a lot of what you’ll do in Lair is quite typical of a flight game, there are a couple of additions that give a little something more. Aside from completing objectives that involve the usual destroy x amount of this, protect your fleet and so forth, there are a fair few intermittent quick-time events that are needed in ‘takedowns’ and during important events. You also have a sequence where the two dragons are flying side-by-side and you need to ram into the other, and one where two dragons face off in rock-paper-scissors style combat. It’s surprising to see how well they’ve been implemented into the environment but at the same time, they are prone to inconsistency from the commands. It helps though, if the player uses some patient strategies at times.
Even though Lair isn’t as bad as it has been made out to be, there are a couple of aspects that allow us to understand why the game has been so heavily criticised. Firstly, the lock-on is pitiful. Given the scope of the game, its range is far too short and it will randomly lock-on to anything that is close. That wouldn’t be so bad, if you were at least able to cycle through different options, but alas, when you let go and re-lock, it never really helps. Secondly, the overall game design is wholly uninspired. If you take out the dragons, you’ve essentially got Rogue Squadron (this becomes ridiculously evident when taking down the warbeasts). As mentioned, the objectives are pretty much the same as you’d see in any flying game. So really, there is no advantage or marked difference when playing with dragons. Finally, the game asks you to do too much, particularly later on. If you had a squad and could command to answer certain calls, that would be good. However, it’s not fair on a player to fail them because they weren’t able to be in four places at once or if there isn't a clear indication of the most immediate objective.
Nothing quite like enemy nourishment.
By the time Lair is released in Australia, most machines would likely be running on updated PS3 hardware. Upon its original release, most overseas publications would have played the game on early hardware. The significance of this is that for whatever reason, Lair does play slightly better on the updated hardware. The controls feel marginally tighter and the game runs somewhat smoother. It isn’t really enough to mask over the games flaws, particularly in terms of design but you can’t fault it for the (albeit minor) improvement. This may make the 8-10 hour experience that is Lair, that little bit more bearable or enjoyable. For those who want to come back, there are leaderboards to help compare their scores against other players.
So we’ve established that Lair is not as bad a game that it has been made out. A word on the control scheme is necessary though. The motion controls do work reasonably, so long as you’re at least putting in a little effort to simulating what it would be like on the saddle of a dragon. However, they don’t really add anything extra to the game. You could argue that some buttons have been freed up, as have the analogue sticks. However, the analogue sticks only control the camera, which doesn’t really help the gameplay in any form. The fact is, there wouldn’t have been much difference if Lair had a normal scheme as opposed to the motion controls. Also, this is beating a dead horse but we’d expect that riding a dragon is a rough experience and that some feedback could have added to the immersion of the game.
We could argue that the technical downfalls in Lair may have been ironed out in another few months, but that wouldn’t have saved the game from its true faults. And this is the fact that it never really finds a good medium between convention and ambition. The ambition either falls on its face or never takes off, while the conventional aspects have all been done before and done better. This is none more prominent than in the game’s underlying design, which is essentially ripped out of Factor 5’s last effort. Throw in boring, predictable, characterless story, a wannabe symphonic score and you have a disaster? No, not quite. Many of the games aspects aren’t as broken as is suggested outside, not to mention, flying around on giant fire-breathing beasts can be fun at times and the game does have its awesome moments. It’s just a shame that these moments aren’t capitalised on enough. So while it’s not as bad as it has been made out, Lair really has missed a grand opportunity to shine.
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