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Lair
Lair is set in a world that has been
ravaged by war and naturally disasters and transforms players into a
dragon rider as they attempt to ensure the longevity of their race by
stopping an almost unstoppable army. Beautifully directed with amazing
cut scenes, Lair is hampered by almost unplayable gameplay which
questions how on Earth Sony had allowed this title to be released. Read
on good reader...
The controls, which lock
you into using motion control, are terrible. I know that anyone who says
that is open to the "but you just didn't learn them!" defense, but I
tried. I tried for hours and hours and hours. I tried all weekend. I
played missions over and over trying to get the controls down. The truth
is that they're just not precise, and with too much of the game asking
for precision, it's continually frustrating. I wasn't happy with the
controls on minute six, and I wasn't happy with them on hour six,
either.
The little gimmicks that ask you to use the Sixaxis in different ways
were simply annoying; I didn't want to shake the controller up and down
to use my claws. The silly in-air battles where you have to move the
controller left or right sharply to ram other dragons didn't work with
any regularity. But these are nit-picks compared to the fact that the
very act of turning with any control is damn near impossible. Maybe
things would be improved with analog control, maybe not, but as it
stands there isn't a single control mechanic that works or adds to the
experience. When you grapple with another dragon in mid-air you can mash
buttons and it may look cool, but that's it. You can wrestle your way
through the game, but no matter how long you play, you'll simply grow
accustomed to the crappiness of the controls; they're almost impossible
to master.
Aiming your fireballs is
a chore without an aiming reticle or an obvious way to see what you're
locked on to. It almost feels like the developers were working on a good
system for combat and aiming, but decided for some reason not to ship it
with the game.
The entire game, in fact, feels rushed and unfinished. Outside of the
nice story sequences, the in-engine cut scenes are choppy, pop up too
often, and seem to intrude on the action instead of moving the story
along. This is a game I would say shows promise if were playing a
preview and was told that it was 60 percent done or so, but as an actual
retail product? No thanks.
Graphically, Lair is
rich and detailed, however the frame rate is awful. It's low to the
point of motion-sickness in many scenes, completely killing the
experience of flying. The frame rate is constantly chugging, and it's
unbearable. The ground battles feature a slow-motion effect when you
swipe away many enemies at once, but you'll be forgiven by being annoyed
at having to suffer intentional slowdowns between the unintentional
ones.
In conclusion, Lair is a disappointment on the PS3 and almost feels like
a BETA version with extremely poor gameplay and framerate issues. It's a
shame because Lair could have been a great title, however this current
incarnation leaves quite a lot to be desired. |
