While not the worst game ever, Lair certainly could have been better.
That isn't to say that Lair is a bad game, it is more meant as a commentary on the controls. The PS3 Sixaxis controls aren't always the most responsive in the games it is included and most people I know turn them off at first chance. Lair forces you to use the Sixaxis controls to handle your movement whenever you are in the air, essentially shoving these controls down your throat ad they just aren't up to the task.
Lair, for the most part, controls almost like a flight simulator type game. How you angle the controller and shift it around will determine the direction that your dragon moves. The problem is that you aren't controlling this game with the analog sticks or a more precise flight control stick, they just aren't up to tight navigation that you need in these sorts of games.
More often than not you will find yourself doing moves entirely by accident when you are simply trying to move around. Even worse is when you are trying to perform the 180 degree turn by moving the controller upwards. It is hard sometimes to get the game to acknowledge the upwards motion sometimes if you don't bring the controller down a bit first. Unfortunately moving the controller downwards is how you do the dash move so you will likely end up dashing when you want to 180 and vice versa.
Going beyond the horrible control scheme you will see that there isn't actually all that much to Lair. It has a fairly predictable storyline with nothing too interesting, or unexpected, going on. You could honestly sum Lair up with two things: lame motion based controls and beautiful graphics.
The graphics are the one area of Lair that you cannot say that the developers dropped the ball on. Lair looks wonderful and most of the animations are very fluid, although it gets a bit iffy with the ground units. This is a game about dragons and other giant flying beasties, the only time humans mean much is when you are either guarding them or devastating armies of them. However getting into a plummeting mid-air duel with another dragon as a veritable war rages around you is quite a sight. It would also be hard to say that the developers didn't put effort into the creatures in this game as all of the assorted baddies, air and ground based, look incredible.
As mentioned before, the story to Lair isn't anything too special. You are Rohn, a dragon rider in the Assyrian armies. The story begins with an attack on the Assyrian city by the Mokai and their ice dragons. It seems that the Mokai live in the deserted wastelands while the Assyrians live in a beautiful city on a waterfall with plenty of greenery. The differences in beliefs between the two have made them enemies and since the land they live in is full of Volcanos' and the wastelands are spreading, the fighting over the good regions of the world come naturally and fiercely. While it initially seems as if the Mokai are ruthlessly attacking the Assyrians all is not as it seems. The tale that follows is one that some might brand "full of intrigue and betrayals" but that is far too generous. Anyone who has spent much time playing games or watching movies will see the twists and turns that follow coming from a mile away.
Riding atop his mighty dragon steed Rohn will take to the skies to battle his enemies. His trusted mount has the ability to ram its enemies, spit targeted fireballs at its enemies or to spray them with flaming streams. You can even do fly-bys of enemy troops, snatching them up and flinging them all over the place or setting ships alight with your flame breath as you pass by overhead. And that is just the half of it, it is a beast when it is on the ground. Stamping its feet causes a shockwave that knocks down troops giving the dragon ample time to eat them and heal itself and its immense power allows it to decimate entire armies all alone.
You will spend most of your time fighting other dragons using your flames or ram attack to take them out of the air. Stronger dragons will necessitate engaging in duels between dragons while you can usually cut a swath of death through the weaker ones with normal attacks. Some enemies will require other strategies like destroying their harnesses and then grabbing them with the dragons talons and flinging them. Taking down enemies never gets boring due to the variety here.
While nobody can knock the art direction taken in this game the sound doesn't necessarily fare as well. It's not that the music is bad, the musical score sets the right moods for the right stages rather well. The problem here is that the voice acting is bad. No, not bad. I prefer the terms horrible and prevalent. Even during the missions themselves you will have dialogue going and it is just really bad. It's nice to know that the dragons and other beasties sound great though. Between their roars as they take over the skies or their snarls as they fight another dragon with tooth and claw, it really helps you get into it.
Many naysayer's bash Lair as another failure of the great Sony hype machine but it isn't actually that bad of game. The biggest mistake that was made with this game is the forced Sixaxis control scheme. Had the developers at least included an option for us to play the game using the analog sticks then it would have likely gone over far better. Even if they had waited some time and then given us a patch that added this option to the game, both sides would have won out. Those who hate the controls would have had their analog control set-up while those who liked it could continue to use it.
I would hazard a guess that Sony was trying to force players to embrace the Sixaxis technology much like Nintendo fans have with the Wii. The problem is that the Wii is entirely based around its unique controls and it offers very little in the ways of playing games without it due to its limited buttons. The PS3 controller is more than capable of playing a game normally and simply using the Sixaxis stuff to handle extra functions. Sadly they have decided to be stubborn and stick to their guns, forcing people to deal with a game that is truly love or hate.
Anyone who tells you that Lair is a flat out bad game is wrong. It is a decidedly mediocre game with an interesting setting and dragon on dragon combat that is bogged down by its controls. Were it not for that one fact then this game would likely have been accepted as just another game in the PS3 library. Sadly the hype of the game has paired with its control scheme to make this a game that will not appeal to everyone.
Score: 5