Lair Reviews

microwavedapple

With the plethora of horrible annoyances, you're bound to find something that you absolutely loathe in Lair.

  • Posted Nov 20, 2007 1:52 pm PT
Difficulty:
Hard
Time Spent:
10 Hours or Less
The Bottom Line:
"Broken"
Developing such airborne greats such as Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Factor 5 took a different approach and decided to give us the reigns and mount some dragons. While controlling a ferocious dragon tearing up the lands, burning thousands of mere humans alive and zooming across the skies and battling it out with other dragons sounds like great fun, Factor 5 somehow found a way to cock it up.

First of all, there's the horribly cliché story. One city was split into two, thanks to natural disasters. Centuries later these two cities, now called Mokai and Asyllia, declared war on one another. One man named Rohn tries to get the two cities to make peace, but some unfortunate circumstances make this harder than once thought. So Rohn takes to the skies in search of some way for the Mokai and the Asyllians to make peace.

The fact that the battleground is a war zone makes for the mission structure to be confusing. Your allies tend to make it annoyingly clear by repeating what they want you to do every five seconds. And the worst part is that they are always contradicting themselves. One person wants you to take out the dragons, another person wants you to destroy some buildings while the rest of your allies are telling you to thin out the ground troops. And if you can't find some magic way to do all three at the same time, then the mission failed screen awaits you.

What makes this even harder is the fact that the controls are motion sensing only, and they are sometimes unresponsive. Steering your dragon is fine, but trying to do a 180° turn by flicking the controller towards you will lead to you doing a forward dash. In boss fights, you'll need to use the dodge mechanic by slamming your controller in the direction you want to dodge. For example, a giant sea dragon is trying to eat you, so you'll need to dodge it. But your dragon will either dodge in the opposite direction and die, or do nothing and die, ending you back again at the mission failed screen.

If you could take a picture of Lair, it looks stunning. The dragons are very detailed and textured. It looks as if you can almost reach out and feel the thick, scaly hide of the beast. Beautiful scenery such as vast mountains and green meadows make the battle zone a pleasure to look at. In cut scenes, the facial animations are incredible, and the voice acting is strong. When you get the game in motion, however, the beauty of Lair doesn't stick around. A choppy frame rate, bad draw distance and huge slowdown when things get manic are headache worthy.

But if you think you can look past all of these faults, you'll find some pretty epic battles in Lair. Huge creatures, hundreds of dragons and thousands of ground troops await you in every mission. And when you see a giant enemy rhino taking out your troops, getting your dragon to perch on it and rip off it's head right before throwing it into a battalion of the other teams troops always feels satisfying. Every level is huge and filled to the brim with enemies to take down.

But that isn't enough to save Lair from dive bombing. Analog controls would have made things so much easier, and a better mission structure could've saved the game. If you're still on the edge about Lair, then at least wait until the price drops. £60 can be spent on so many better things.
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More Player Reviews

  • Wopenka_11

    Lair is no where near as bad as gamespot makes it out to be. Really awsome presentation. Continue »

    • Posted Nov 19, 2007 3:56 pm PT
  • THE_LONESPARTAN

    Lair i think is a good game but for me i didnt like the controls. i would have like using the analog stick to control. Continue »

    • Posted Nov 17, 2007 1:07 pm PT
  • king_olly

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with this game. In fact it's pretty fantastic! Continue »

    • Posted Nov 17, 2007 7:10 am PT
  • publicenemy_7

    Ok...Where is the difficulty in controlling the dragon???? Continue »

    • Posted Nov 16, 2007 5:22 pm PT
  • Imotsdragoon

    It's something different and I like it. Continue »

    • Posted Nov 16, 2007 6:19 am PT

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  • Lair : Big Dragon 2

    Gameplay footage of you and your dragon fighting a gigantic snake like Dragon.

  • Lair

    Lair Completed

    • Posted Oct 20, 2009
      by MrAbs | 16 Views

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