Roar front, true believers!
The Good:
• Great voice acting.
• Stunning graphics.
• Awesome overall gameplay.
The Bad:
• Extremely short.
• Plot is somewhat cheesy.
• Bad control scheme.
When I first read about LAIR, that's when I started really whishing badly for my parents to buy me the PS3. I thought it would be the best game ever, a game of which every single moment is excitement, a game which graphics' are breathtaking. While this is not what LAIR is, fortunately it didn't fell too far away. LAIR is fantastic. Aside from its short length and the somewhat bad control, it doesn't lack anything, and is using the next-gen technology superbly. You never get sick of flying around using the SIXAXIS; if you do, though, you can always take the fight sky high, and kill even the most threatening dragon with an impressive ease. In their review, Gamespot mentioned an "Invisible Barrier" issue many times. Dear GS, define "Invisible Barrier" please. I own the game for only 3 days now, though I play it allot. And I have never felt any Invisible Barrier in the game.
Although until now I focused on the game's positives, it does have its negatives. For instance, take the game's control scheme. It heavily relays on the SIXAXIS motion/tilt sensor (in fact, you can only fly, steer, ascend, descend, and dash forward by tilting the controller in different directions), which is sometimes fun and cool, but can also be real annoying and hard to master. More then once, I found myself struggling with the control itself rather than my dragon enemies, in attempt to land on the bridge and save the civilians – with no success. It could have been nice if Factor 5 developed an analog patch.
Another minus for the game is its camera. It's fairly easy to just lose yourself in the mission simply because the camera seems to be trying to fail you. Factor 5 – have you ever heard about a mini-map?
There is also a lack of tutorial in the game. Apparently the developers expect the player to understand the controls and the game mechanics just by flying into some strange rings in the training section – and reading the very little, unhelpful text which is popping up.
If there's one thing I agree with in GS' review, it's their complaining about the game's Lock-On system. Not only that it actually works only when you don't need it, but the developers in Factor 5 expect the player to understand all by himself what is the difference between the red Lock-On aim, and the white one. That's right. No early explains, the training tutorial says nothing about it... nothing.
LAIR's soundtrack is awesome. (For those of you that already own a PS3 – check out the "Battle for Asylia" track that is available to download from the PLAYSTATION Store). It is obvious that the musicians have put their heart into their job in the game. In every level throughout the game, the music adds to the excitement and gets you deeper and deeper into the game.
Overall, lair is a good, maybe even very good game, but is not excellent. The controls are delayed a little; the camera is pretty bad… But, on the other hand, you get an excellent game with great graphics and action-packed levels and a fully functional SIXAXIS gameplay. I suggest you first rent LAIR, simply because not everybody would like the SIXAXIS controls. In my opinion, LAIR's a great game, and defiantly doesn't justify the bad review it has received.