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LAIR (PS3)
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Publisher: Sony.
Developer: Factor 5. Released: November 2007 (Europe). Genre: Action/Adventure. Posted 2nd April 2022. By Shane Battams © 2022 |
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The late 2000s would prove a tumultuous time for the once-legendary developer Factor 5. Although a deal with Sony seemed to serve as their salvation, it would result in an ill-fitting venture that came to a head with Lair. Despite channelling their air combat experience with the Rogue Squadron series, this PS3 launch title would prove infamous for its extremely divisive critical reviews, controversy regarding Sony sending a Reviewers Guide after said reception and for being the biggest target on the terrible Sixaxis motion controls. It wouldn’t be long before a traditional control scheme was patched in, but unfortunately for this Dragonrider title, some flaws were too deep to be fixed overnight.
The story starts in sketchy fashion. As the wealthy and seemingly righteous Asylia continue warring with the poor Mokai army, a divide is caused by continual volcanic eruptions draining the resources of the land. Players take the role of Rohn Partridge, a sky guard of Asylia, who learns the intricate motivations, class conflicts and betrayals of war while riding his trusted dragon. The story, told through gorgeous cinematics and acted competently, is unfortunately for the most part, completely forgettable. Most will struggle to recall the bland, impersonal roster of characters and moments that attempt to add flair and drama come off as misguided. The general thread proves predictable, oft-times cliched and most damning of all, boring.
Lair is a visually impressive launch title but its attempts to showcase the PS3's sixaxis controls fail miserably
Lair attempts to channel Factor 5’s previous flight combat experience, but replaces space combat with aerial dragon combat. Across just over a dozen missions, you’ll guide your beast both in air and on foot as you wipe out enemy armies, take out defences and engage in close encounters with other dragon-riders. The short assortment of moves leaves little depth to spare here, as you can either tap to shoot multiple pelts of fire or hold Square to perform a continuous breath, as well as some aerial moves like a 180-degree flip. The lock-on is perilous at worst, as it sometimes causes you to fly into the ground, straight into walls or even through geometry, and the constant circling proves borderline nauseating. Close combat is janky and boring, especially with one-vs-one dragon fights that look completely unflattering. Playing Lair just isn’t much fun.
The campaign is fairly brief, lasting just shy of the 10 hour mark. Factor 5 would try to incentivise repeating missions for better ranks through unlockable dragons, upgrades and extra content such as a full-blown commentary track, movies and the like. Unfortunately, this is less tantalising when the missions are so frustratingly designed. Some rely on timed actions, such as wiping out assault towers before they destroy your fleet, but the window for failure can prove so small that it’s incredibly frustrating. Lives allow you a couple of chances upon death, but a lack of mid-mission checkpoints can lead to you losing tons of progress when instant-fail objectives aren’t beaten quickly enough, a perfect storm of irritation.
The campaign is fairly brief, lasting just shy of the 10 hour mark. Factor 5 would try to incentivise repeating missions for better ranks through unlockable dragons, upgrades and extra content such as a full-blown commentary track, movies and the like. Unfortunately, this is less tantalising when the missions are so frustratingly designed. Some rely on timed actions, such as wiping out assault towers before they destroy your fleet, but the window for failure can prove so small that it’s incredibly frustrating. Lives allow you a couple of chances upon death, but a lack of mid-mission checkpoints can lead to you losing tons of progress when instant-fail objectives aren’t beaten quickly enough, a perfect storm of irritation.
FOCAL POINT: THE SIXTH CIRCLE OF HELL
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A lot was made of Lair’s terrible use of Sixaxis motion controls and it’s not hyperbole – the default control scheme is abysmal. Steering your dragon is insanely difficult, as even placing your control flat causes unresponsive inputs. All the aforementioned issues with camera and lock-on are made a thousand times worse, and when combined with timed mission structures, it proves a nightmare. Luckily, about a year later, a traditional analogue scheme was patched in, putting movement back to the analogue sticks and mapping other functions like the 180 flip to the D-Pad. It doesn’t fix underlying mechanical issues, but it makes general flight far less hair-pulling. While some actions, such as ramming other dragons and QTEs, still use Sixaxis motions, they’re much less prevalent.
Lair earned most of its kudos through its visuals and to be fair, it’s quite a stunner considering its launch window. Cutscenes are the highlight, with superb animations and characters looking almost filmic. The gameplay looks a treat too, with expansive levels and tons of scenery, dozens of soldiers on-screen at once as well as larger foes and impressive fire effects. This all sadly comes at a huge cost though, with a mostly terrible frame rate that sways between unsteady and single-digit slideshow, making some of the more impressively scaled battles very choppy. The audio highlight is the beautiful soundtrack, composed by John Debney, which features wonderful orchestration that adds some actual weight to this war. The audio effects, powered by THX, hit the mark too.
Here be dragons, quite literally
Lair proves a disappointing and forgettable launch title, one which isn’t short on visual splendour but is bereft of fun. Whether you bear the awful motion controls or use the more forgiving standard scheme, neither masks that this dragon combat game isn’t very interesting, with flaccid mission design and underwhelming narrative leaving it forgettable. It’s a shame, because the potential was there to create a distinctive new series that would lead Factor 5 in a new direction. Instead, it ended up a shallow footnote amidst the PlayStation 3’s rocky launch.
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VERDICT
"Lair isn’t short on visual splendour, but flaccid mission design and an underwhelming narrative leave it bereft of fun. A shallow footnote amidst the PS3’s rocky launch." OVERALL: 4/10 |