Lair

"LAIR: The about-one-year-later review"

So I was bored this past Thursday, and went down to my local blockbuster to rent a game that I had never played but was anticipating its sequel: Killzone. However, the BBuster didn't have Killzone, so I took a second to look for another game to rent, and finally decided on LAIR because everything else decent was out. Anyways, I rented it, beat it, and now I'm reviewing it, a year after it came out.

LAIR is a flying dragon game. Yeah, big recipe for success; there are sure a lot of great dragon sims out there... Anyways, Factor 5 made a big woopsie daisy on LAIR at the beginning, forcing players to use the crappy sixaxis motion controls that basically suck ass. However, now there's a patch out that not only gives you analog controls, but new dragons as well. YAAAAYYY. Seriously though, the new patch does smooth out the most glaring and annoying part of LAIR which is the controls. However, even with the analog controls, LAIR still makes you feel like you are flying a large, savage, and occasionally unresponsive beast, which is not a good thing. Tight controls are an important part of any game that are missing from LAIR. The one positive thing I can say about the new controls is that now, the lock-on system works about 90% of the time, which is a big improvement.

However, let me get away from some initial negativity and list some of the things that LAIR does right, and then pick at the loose ends towards the end. First off, LAIR has a huge effin scope. Not many other games ever display so many enemies and effects on screen at 1080p with a rock-solid framerate. Seriously, some of the levels in LAIR are absolutely gigantic, with hundreds and even thousands of enemies. Graphics are pretty damn good, with a few inconsistencies such as ground textures and fur on some of the beasts. However, in the big picture, LAIR is a good looking game that was meant to be looked at from afar, not up close. Replayability is fairly decent, with medals to be unlocked and new dragons to replay your favorite levels on. On another note, the musical score for the game is excellent, with some real nice orchestrated epicness, particularly during the final battle.

The final thing that LAIR impressed me with is the amount of extras content on the disc. And these aren't your ordinary couple of video interviews with the devs; no there is full audio commentary, extensive concept art galleries, video interviews, trailers, and the making of stuff. I can honestly say that I do not care about the extras content in 95% of the games I play, but LAIR definitely came through on this minor part of the game experience.Tons and tons of extra stuff, made possible by (oh boy) blu-ray. PS: seriously, all the stuff they have would never fit on a DVD.

Nitpicking: Or in LAIR's case, just picking. From the start, it is apparent, that this game is like Rogue Squadron with dragons, even from the menus. That means, that it was up to Factor 5 to create a universe and a compelling narrative, to which they did not meet much success. Nothing is ever fleshed out or explained and the player is just supposed to go with the flow. Sure they had a lot of ideas for mythical beasts, dragons, and whatnot, but never really explained why there were dragons, how they were tamed, why volcanoes are such a dividing line, and about a billion other questions that a normal thinking human would have after playing through LAIR's story. Also, the hero of the story, a warrior named Rohn, goes through the quickest character development ever, basically from one cutscene to the next.

Second, the voice acting is crap. and cheesy. end of story.

Third, Animations and AI. All of the ground troops act the same and think the same, even if they do have some amount of visual variety to them. Also, if you hit them, they all fall down the same way, because LAIR has a terrible physics engine and limited animations that are rarely smooth. At least the dragons' flapping isn't jerky, which is actually quite a feat if you think about it.

Another sore point in LAIR is the general whiny aspect of the gameplay. ROHN, PROTECT THE MANTAS, ROHN OUR TROOPS ARE GETTING TORN APART, ROHN, SAVE MY ASS SO I CAN ***** MORE TO YOU IN 5 SECONDS!!! It seriously gets old. Fortunately, after you beat the game, you can just replay the level and have a lot more fun just killing other dragons and ignoring orders, because that is the real fun in LAIR.

Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Story: 5/10

OVERALL: 6.5/10 (not an average, I can do math)

rent it or pick it up for $20 at a bargain bin.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/08

Game Release: Lair (US, 08/30/07)