Lair Review: A Beautiful yet Ugly Video Game

Lair is one of those games you either love or hate; it is beautiful yet ugly at the same time. The game is beautiful acoustically and visually but the frustrating controls keep it from being a great game for the Playstation 3.

Story
Lair is about the endless war between Mokai and the Asylians. They were originally one until when the mysterious volcanoes awoke. Difference of opinions and ideologies were bought up upon the advent of volcanoes; eventually, the Mokai and Asylians were formed and became enemies.

You play as Rohn, a knight for the Sky Guard of Asylia as he struggles with the war. Although Lair's story is full of clichés and expected turns, it is serviceable nonetheless.

Graphics
The graphics in Lair are simply amazing; it is easily one of the best looking games ever. From the realistic terrains to the hyper-detailed structures, Lair is a sight to behold. Sometimes, you just want to stop in the middle of battle and fly around the levels.

The graphics are as epic as it is detailed because the world in Lair is huge. The levels span miles of square feet. And then there is this one boss in the game whose size puts all the bosses in Shadow of the Colossus to shame; it literally makes dragons look like mere house flies.

The graphics aren't perfect, however. Lair can get choppy at times when enemies filled the screens. However, the frame rate problems lessen if you are playing in 720p as oppose to 1080p. In spite of its choppiness, Lair is a graphical showcase for the Playstation 3.

Sound
Even more so than the graphics, the music in Lair is the best feature in the game. The orchestrated music is epic with hints of sorrow and mystery. No other games (and even movies) can compare. It is easily one of the best soundtracks, if not the best, ever developed for a videogame.

The voice acting, on the other hand, is average. They can get really annoying in the missions where they bark out orders to you seemingly every ten seconds.

Gameplay
This is where Lair falls flat. Lair uses the Sixaxis motion capabilities exclusively to maneuver your dragon; that means Lair has no options for analog controls (except when you land on the ground). The Sixaxis is very sensitive; the slightest motion can sway the dragon one way or another. As a result, Lair has a very high learning curve.

Luckily, Lair has a training mode that will help you get the controls down. Although the mode is entirely optional, it provides tremendous help on the missions and will save you from a lot of the frustration.

However, the 180-degree move is frustrating to pull off, even with all the training. To do the move, you have to flick the Sixaxis up. What happens most of the time is that the game will register that as a dash forward (which requires you the push the Sixaxis forward). Trying to tell your dragon to do something while he does something completely opposite is very frustrating and, ultimately, will ruin the game for many.

The bad controls are a shame because the missions in Lair are great and full of variety. You get to fight entire armies, dragons (of course), and freakishly huge animals. Although the game limits you to linear objectives in the early missions, it will give you more freedom as you go on.

The missions can get confusing at times, however. Players are often given more than one objectives. The instructions on the objectives are usually vague, forcing you to figure out how to accomplish the mission yourself. Still, the mission objectives aren't too tough to figure out as most of it is just killing specific enemies.

The levels will get easier with subsequent playthroughs. Lair has quite a bit of replayability as you can earn medals and extra content as well as compete with other people's score in the online leader board.

But because of the controls, the missions can get quite frustrating, especially in the heat of battle. You can feel hopeless at times as you will be fighting not only the enemies, but also the controls.

Overall
If you can master the controls, than Lair has a lot to offer especially acoustically and visually. But that is a big "if." However, Lair is definitely worth a rental just for the excellent graphics and incredible music alone. It's just not worth the full price of admission.