Lair Review
- Posted September 3rd, 2007 at 13:29 EDT by
- 63 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 8.5
- Avg. user review score:
- 7.5
Summary
Lair is definitely a stupendous game with astonishing gameplay, beautiful graphics, and a soothing soundtrack. The only thing that dents Lair from becoming all that it potentially could have been is definitely the temperate replayability that arises from the linear gameplay. Despite all these issues, the game inculcates a sense of visceral excitement to anyone who gets his/her hands on it.
We like
- Unparalleled graphics
- Astonishing storyline and incredible soundtrack
- Great Sixaxis controls and precision aiming
We dislike
- Linear gameplay makes for a slight tease
- FMV's instead of live real-time cinematics
- Moderate replayability
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
Dragon’s seem scary. At least, they seemed that way according to mythical stories of fire breathing giants, known only for their plight and destruction upon the different human civilizations of the middle ages. The dragons in Lair, however, are different. Looking pleasing with stunning visuals and some clever uses of the Sixaxis controller, Lair sets the mark for the best dragon oriented game of all time and underscores an important factor of realism that past games failed to achieve. So, get on your dragon and let’s take a ride together in the kingdom of Asylia.
Lair is a game where the story is nothing short of fantastic. The world was once peaceful, and everyone was united. But soon the peace was taken away when volcanoes began to erupt, threatening the lands of the Mokai. The Asylian civilization was protected from the hazardous lava spews by mountains, endangering the Mokai instead, a culture that primarily advocated change through new theologies that seated on the natural disaster in respects to their two facets: envy and war. It was commonly thought that the group that controlled the skies would be the world’s owners. The Asylians, as a response to this threat, mounted their dragons and sorted all their soldiers together in a brawny defense to protect their land from invasions.
Lair makes you battle large mantas, huge wasps, and dozens of diverse dragons in brilliant 1080p resolution, which requires you to use Sixaxis controls to navigate your creature through the skies. With Lair, players will be asked to take a stand in Ayslian leadership and make decisions based on what they discover--- even if such decisions mean turning a blind eye to one’s own homeland.
The firs scene slowly takes you into a stunning cathedral dome. You can smell the sweat from the anxious sky guard's---some new, and coal from the fire's ashes. "We will not falter!" The priestly figure is giving a sermon to prepare us for the oncoming Mokai. This is where we were introduced to Rohn, Lair's main character. Rohn is a dragon-riding knight serving the kingdom of Asylia, which falls under attack of the Mokai, and it’s up to you to save it.
The scene cuts, and you run outside to mount your dragon. There is a slight sense of nervous excitement---one that would make the plague seems jolly. Everyone is a bit scared---the entire Aslyian civilization depends on you and the other guards. Suddenly swooping above the skies, you are looking down on the battlefield. As you smell ash and smoke coming from the residue of fire from another dragon, the first thing you must do is get used to the control. To flap the wings--and fly forward--you tap the X button, and tilting the Sixaxis controls steering, and one thing to note is the sticks are used for camera control. To shoot flames at enemies, you tap the square button. In the first level, we have to destroy the catapults firing from the Mokai ships that are attacking our main base.
The Sixaxis controls are a wonderful method for controlling flight. The controls lagged once, but generally speaking, there are no noticeable issues. Sixaxis determines how your dragon will manoeuvre: tilting up will cause the dragon to shoot up, tilting it down will cause you to dive, tilting left and right will allow you to bank in that direction. A sort of a Sixaxis jerk allows for a 180-degree turn, but that only works some of the time or responds a bit too slowly. Other commands, used with the Sixaxis control scheme, are L2 and R2 to hover, and the X button to perform ranged attacks in addition to grapple. Across the game, an onscreen prompt appears appropriately and will have you delve into an attack. Follow the button prompts and you can claw, and send out a fireball at close range. At specific points in the game, when you feel the moment is right, Rohn will dive from the back of his mount, land on another dragon, stab the rider and then kill the dragon and dive off like James Bond of Dragons, all to be swooped up in by his own dragon.
For the main ... (continued on next page)
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Comments
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gorillanuts
- 8:36am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 1
Sounds Great. Not totally sold on it yet but who knows.
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dshockey
- 8:59am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 2
How is it that PSU gives this game a 8.5 and Gamespot a 4.5 They disagree on some aspects such as frame rate and controls. This is confusing me. If anything, I'm beginning to lose faith in PSU's ability to distinguish a good game from a game they want to be good
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NightWing007
- 9:09am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 4
@dshockey
dude thats just one site, Game Informer gave it an 8 and 1Up gave it a 7.3 so basically PSU is still in the ball park with their rating. I was really excited about this title but now i dont think im goin to get it. It looks cool but all the reviews say that the controls are too hard to handel. Too bad.
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TheUltimatePS3Fanboy
- 9:11am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 5
Im getting mixed signals all over with Lair but what the majority (ign,gamespot,1up) has said is that this game is bad. But there is one hope. You all know dynasty warriors right? Dynasty Warriors in some ppls minds is the most stupid hack and slash in the world, but to some ppl Dynasty Warriors is the funnest most addictive game they've ever played! So what really depends on if you like a game or not is your preference in games! I cant believe some people actually let scores decide whether they're going to buy a game or not! Which leads me to any Xbox fans looking at this right now we did not buy the playstation 3 because of stupid reasons like Blu-Ray or Killzone 2, we bought it because of one thing, it has the games we want.
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G.I. Chameleon
- 9:21am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 6
i'll tell you the truth it looks great and great story, it has a very steep lerning curve with the controls that will scare most people away, but if you stick with it it's worth the time.
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Jbthegreat
- 9:22am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 7
@Daz I notice that on Gamespot too! If there is a review for a multiplatform game, its aways on a 360 page!!
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jphuff |
jphuff- 11:15am EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 13
FINALLY an honest review of Lair! Good job! I only noticed some framerate drop when tons of stuff onscreen and right up close to a huge explosion. Other than that, I didn't notice anything. Truly this is a fun game. Stick with doing the tutorials and MOVE the controller around, don't jerk it wildly and you'll be all set! I don't understand how people marked this game down for it's controls when they work perfectly well. Especially when motion controls are something these same sites PRAISE Wii games for! Anyway, good review! People should definitely check out this game, at least rent it. The visuals alone are amazing and I challenge anyone to find a game with better looking water and ocean effects!
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Jbthegreat
- 12:20pm EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 14
@jphuff, so out of 10 what would u give it...10 being the best game ever!
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Daver
- 12:36pm EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 15
Lair deserve at least a 8 for me... so i agree with psu review...Even with the bad review i went to the store friday and bought it... i dont regret anything about buying it. Lair is an amazing game, yes Sixasis is tough at start but it gets really easy after 15-20 mins... So please dont complain about it if you never tried it...
I recommend it to any real gamers who dont listen to reviewers to know if a game is good or not and are able to give their own reviews... Lair rocks!
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thegame97338
- 2:15pm EDT - September 3rd, 2007
- 18
I bought the game on saturday, it's great, I love the use of the sixaxis control, 8.5 is a well deserved score, nobody else will like it cause it's a PS3 exclusive, there loss............
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