Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 3

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Peripherals: Ethernet Broadband

Support: HD 720p, 1080p, 1080i

PlayStation Network Compatible

There has been a lot of hype around Liar for several months now, and it makes perfect sense. The last time Sony loyalists saw any dragon influenced game was with Panzer Dragoon, and that was only released in Japan. Instead, Sega decided to snub everyone and release Panzer Dragoon Orta only for the Xbox, but after many months of waiting, promotional trailers and a great deal of previews, Lair has finally awakened and spread its wings.

Somewhere in another world, two great kingdoms have found themselves threatened by volcanic activity. The Mokai, and the Asylians have lived separately, living their lives in the shadow of the ever-present volcanoes, but war is brewing. The Mokai, who have found that their resources are slowly depleting, have launched an attack on the kingdom of Asylia, and war seem inevitable. Rohn, one of the newest members of Asylia’s Sky Guard, find himself fighting impossible odds and even treachery as he and his fellow Burners try and protect Asyila and bring peace back to the land once more.

Lair is one of those games I have been anxiously awaiting along with some of Sony’s other titles that look promising such as Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank, SOCOM and Killzone 2, and Lair, if anything, is one of those games that looks amazing, but also comes with a high degree of learning associated with it. Unlike other games where you have the option of using the SIXAXIS controller or not, Lair in fact forces you to do so with no other option, and if you’ve been neglecting to use it, you may find that Lair becomes almost frustrating. Even spending hour after hour playing a downloadable title like flOw wasn’t nearly enough to truly prepare me for reptilian battles in the skies.

The SIXAXIS controller is what you’ll use to move your dragon, so moving left, right and so on will move you in the corresponding direction. The game does give you a tutorial for some of the basics of the game in the beginning, but many of the other moves that your dragon is capable of are actually done in the hear of combat and often times later in stages where you are wondering why you weren’t taught something early on when it could have been much more relevant and assisted you in your fight.

If you’re curious what the analog sticks are used for, these will allow Rohn to look around to his left or right and survey the environment and there is no way to change these to work as movement for the dragon. The rest of the buttons relate to combat in some form. The X button is used to speed up your dragon, though it seems that it just never goes fast enough, at least not for my liking. It’s not quite as bad as having to quickly move the controller in an upward direction to do a 180, something that seems to be hit and miss much of the time. Movement and flight are merely the beginning in Lair however.

With the L1 and R1 buttons, you can lock onto your targets, something that becomes essential during the stages. The game does try and help you by showing you an arrow that points in the direction of your goals, and even pressing down on the D-pad enters what is know as rage mode which will show you enemies in red, but it’s often not helpful enough. In the air, you can use the square button to perform a fireball attack and holding the button down executes a blast of fire. Distance attacks aren’t always essential however, and once you’ve locked in you can charge in for a physical assault by pressing the triangle button. The results here can vary, and in some cases you may be involved in side-by-side combat where you use the SIXAXIS controller to line up with the target, then move left or right to strike. You also may get into a close quarters combat type of situation where you will fight head-to-head against the other dragon, using fire and claws, even combos, to do away with it. In what seemed to be a very rare instance, you may even leap onto the other dragon and physically attack the rider, sending him spinning into the ground below and his death as well as providing one of the most impressive sequences in the game.

Battles in the air aren’t the only aspect of Lair however, and there are stages where not only will you need to battle the Mokai high above the ground, but on it as well. Not all of your forces are mounted on dragons and some of them will fight the good fight on the ground, with some help from you of course. I actually found the ground combat a bit more enjoyable than that in the air. Rohn can hover above the combat field by pressing R2 and L2 and rain fire down on his enemies. This is enjoyable, but not as much as simply landing and getting into battle with your dragon and the enemies are almost powerless against it. You can charge through their ranks, swipe at them and sending them to the ground in agony, blast them with fire or even grab helpless victims and devour them. The Mokai though will use other beasts to fight you and your allies. You can opt to either land and attack them or, a better method, take to the skies once more, swoop down and grab them, then toss them into the waters where they will drown. You also must pay attention to the morale of your forces; the Asylians are red (as your dragons breathe fire) and the Mokai blue (since their dragons shoot ice.) Keeping morale up is extremely important and the army with a low sense of worth and victory on the battlefield is sure to fall at the hands of their enemy.

At the end of most of the stages, you will receive a breakdown of your performance. There are also sub-missions in most stages, though the game is often vague about exactly how or what you should do in order to accomplish these. It’s almost as difficult as trying to avoid hitting your fellow warriors with friendly fire, and this seems to happen almost too often. But, I’m not necessarily one who is opposed to accidentally frying a few fellow soldiers. They knew the risks when they signed on, and I’ve got a job to get done. The statistics at the end of the stages show how the amount of carnage you’ve created, the number of enemies killed, friendliest lost, how many lives you’ve lost and so forth. You will receive a medal; bronze, silver or gold, and this will also unlock new combo moves for your dragon.

Now, for some new dragon riders, it may seem that getting a medal beyond bronze is impossible, but it can be done with careful planning and even better playing. Lair offers a leaderboard where you can see the performance of the top 100 players globally or regionally, and it won’t just show scores but also the medals that have been obtained by these players. You will see that yes, there are players that can get a medal beyond bronze (I’m still working on that and have come close, but not close enough.) You can also issue friend invites and even send messages to people on your buddy list without the needs to quit the game completely, though having a chat option included would be a nice though. The biggest surprise though is that Lair does not offer a multiplayer mode and given the content of the game, it seems that deathmatches, capture the flag and other popular multiplayer options would be very easy to incorporate within the game itself, though maybe we will see these in the future with downloadable content.

From what most of us saw with the trailers for the game, Lair looked like an amazing title full of graphics that are a feast for the eyes. The cut scenes do indeed look fantastic and coupled with the soundtrack, really have a feeling that is like Lord of the Rings. It’s spectacular to witness, and with the 7.1 THX, the game could sound better. The in-game graphics don’t look terrible, but there are some things that could have been improved upon. The water in particular, and more specifically waterfalls, really aren’t that impressive or lifelike and even the fireballs look a bit last generation at times. More time was spent in detailing the dragons and other creatures, and the flying reptiles are incredibly impressive with a great amount of detail show in the scales and body work of the creatures. Even things like cities are often quite vast and expansive, but unfortunately some of the terrain isn’t quite on the same level and tends to be rather bland and underdone.

It’s been a long wait for Lair to finally hit the PlayStation 3, and depending on your level or patience, it might be something that wasn’t quite worth it. The controls are definitely the most frustrating part of the game and there is an incredibly high learning curve that some gamers aren’t going to be keen on adapting to. Even a seasoned veteran like myself found that Lair had almost too many things to try and learn and keep in mind while fighting in the air, over the seas, and on land. If you can in fact find and remember all that Lair has to offer, you’ll find that the game is something like the Rouge Squadron games meeting movies such as Reign of Fire, but ultimately Lair is a game that begs to be rented prior in most cases so that you can experience for yourself the gameplay before possibly spending some hard earned money and finding yourself scratching your head or threatening to hurl a control across the room (something that’s not recommended.)

-mike-