[PS3] Lair

[SinisterDeath]

I rented Lair, as well as Heavenly Sword on Friday, Beat them this weekend/today.

Story:

 

With out spoiling much of the story, the story is rather cliche, in the strictist sense that it has been done before. Basically your a knight named Rohn.  Your job is basically to defend the skies of Asylia, cause to rule the skies, is to rule the world. Your basically thrown in to the game, as your country gets invaded by the Mokai. You obviously fend them off, and push there troops back. But of course, its not a real story with out, betrayal, deciet, and the gray between black and white. There is no 'big bad evil guy' like the 'dark one' or the big goodietooshoo 'like the creator' its not that kind of story, instead think along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics, But obviously not as GOOD as tactics. :P

 

 

Gameplay:

 

This game got NAILED hard by most reviewers because they thought the 'controlls' were to hard. Its no different then the Nintendo Wii's in the fact that its motion based, but instead of shooting things, or 'jerkin' the controller around, your flying around the skies with your dragon and blowin things up. Flying is pretty easy, even an idiot can understand that part of the game pretty fast.

However most of the complaints don't come because of the flying, but because of 3 things...

Dash - This requires you to 'flick' the controller forward and in a downward motion.

180 - This allows you to turn, obviously 180 degrees, to do this, you flick the controller up and towards you.

Targetting - Its relatively basic, if you see an enemy a white circle appears on them, if you press R1 you go into Target Mode, and pursue them. Most of the complaints on this are from people who played for 5 minutes and gave up. Its pretty easy to understand, and the only time it becomes an issue, is when there are 'creatures' behind the creature you want to target, and you target it, rather then the one you wanted. Not much of an issue, though in some 'sensitive missions' it can be frustrating...

 

The manouvers work, and truthfully, I've had problems with them mostly because my controller probably got 'shook' to hard playing Enchanted Arms... But it also requires you to find a 'sweet' spot. once you find it, it works every time. :D

 

Graphics:

 

Top notch, graphics. They are pretty detailed, and have damned good textures. And considering your flying around in the skies killing dragons, and destroying buildings its suprising the textures are as good as they are! I believe the game maintains a 30-60fps range through out the game, "not that there are any real differences between 30 and 60 fps... Or at least I couldn't give a crap"

 

 

Music:

 

The quality of the music in this game is awesome, we are talking about raw, uncompressed music here! Not to mention they had those famous symphony guys who do all the big movies/game sound tracks for this game.

The sound effects are pretty good to, not that I cared while trying to concentrate on blowing up dragons.

 

 

Voice Acting:

 

This game has some damned good voice acting. The voices are believable, they actually make you think they are there, not in a studio bored sippin tea. The quality of the actual 'sound' of the voice acting is top notch to, unlike some game/movies where it sounds like they are in a 'theater', and onscreen they are 'outside'.

 

 

CG:

 

The cinematics in this game were also top notch, They may not be Square Enix or umm... who else is good at cimematics? :P

Most of the cinematics were upclose on character detail, and didn't do much of dragon-combat in CG, but it was still pretty good.

The CG was used more as a Plot Device rather than an Action Device.

 

 

 

Over-All, this game is alot better then the reviewers gave it, it had a lot of potential, but due mostly to the controlls, and the PS3 hate, It bombed finacially and critically.

I liked the game, but its no FFVII or Half-Life 2, its a different Genre, Action/Adventure, and given the other action games I've played, this is pretty good, If I were to give it anything, it would be...

 

Grahpics: 9/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Sound: 9/10

CG: 9.5/10

Story: 7/10

Replay Value: 8/10.

 

Something around that area.

The only reason the story is low, is due to it being in some ways, predictable. But its still a great story regardless.

As for the replay value, it does NOT have an online, however you can get Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medals based upon your statistics within the 'level' you played. Offering you basically 3x or more gameplay time (about 15 hours X 3) maybe more. You can also unlock several different dragons.

It does however, allow you to check your 'score' against others who have played Lair. However that type of 'replay' value I don't much care for. I'm more of a 'play it for the story not for 100% completion, unless 100% completion = different endings.

 

 

Btw, did I mention Dragons?

 

 

If anything the game is a rental.

I'd probably buy it, if I didn't already beat it.