Lair [PS3]

Developer Factor 5 swaps X-wing fighters for dragons in this single-player game that combines dragon-riding combat with a story about religious and political conflict.

The story is based on a land divided by both the environmental effects of volcanic activity and the resulting theological rift between the now-called Asylians, who worship God, and the Mokai, who don't. Players take the role of Rohn, an Asylian dragon knight of the Sky Guard. The game tries for a cinematic presentation, and as the plot progresses, Rohn learns that the political situation is more complex than originally thought.

Rohn is sent out on a series of missions, ranging from air battles to attacks on enemy strongholds and escorting and defending other troops. Each mission has a main objective that must be completed in order to progress through the game, although players can earn medals for performing well. Things start out straightforward enough, as you are tasked with repelling an assault on your city or defending some grain barges from attack.

After a handful of missions though, things start to get over-complicated. You are often given conflicting objectives (one level tells you to destroy the enemy's ground weapons, and then chastises you for not attacking the enemy dragons that are defending them). The game's attempts at cinematic grandeur get in the way as well, with cut-scenes often meddling in your attacks, and at times completely disorienting the player by changing your position or location in the battle when they end.

The game looks good in general, though the fire effects and some of the lighting don't look nearly as good as expected. My biggest peeves with the visuals though, are that friendly and enemy dragons are indistinguishable aside from their blue or red flame attacks, causing much friendly fire and the fact that the objective indicator arrow often disappears for about half the time, making the player guess where their main target is. If one of the developer's aims was to recreate the confusion of battle, then they succeeded on that point. Most of the creatures fare well though, and the facial animation during cut scenes is quite good. The sound does pick up some of the slack here, and John Debney's (Sin City) score is one of the highlights of the game.

The controls are generally well laid-out, with steering handled by motion control. Many of the missions demand several types of action though, with each tweaking what the controls do slightly. This causes the player to have to think too much about what they're doing instead of just doing it. Add a target lock that only seems to work about half the time, and quite a bit of shaking the controller in various directions, and you end up with a system that's just too complicated and ever-changing to be much fun. As a bonus, the game is also the first to feature Remote Play via the PSP. Unfortunately, the game's reliance on motion controls and the L2 and R2 buttons means you can only effectively play a fraction of the levels this way.

It's unfortunate that this game didn't fare better, as you can tell the developers had high ambitions. The story is interesting and the game does do some new things, but the complex controls and disorienting gameplay will likely frustrate most players beyond their limit quite soon. Even hardcore players are going to want to rent this one before buying.

6/10