Okay... so I go into my local game shop to change my pre-order funds from Lair to Warhawk as I had decided this morning to buy Warhawk instead and perhaps rent Lair to see if it was really worth buying. In the game store on a test PS3 system, they have Lair up and running and ready for play-testing! I had to wait about 20 minutes for a kid to get off the game.. and here are my thoughts after about 30 minutes of game play...
The graphics are absolutely stunning. The setup I played on was on a flat screen 25 inch monitor. But I cannot even tell you how much better it looks in person then on all those gameplay videos everywhere! Factor 5 has really started to figure out how to unleash some of the power that the PS3 contains. The dragons skin looks real. The background is mind blowing with good detail even in the mountains miles away. The fire is also impressive and looks real. The avatars (people) look a little weak and could have a little more detail and realism, but hey.. who's perfect, right? ...I give the graphics a 9.5 out of 10.
Sound is very immersive with realistic sounding heavy fire breathing roaring each time a dragon breathes fire. You can hear the sound of the wind blowing past you as you fly into the sky. Sound effects intensify as the danger level increases. Very well done, but room for improvement as well and I award the sound an 8 out of 10 here.
Gameplay. This is where it is at. I was worried that the gameplay would be choppy or have low frame rates when there was a lot of action going on. This worry was demolished with my testing of the game as the action was smooth and completely free of any choppiness. Dragon motions were also very smooth and even realistic looking. Well, I guess they are realistic for what would be dragon flight as I have never seen a dragon fly in my life span.. but you get what I'm saying - that the dragon movements are convincing of what would be real motion should dragons actually exist. The sixasis controls are a little tricky at first and this is where I assume that low scores were given to the gameplay. At first, I got a little frustrated with the new motion sensing changing of flight direction. I could have set my mind right there that this game was flawed and frustrating. But I took a deep breath and tried to not come to conclusions too fast. And I am glad I did. Within 10 minutes of practice, I was steering my dragon like a pro.. with a little room for improvement. But the important thing is that within 10 minutes, the flight sixasis motion control changed from frustrating and new to fun and comfortable. This, to me... is awesome. A new way to play a big time game with new controls that work well after only minutes of play time! The dragon fights are intense and very rapid. I noticed myself getting into the game big time and moving my body as my dragon should move as I stood in the store. And I am one of those "cool gamers" that never move any thing except minimal finger movement for most games. But this game has me into it and into the relentless action in no time! If any thing is flawed, from my experience.. it is only the ground action which was a little awkward and didn't seem to move as smoothly or transition as well from controller to screen as the flight fights. My gametime was very limited, but I just got a feel that the ground action was a little short of being what Factor 5 has probably envisioned. None-the-less... the gameplay I would easily put at a 9 out of 10 score just because it was so much fun.. once i got the hang of it and dropped my common controls mindset. It looks like one of those great rare games that is pretty easy to learn, but hard to master. That shows promise for good replay value.
I am going to knock the overall score of this game a little for having no two player options and no kind of online scoring or play available. If they had only put in team play for two players or made it so players could have online battles, ohhh would this game totally rock.
Overall score. I am giving gameplay much more importance then graphics and sound. I will give 60% of my overall score to gameplay. So gameplay gets a 54/60. I am giving 30% of the score to graphics, so graphics get a 28/30. Sound gets 10% of the overall score in my books, and therefore gets a 8/10. The total of these three elements I have scored is a 90. I'm gonna slightly knock it as I stated for no multi-player possibilities as I stated.. and a game like this could have such incredible multi-player potential! I'm knocking it 3 percentage points for being solo player only and only hope they change this in "Lair 2".
My overall score from 30 minutes of game time with Lair is an 87%.
PS. I kept my pre-pay funds with Lair after playing the game and am now eagerly awaiting it's released date only 15 about two weeks from now!
Playing the game myself changed my mind about the low scores I had read it got. I suggest to everyone that you play the demo or rent this game yourself before coming to a decision on buying or not buying this game.
That is all.. thanks for your time reading about my personal experience with an upcoming PS3 title. Please form your own opinions and take my score as only part of your overall decision as to whether you will buy or not buy this title.
