Lair was at one time one of the most highly-anticipated games heading over to the PS3 as an exclusive being published by Sony Computer Entertainment.  The developers behind the game have had a fantastic track record as Factor 5 is responsible for the great Star Wars Rogue Squadron series which was on the Nintendo 64 and GameCube.  The developer branched over to Sony to create a next-gen experience like none other.  Sometimes though the hype can overshadow what the game will end up being in the end.

When an exclusive game such as this release it is common for the hype to be so high that no matter how good the game is, you may be a bit disappointed.  The thing with Lair though is that it doesn’t just leave you a bit disappointed, it makes you almost break down in a state of depression.

When we first got Lair into the PCN office we were extremely excited to play it.  It is based around a huge single-player game which has you going through an epic storyline with tons of cinematic scenes, professional voiceover work, etc.  The storyline and entire presentation of the game are actually very well done at their surface.  The problem is once you get deeper into the storyline you will realize it is lacking a lot of substance, surprise, and quite honestly, lacking a solid story in general. 

The visual presentation of Lair is very solid as the dragons and character models are well done with a great deal of attention paid to the small details of everything included.  There can be tons and tons of units on the screen at once and the first mission, which has you bombing ships in the ocean below, is actually pretty exciting.  Once you get further into the game though the visuals begin to falter because of both slow-downs in the framerate, as well as a lack of variety in what you are seeing.  A lot of the levels begin to look the same and the way the game chugs only adds to the poor controls even further.