Well, I got Lair today and played quite a bit of here. Here is my review.
Graphics:
I might as well start here since this seems to be the highlight of the game. Personally, I was a bit letdown by the graphics. As much focus as they put on the graphics themselves, and the game being in 1080p, the graphics should be a lot more polished. Are they good? Yes. Are they the best graphics I've ever seen? Not even close. If the game ran at a solid 30 fps...the graphics would probably look better. There's not a whole lot of variety in the graphics either. Most dragons/soldiers/environments look pretty much the same. It doesn't matter how good the graphics are if they aren't running smoothly. This game's framerate never drops enough to effect the gameplay itself but I don't think it ever runs at a solid 30 fps for more than a couple seconds. The game itself has a constant slightly choppy look to it and after a while this gets annoying.
Controls/Gameplay:
Here it is...the main complaint with this game. And yes it is worthy of being the main complaint. The controls aren't hard to learn at all. Seriously. I mean I had the controls down perfectly within 5 or 10 minutes. The fact of the matter is, however, that the controls themselves are just plain bad. At first it's kind of neat to fly the dragon with the motion controls but once again, after a while it gets annoying. Gamespot was exaggerating when they said "No go right!" and showed the picture of the dragon going left. However there are times when your dragon does not do what you tell it to and that's simply because the response to the motion controls isn't sensitive enough, and your range of motion isn't unlimited. If you're heading for a building at high speed and you tell your dragon to go right, sometimes the response is slow enough that the dragon will sort of do it's own thing, as it cannot fly forward anymore. I had no problem doing the 180 degree spin manuever that people kept complaining about though. Are the controls playable and bearable? Yes. Is the game much less fun/enjoyable because of them? Yes.
The gameplay also isn't too great. Most of the time you can't tell which dragons are your enemies and which ones are your allies. After a while you just say "Screw it" and start shooting at anything that moves. If you hear somebody yelling "FRIENDLY FIRE!" or "We're on your side!", then you know they're your allies. There's not really much diversity or variety to the gameplay either. Most missions are the same and by the time you get the hang of what you're doing and start getting into it, a cutscene interrupts you, or the mission itself ends. The boss battles could've been better also. They aren't original nor are they interesting. The game's scale looked to be more impressive than something like Shadow of the Colossus at E3, but this is also a disappointment in the actual game. The maps are big and open, but they are bland and bare, filled with nothing.
Storyline:
Umm...fairly unoriginal and most of the time boring. Is that the best they could do?
Replay Value:
Well, you have to finish a game before you can replay it, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it. So I'd say none, which is a shame considering that I love dragons, and had high hopes for this game all along. Even with the bad reviews came out I never lost faith in the game. I have been screwed over by reviews so many times that I don't even listen to them anymore. *cough cough ROGUE GALAXY cough cough RAINBOW SIX LAS VEGAS cough cough*
This game is an utter disappointment. I gave it a chance, and played it quite a bit before giving up on it. I'll be trading it in along with Rainbow Six Las Vegas to pick up Heavenly Sword next week. (once again, a game I haven't lost faith in)
Oh well...I guess it's back to and Resistance/Warhawk online and Oblivion until then..
I still have love for the PS3 though! We've still got plenty of great titles to come! I just hope these developers take their time and release a quality product. I'd rather wait a few more months and have good games.
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