For a while now I've been mentioning how pointless this Sixaxis controller has been so far, with regards to adding anything tangible to player enjoyment in a title. Through experience it would strike me that the majority of the time any added functionality is merely an afterthought and distracts from the main game. It was with this trepidation that I approached Lair. Lair had long been used as the showcase for the ability of the Sixaxis controller, how would it measure up in its final game glory? Would it finally change my opinion on the control mechanism? Lair is Sixaxis motion dependant, there is no switching it off, this daring approach should either make or break the game but after some misspent hours I realised that this matters little.

Lair sees you undertake the control of a magnificent and majestic dragon, detailed in true HD. You play as Rohn of the Asylians; many moons ago an ancient civilisation was broken into two separate colonies by massive volcanoes, whilst the Asylians took the fertile sheltered lands and became a beacon of culture, the Mokai were forced to forge their living in the harshness of ice and rock becoming envious and launching a campaign for domination. Unless you are the sort of person that loves the mythical realm and the internal conflict that arises you will be sadly bored by the rather long cut scenes, a hammy voice track doesn't help add any weight to the situation, particularly when considering Rohn sounds like a lost school boy caught up in something way beyond him.

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Right, lets get on with what truly matters in the game, how the Sixaxis controller effectively translates to the control of the dragon. The controls are fairly simple to understand, tilt up and you go up, same with down, and then side to side for left and right. Nothing too complicated so far, then, there are a couple of special moves which involve a sharp jerk upwards on the controller to perform a quick 180 turn, the other being a fast jilt forward resulting a burst of speed. Nothing overly special or complicated; the response time from controller to movement on screen is reasonable. A training mission sets you on your way and then its time for action. This, for me is where things started spiralling downwards.

The controls of the game are not the downfall of this title, but rather the actual missions that you must undertake. From the beginning Rohn is charged with the task of repelling the onslaught of ice dragons and destroying floating catapult ships. From this point onwards the levels take a decidedly repetitive course. It's always a case of kill the ice dragons, defend the troops, take out those catapults, kill that giant beast and this persistent approach becomes tiresome quickly. Most of the time is spent flying but occasionally there is the chance to land the giant beast and face troops. A quick foray with the analogue stick no less and you're chomping away on human flesh or swiping them away with a flick of the tail. After a while though it becomes apparent that this land's troops possess little threat and can easily be despatched in large numbers.

Engaging dragons in mid-air allows four basic attacks, the ability to lock on (this produces a tiny red/white glow from the targeted dragon) and allows fireballs to be sent. The lock-on feature is appalling, there is no mechanism to switch between targets so what is chosen becomes something of a lottery and the tiny glow emitted from the target is nearly impossible to see during frantic flight. The second method of attack is to engage the enemy in a mid-air brawl, time slows down and you have the ability to scratch, claw and fire you way to victory; this seems rather slow and is a time consuming approach to take. The third way allows you to fly right up next to the selected target and through tilting of the controller bash the demon from the sky. The last method is the most visually stunning but lacks any decisive user interaction. Rohn swoops in and following a script of press this now, twiddle here, he will perform some spectacular feat that ultimately results in sending the fiend to its watery grave. This becomes a problem for most of the game, whilst endless amounts of time have been spent in presenting the game as truly epic in visual terms, sadly the gameplay does not meet these same high standards.

Lair, as mentioned previously, is pure eye candy, crank up the HD TV and it is a beauty, lovely details have been applied to the dragons and the landscape but these do have a few flaws. The ocean for example initially appears as diverse and wild as mother nature intended, but descends into a patchwork of unchanging squares in high flight. There even seems to be a certain bleaching of colours at certain angles. Any chance of modifying the colours to best suite the TV will result in a message to adjust the TV rather than the game. With beauty comes disappointment, scratch below the surface and Lair has some horrible frame rate constantly jerking in cut scenes and throughout the game. Other bizarre pitfalls that are become apparent appear when you come off worse in a fight and fall to your death, your character descending at times through broken squares almost into the code itself. Other moments that lend themselves to the over dramatic are when getting claws on a human then flinging them away; the camera pans every time to follow the despatched foe losing focus on where you are flying and the objectives one is trying to achieve. Other failures in the gameplay approach see objectives being magically timed, although initially unaware of this it becomes increasingly noticeable you must finish certain objectives in a set time otherwise all is lost. Considering how hard it can be to achieve certain tasks due to poor lock-on features, a rising sense of frustration can develop. This is only increased by the use of cuts scenes seemingly every 20 seconds informing you of something, without any sort of HUD or radar I suppose it is necessary to be informed of where enemies are coming from but it could have been implemented so much better.

Ultimately, Lair is a game of two halves, one half is highly detailed with an imposing soundtrack that engulfs the player into the story (if you're a fan of mediaeval fantasy). The other half is full of predictable, repetitive missions that suffer from the control mechanism being too tricky to use in tight situations. I feel that if the option to turn the Sixaxis off was included the title would have a few more fans. The final cut might be flawed but there are many things that Lair should be praised for, having the guts to develop a title that's sole control mechanism is the Sixaxis is brave - but admittedly flawed. Other areas of praise have to go to the Lair remote play, Lair is one of the first titles to utilise this feature and although I haven't tried, I'm sure it would be a very solid title of the PSP, mainly because you control it using the analogue stick. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving as Lair simply does not deliver what is promised. Most will find it frustrating, while others will find mild enjoyment, especially if you like the idea of controlling this viperous dragon. Meanwhile my quest for a good use of the Sixaxis must continue.

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By Tom Carpenter