Employing their experience in developing flight-action games in the Star Wars universe, developer Factor 5 is tackling PlayStation 3 hardware with a free-roaming dragon riding epic. We went hands-on with Lair at Sony Computer Entertainment America Gamers’ Day and saw a game with enormous potential (seriously...dragons...) but also one with a few significant question marks, and one big disappointment: a surprising lack of multiplayer support.

Lair places you in the role of Rohn, a fiercely loyal warrior called upon to protect the Asylian civilization from annihilation. Under attack by Mokai forces, Rohn is forced to take to the skies in order to save his people. With a slate of story-driven missions, Lair focuses wholly on providing an action-packed single player experience. The lack of multiplayer is definitely a downer, but at least the game’s campaign promises plenty of excitement to make up for the omission complete with loads of dragon upgrades and various other creatures to fight on land, sea, and air—and there will in fact be an online leaderboard of sorts; there’s just no head to head dragon fighting.

When playing the game for the first time, you are put through the paces in the “Proving Grounds” tutorial. It’s here that you learn how to control a dragon and exactly what aerial combat entails. We quickly moved from the tutorial into the main campaign, beginning with the first mission entitled “Day of Terror.” Following a lengthy cinematic, we were plopped into the middle of an enormous defensive battle. Our first objective was to take out marauding Mokai vessels launching massive cannons at our fortress. Quick taps of the square button launched fireballs from the mouth our dragon, whereas holding it down resulted in a continuous string of small fireballs. Without a reticle, you have to estimate the trajectory of your fireballs, which can initially be challenging. After all, this isn’t an F-16 you’re flying.

Once we sent the Mokai vessel down to the watery lair of the seafloor, our objective shifted to eliminating Mokai dragons flying above the Asylian fortress. Triggering rage mode aided us in bringing down the enemy dragons, allowing us to target them more effectively. Rage mode slows down time, turning the screen black and white briefly, enabling you to hone in on enemies and fire upon them. Activating it requires building up tonnage by destroying enemies and filling up the rage meter. After a few minutes we cleared the screen of invaders and began the final confrontation against the Mokai general leading the attack. The head-to-head battle commenced by locking onto him with both L1 and R1, then striking by means of the circle button. Next, the screen shifted to a two-dimensional perspective that required us to line up Rohn by movement of the Sixaxis and then jerk the controller to slam into the general.

Aside from being rather difficult, the battle was remarkably engaging thanks to its liberal use of motion controls. Without question, this is the biggest selling point for Lair—outside the whole ‘you are riding a dragon!’ thing. . The ability to whip through the skies on the back of a dragon simply by moving a controller is undoubtedly intriguing. Sadly, we lost some of our excitement once we the Sixaxis was actually in our hands. Movement of the Sixaxis corresponds to the direction in which your dragon glides. Propelling forward involves pressing X in order to whip your dragon and make it flap its wings. Speed is never an issue; in fact, you are always able to quickly move about the game by mashing X or come to a hovering stop by press R2. Turning, however, is problematic. Sensitivity issues cause minor movements of the controller to result in significant turns on the screen. It wasn’t uncommon in our time with Lair for the screen to blur as it zipped all over the place. Since it’s difficult simply getting your bearings, attacking enemies and completing objectives can be damn hard, at least in our time with the game. Major tuning is necessary to tone down the sensitivity of the motion controls; without such, Lair will end up more frustrating than fun. Here’s hoping…

At least the presentation is superb. Lair boasts huge environments brimming with details and loads of enemies running at 30 FPS and in native 1080i resolution. Lair is one gorgeous game. A later mission we played had dozens of dragons firing down on us, filling the screen with dazzling fire effects. Hopefully, Lair will end up as more than just a pretty face. Should Factor 5 iron out the wrinkles before its summer release, look forward to flying the not-so friendly skies.