Lair keeps surprising and disappointing me. And I know I'm not the only one. When I came back from playing the game this last time around, I told Mike McWhertor that it felt like a mixed bag to me and Mike said he was giving up on the game, at least for now.

I know how he feels. I really want to like Lair, but it just can't seem to deliver a consistent performance for me. The controls take a lot of getting used to, the targeting is confusing, the objective arrow doesn't seem to help me and there's so much going on in the game at any one time that I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do.

That means one of two things, I think: Either, the game is just poorly designed and in its current form has major issues or it's a deep gaming experience that you can't just drop into and expect to understand how to play. I'm holding out hope its the latter rather than the former, but honestly, I just can't tell at this point, putting Lair in the same mixed bag category as Heavenly Sword for me. The only difference is that I suspect Heavenly will come through in the end and I fear Lair may not at this point. Brian Crecente

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