Ken Levine Defends Lair's Control Scheme

A recent Gamers with Jobs podcast (well worth listening to) features co-hosting duties performed by Ken Levine of Irrational/2K Boston, makers of the title BioShock. During the podcast, Levine comes to the defense of Factor 5's Lair , saying that the folks over there may not have had much choice in how to proceed with their game. "Let me speak in these guys' defense for a minute as a game developer. I'm sure somebody came to them at some point and said, 'We have this motion control controller, and we have to make a go of it. And we really think you should try to make your game exclusively on that.' I think you're seeing a lot of this lately. Aren't there a lot of games where you're just like, 'Dude, can I just use the d-pad or the analog stick?' Ever since the DS came out I feel that there have been a lot of games like that. They've been so impressed by their control mechanic that they just really, really want you to play with that." It's still really, really bad.

Re:"Is there a game..."

[Tadrith]

Seconded.

Retro did an absolutely amazing job using the Wiimote in Metroid Prime 3. The smoothness, the reaction time, it was absolutely perfect. I was dreading it for a while after seeing what it was like playing Red Steel, but it was nothing like that. Some of the most fun gaming I've had in a long time.

Lair's problems

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, the control scheme isn't Lair's problem. I've got the game, and have played through most of it. The control scheme does have a high learning curve, but once I got used to it, it seemed realistic, like steering a dragon.

Lair's real problems are elsewhere. The biggest annoyance is the way the damn thing inserts ten second cut scenes in haphazardly during combat. You'll be in intense combat, trying to get a bead on something and suddenly you're looking at some stupid scene about something blowing up elsewhere. You're then return to combat in an entirely different location, utterly disconcerted.

The other annoyance is the way you are constantly ping-ponged between objectives by spoken words. "Go save the army!" "Get the bridge!" "Save the army!" For some of the boss battles, you seem to be sort of pulled out of the action nearly at random to go after the boss.

I personally don't think the game deserved the rock bottom ratings it got. It's a pretty solidly mediocre game. I wouldn't part with $59 for it if I had it to do over, but now that I've got it, it's entertaining enough to play through. (Though if I had something better, that might not be the case.)

It seems like the Lair meme is "shitty control scheme". In truth, I think the real problem is the more basic game play.

Re:Wrong, wrong, wrong

[iainl]

Really? Everyone I know who bought the Wii release of RE4 did so specifically for the new controls, because they had already played the Gamecube or PS2 versions.