Once the tutorial finished, we were thrust into our first mission. A vast stone bridge needed us to defend it as our army rushed to meet the enemy, and so we flew around, taking down enemy dragons and blowing up whatever little structures happened to get In our way. It was impossible to crash, which was good, because it was hard to stay the course when we weren't quite used to the control scheme.
Oh, and when we say this bridge was vast? We mean vast. It wasn't just long and wide - two entire armies, at least a couple dozen men across, were able to march across it and fight in real time. We were eventually able to land on the bridge and run around (again, using the tilt controls to move), and when we landed near our troops, they actually scattered automatically out of our way. Our enemies weren't so lucky, though, and they were effortlessly knocked aside and flambed by our big honkin' dragon friend.
Things didn't stay too easy for long, though, and the bad guys soon countered by dropping huge, dragon-sized bull creatures onto the bridge. These guys looked rhino-tough, but went down quickly when we applied fire breath to their faces. But then a bunch of Dark Dragons - which look alarmingly like flying sharks - joined the battle, and taking them down was kind of a hassle. But since we didn't seem to have a health meter, it was only a matter of time before they fell and the bridge was declared secure.
We're still not sure what to make of the control scheme; we certainly liked bashing into our enemies with it, but flying with it takes some getting used to. Unlike traditional thumbstick controls, you can't really relax your hold on the controller when things get slow, or else you'll be careening to someplace far away from where you wanted to go. We're willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, though, and controls aside, Lair is looking fantastic.
