What are the controls like?
It's hard for me to describe, in part because it's been a while since I played it, and also because I didn't play it long before putting it aside. I had some problems with what felt like input lag. I had difficulty climbing Trico. The boy's movements seemed too herky jerky to me. I had problems getting Trico to do what I wanted him to do.
YMMV -- some people say they had no issues with the controls, and others hated them.
I learned that some of what I thought were "control issues" were actually part of the game's design. For example, Trico is not supposed to always do what you want him to do. He's supposed to behave more like a real animal.
Here are some sample complaints from GAF:
"It was literally the most frustrating game I've ever played."
"I have never in my 25 years of being alive ever encountered a game so frustratingly difficult (mechanically) yet oddly satisfying and enjoyable."
"Technically and mechanically, it is incredibly frustrating."
"F*ck the controls of this game in every way. I had to stop playing at the moment to cool off because it was becoming an extreme exercise in frustration dealing with the controls of this game."
"By God, this game is frustrating. The controls and camera are pretty bad, and the bad AI just adds to it. Sometimes I keep giving commands and wait (and hope) that Trico will do what I want it to do. At one time it kept going to the wrong place for almost 10 minutes. I wanted to smash the controller in the wall. Then there is the camera. It in itself is pretty bad, but add the abhorrent frame rate (and I am the kinda guy who rarely feels bad frame rate as long as camera and controls are fine) and weird ass smoothing of camera movement and it's just a clusterf***. Oh and the controls. I just do not feel that the kid is going where I am trying to take it, especially when on Trico. I am trying to take him to Trico's tail, but he will rather enter his ass."
"The very first thing that stood out to me in TLG were the god awful controls. Not a good first impression. The previous games didn't have exemplary controls but TLG goes beyond and into the realm of borderline broken. Horrible acceleration, lag, and terrible contextual detection."
There are also lots of people saying the controls are fine, it wasn't a problem for me, you're exaggerating, you're doing it wrong, etc. So definitely, YMMV.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1345245
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1353201