I am in love with this game. If it were a sandwich, I'd eat it and order it again every day for the rest of my natural life. Okay, now that my bias is out of the way.... Graphics are probably the weakest element of Sky Odyssey, but don't think for a minute that you'll care. I noticed right away that the crisp quality we've seen so far with most PS2 titles is not a constant, and that sometimes slowdown is noticeable, but all the levels are huge and detailed, with little secrets tucked away in hard-to-find places. The atmosphere of every level beckons you in, and I dare someone to tell me they got so turned off by any graphical flaws that they walked away from Sky Odyssey. It is addictive.

The music is really nice, and responds to changes in the game. This type of dynamic soundtrack is really cool, so when weather conditions or challenges arise during a level, the background music changes to a more tense and dramatic theme. There's not a huge variety of songs, but the main theme is good enough that it's been stuck in my head since I stopped playing a couple days ago.

Sky Odyssey proves without question that having fun in a videogame doesn't have to involve a lick of violence. As an adventurous pilot, somewhat like Indiana Jones (okay, that's just my fantasy... :), you are given the task of exploring a series of islands to find the Tower of Maximus. Each mission has a series of objectives, and although one might be as simple as flying through rough terrain, you'll also have to refuel from a moving train, do some white-water pontoon rafting and navigate corkscrew tunnels.

As modes go, Sky Odyssey really packs a punch. Adventure Mode is what was just described, and going through each mission earns you points for completing one or more of the objectives. Simple requirements are staying under the allotted mission time, flying through a number of checkpoint rings, and performing acrobatic tricks. During key missions, you'll have a chance to find hidden items, gather parts for new planes and earn pieces to customize your own plane. For each level completed in this mode, you can go back in Free Flight Mode to fly for enjoyment or seek out items you missed.

Target Mode requires that you fly through checkpoint rings and land before time elapses. Rings are numbered, so running them in order earns bigger points. You can guess they're not all easy to get to, and you'll find your plane spread all over a big rock more than a few times while trying an emergency maneuver. Sky Canvas Mode lets you 'sky-write' a shape or design with your plane. It's fun, but very hard until you learn good control. To help you learn, Training Mode is a very solid sequence of exercises designed to teach you flight control and movements. You also get practice dropping packages on targets, a function required for some missions in Adventure Mode.

The game begins with 3 planes, and many more can be opened up. Each plane feels unique, with strengths and weaknesses; but, if any aspect of a plane become too frustrating, custom parts earned after finishing missions in Adventure Mode help level the playing field. Each part is explained in detail, with a chart showing how it will impact performance. Ideally, you would learn all the planes, since some environments are better suited for fast vs. stable, light-weight vs. powerful, etc. Seeing all the possible custom parts really highlights the depth of Sky Odyssey and the replay value in any one of the modes. If that weren't good enough, you can save replays of any completed level for later viewing. These, along with a gallery of still-photos from places in the game can be viewed in the Hangar.

Part of the problem with flying games is they always seem to be about one of two things: simulation or combat. Sky Odyssey does a great job of balancing the physics model so as to appeal to sim fans but not discourage others from playing. Some of the hardest things to manage in flight, like keeping the wings level to the ground, are very subtly assisted, but not so much that I ever felt I was flying with training wheels. Plus, with the additional custom options, sim fans can sculpt the plane of their dreams in no time. At least one of the many plane models available lends itself well toward the arcade-style flight model, but others are more unforgiving and demand a more sim-style approach. Since there are multiple ways to approach Maximus, Sky Odyssey should be accessible for adventurous flyers of all levels.

Part of what separates flight sims from arcade flyers is the control options. At the simplest extreme, one has a stick to control flight and the opposite pole has a landing tower, radar and flap angle indicators. Sky Odyssey uses every bit of the PlayStation controller, but in a way I found intuitive. The left analog stick controls the up/down orientation of your plane's nose, and tilts the wings. L1 and R1 buttons affect the left and right rudder, and are used to go left or right without tilting the wing. The X and Square buttons control throttle, and the other buttons are used for things like landing gear or dumping fuel. 80% of the time, you'll work with the throttle and some combination of the left analog stick or shoulder buttons. Aerodynamics are accurately represented in Sky Odyssey to the extent that a tilt to the wings will cause the plane to 'slip' down in the direction of the lower wing, and many other neat tricks can be performed by mastering the relationships between tilt, pitch, yaw and airspeed. Many in-flight displays are available, but all can be turned off. Mostly, things like radar show the lay of the land or location of landing strips and objectives, but the speedometer comes in handy, too.

Managing the items you collect with a plane is done in the main menu between episodes of play, and each plane earns its own collection of items. From time to time, you'll get special items. When you decide to upgrade or modify a plane, you'll look at the available parts in each category (e.g. wing, tail, body, etc.) and by scrolling through, see the effect any item will have on your plane. I didn't have a real problem finishing the game with a single plane, but it took serious customization at times. Another neat option in Sky Odyssey is controlling the weather. In certain modes, you are given the chance to choose what weather you'll be flying in, and the interface is set up to look like a real-life weather map, with high- and low-pressure areas visible along with storm fronts. By dialing the clock to different settings, you watch patterns move along the map until you see conditions right for flying. All levels in Adventure Mode are preset, so it's fun to go back and fly areas you've visited in storms when the sun is shining again later in Free Flight.

Sky Odyssey had me hooked from the moment I popped it in and started playing. There's enough training available to have even the greenest pilot up and flying quickly, but seasoned gamers or sim fans won't be bored. For a game whose only violent element is a wrecked plane, Sky Odyssey has more going for it than any flight-combat game I've ever played, and so-called 'adventure' games could take a page out of this book when designing gameplay. Kudos to Activision for this great game; Sky Odyssey is one of the most unique experiences available right now for PlayStation 2.