This is somewhat of a flying simulator but Activision prefers to call it a "flight adventure" game. It's a different concept however from a regular action/adventure game because even though there are objective missions to play through, you'll be graded on your performance during the missions. Players will be required to fly different aircraft along certain routes while passing through checkpoints along the way. At the end of the mission you will be graded on such things as speed, precision and stunts. So ultimately your incentive is to complete the mission with the greatest accuracy possible.

There will be rewards for achieving high scores like gaining access to cooler planes. So if you're good enough you might get a chance to fly some jet planes like the ME-262 and F-117 stealth fighter. All the planes are customizable so you can adjust many aspects such as wings, fuselages, engines, color etc.

During flight, players can choose from sim controls or simple controls for those who are too dumb to figure out how to fly. The controls shouldn't be very demanding so the sim controls would probably be the best way to go in order to get the full experience. What's really cool about this game is that the environments stretch hundreds of kilometers in every direction and it's your choice where you want to go! That's right, you can fly around aimlessly for hours if that's your idea of excitement but you won't find anything nice to look at while your flying which leads me to the game's problem.

To put it bluntly, the graphics stink! They remind me of N64 graphics so yeah, you can imagine it's pretty bad. I guess they are comparable to Pilotwings 64, maybe a bit worse. Maybe they will improve as the game progresses but in this stage of development, the visuals are just plain ugly.

On the positive side, the game features rather dynamic musical scores that change depending on the weather and the weather plays an important factor in missions because a sunny day can quickly turn into a blustery rain storm at any time. The music reflects the atmosphere and conveys that feeling through a more sinister tone.

Sky Odyssey, if it turns out well, could fill an otherwise empty category in the PS2 library because last time I checked, there hasn't been many flight sim games. Well if you've ever wanted a game that gave you complete freedom then this one is worth checking out. Just imagine being able to fly hundreds of virtual miles through a polygonal landscape. It's just so huge it's hard to imagine. The game shows promise, hopefully a cure for those sickly graphics will come soon.