The year is 20xx (Sammy sure has an odd calendar) and global warming has flushed the world undersea. The remaining countries have formed a new Global Alliance, whose goal is to keep the world from tearing what’s left of itself apart. All is well and good, until one day, a new military force enters the scene and sows the seeds of dissent within the Global Alliance’s ranks. Now, being a typical futuristic government, the Global Alliance figures that it’s just better to wipe out this new faction, rather then figure out why everyone wants to become a part of it. Thus begins the 300-day war between the Global Alliance and the secret new bad guys. The anime-styled plot slowly unfolds as you complete each mission, ending with you discovering the deep dark secret of the competing government.

If you’re looking for an interesting mix of flight-sim and arcade-action, you won’t find better than Lethal Skies II. While the level design is based on fast and furious arcade action, the aircraft controls are more sim-like, allowing you to control trim, air braking and all the other little details you don’t see in a typical arcade title. A good example of the sim-style gameplay is the aircraft designs, which are modeled after real-world (and a few Skunkworks) models. Planes have their own sets of stats, including mobility, speed and stealth, and you’ll keep unlocking new planes as you advance through the missions. Each aircraft handles like its real-world counterpart, so you can bet the A-10 Warthog is feels like a flying tank, while the Mig-29 will zip, flip and roll with the best of ‘em. As each level allows you to pick your crew and their aircraft, you’ll find it necessary to become comfortable with each aircraft’s features, lest you end up banging your head against the TV screen in a fit of rage after blowing yet another level due to bad crew choices.

Rage and frustration are two emotions you will feel quite a bit while playing LS II. The fourth level, "Breakthrough," is a prime example of LS II’s ability to induce massive levels of frustration. It has you racing through canyons in an attempt to rescue an informant. The level is extremely claustrophobic as you cannot fly above the canyon, and the turns you’ll have to make are frequent and frequently difficult. The canyon itself is so tight; the A-10 barely fits between its walls. This level alone cost me four hours of my life, and almost the life of a wireless controller. And it doesn’t help that you can’t manually set the throttle during any levels. Instead, you’ll start each level at a specific speed, with the ability to throttle up or down temporarily, but it always settles back to that base speed. This alone will cause you some flight problems, since there are times it would’ve been nice to lock in a 1/3 speed throttle or the like to make it through tight spaces. Instead, you’ll tap the airbrakes to decelerate, and then fight like mad to keep your bird at that speed. There are many more levels that are equally as frustrating, yet the satisfaction you’ll get from completing them will absolutely make up for the hair-pulling fits of rage.

I honestly didn’t expect much depth in the level design, and frankly, Asmick didn’t let me down. When it comes to the missions, they are pure arcade action, so expect to fly around blowing stuff up, and then follow it up by having to deal with "Death Star Canyon" style flights. There are even boss fights, which start out simple enough and then get devastatingly difficult as the game progresses. Let’s be honest though, shall we? We’re here for the action, and Lethal Skies II has action in spades. There’s enough high-speed missile-launching, chaingun-lashing action to keep any fighter pilot interested in all 20 missions. And once you finish the game, you can play it all over again from the enemy’s perspective. Not only that, the multiplayer lets you and a buddy go head to head for some aerial deathmatching over Sony’s i.Link.

Visually, Lethal Skies II is a quite a treat, with textured landscapes, detailed urban areas and picture perfect plane designs. Actually, let me correct that, the planes, while being exact replicas of the real thing, suffer from jaggies in a big way when viewed from the chase camera modes. However, once you jump into the cockpit view (the only way to play this game, if you ask me,) everything is smooth and shiny again. Combat effects especially stand out in LS II, as explosions look great, missiles fly in realistic paths, and the Vulcan cannon rips up the terrain. The environmental effects are equally lovely, with falling snow and drifting fog crossing your flight path to clog up your windscreen. Speed the plane up and watch the snow "whoosh" by, slow it down and watch it become denser. It’s pretty good looking stuff, to say the least. The menu system is interesting in that Sammy decided to ditch the realism and go with a more anime feel. Nearly neon colors and in-your-face menu elements fill the mission briefing screens. In some ways, the menus remind me of the arcade old title, U.N. Squadron, which I think about ten people (myself included) ever played.

I personally would like to thank Sammy and Asmick for giving this game a quality sound palette. The voice acting doesn’t sound like a bad overdub, so you’ll be happy to hear the chatter between your wingmen or that voice of the "Black Pawn" as he begs you to come save him. And your mission leader’s voice relays a sense of urgency that’ll keep you pushing through the levels. The game sounds are right on, so a chaingun sounds like it should, as do the explosions, afterburners and even the wind. That’s right, even the wind rippling across the surface of the A-10 (cumbersome beast that it is) sounds good.

I’m somewhat torn with Lethal Skies II. I love the mix of realism and arcade action, but there are some times when it’s almost excruciatingly painful to play due to the difficulty. Even on the "Easy" setting, this game is a serious challenge. The AI is brutal at times, and the flying challenges even more so. What it all comes down to is that even as difficult as some levels can be, this is a solid game, made even more so by a selection of over 19 jets, realistic weather, beautiful terrain and some great high-speed dogfighting. Yep, I think I’ll give this one the "buy" rating. And might I suggest buying a spare controller now, since you’ll be replacing at least one before finishing the game.

See more screens on the Lethal Skies II media page