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What sums up the newest incarnation of Phantasy Star Online best is one word - addicting. When you're not playing it, chances are you'll be thinking about it. It's both a vice and a blessing - the game that keeps on giving . . . yet keeps on demanding time. A lot of time. Ask our pal BonusKun, I'm sure he'll enlighten you.

Episode I & II gives established fans a bit of something old, and a bit of something new. All of the old is hashed out in Epsiode I - explore the planet Ragol as a member the Hunter Guild, trying to unravel the mystery that lies behind the disappearance of the refugees of the Pioneer 1, a spaceship looking for a new home. Pioneer 2 is where you'll set up camp and do everything from shopping to teleporting to the planet surface. What's more, Episode I consists of everything that was in both episodes of the Dreamcast PSOs. So GameCube owners are not only in for a new outing in Episode II, but get the same amount of ruin-romping and challenge-busting that would've set Dreamcast owners back $100.

Not to mention there's a lot of new ground to cover in Episode II. Taking place shortly after the Pioneer 1 incident, the lab aboard Pioneer 2 is recruiting Hunters for a special assignment. The whole thing sounds fishy from the start, involving an island on Ragol dedicated to research and conveniently kept unknown to the rest of the Pioneer 1 crew. What could have been going on there, and why the need for secrecy? Well, you're the Hunter here - go find out!

Each episode is split from the other as succinctly as the plots are. You can always choose to play either, but only one episode at a time. Meaning areas from one cannot be played in another and items found in one won't appear with the same frequency (or at all) in the other. However, items and meseta (PSO's currency) already found stay no matter which episode you're in. It seems a bit confusing at first, but nothing that will have your head spinning (unlike this preceding paragraph).

Thankfully you won't have to remember two totally different gameplay schemes, as PSO breaks in newbies and reintroduces veterans through the first episode and carries the same rules through Episode II, albeit at a harder pace. At the core, its simplicity - dungeon crawling, treasure hunting, and slaying wildlife - is a breeze. Three face buttons can be customized to do anything from performing melee attacks and techniques (PSO magic) to using items. If three action buttons aren't enough (and they aren't - trust me), holding onto the R button swaps one set of face button commands with another. Even with up to 6 commands at the ready, one might think there should be just a bit more, so Sonic Team decided on adding a "quick menu" that allows you to use items and techniques and equip weapons on the fly. With so much to worry about - and fighting five Del Sabers at once is - the quick menu is an instant blessing.

Once you've broken into the gameplay and broken a few heads with your weapons of choice, you start to see the nuances that make PSO fun. Are you a customization whore? You can create literally hundreds of different characters in each race/class itself and raise Mags (little Poke-esque robots that boost stats). Gotta catch 'em all? There's hundreds of various weapons, armors, support items, and Mag types to find. Just need to let out some tension? Test all your resources in varying levels of difficulty that span over 8 unique stages. Overall PSO is incredibly easy to pick up and play, which helps the most unique aspect of all . . .

Online play - love or hate it, it's here to stay in console games. Phantasy Star Online was of the first few to break into the new fad of game-dom and it continues to shine in that respect. Easy to pick up and play, and chock full of goodies to uncover, PSO begs to be played in groups rather than a solo outing. With buddies in tow, heavier fights can be won, more items found, and - as sappy as it sounds - new friendships can be made. Though fear not - those without modems won't be left out of the fun. There's even a four-player splitscreen mode for the less fortunate, and even though it has the worst camera angles in human creation, it's more fun to explore with friends than venture alone any day, any way. Plus, beggars can't be choosers.

We can afford to be picky about grapihcs though. The visuals aren't an eyesore per se, but they're a mixed bag. Episode I is a total rehash of Dreamcast-era graphics with small new touches here and there, which can be good or bad, depending on the degree of your undying love for Sega. Episode II tries to utilize more of the GameCube's own merits and yet at the same time keep the overall look streamlined. So what you get are lush locales, complex architechture, and gorgeous water effects, but at the same framerate and roughly same poly counts as when it made its DC debut. It's a pretty game, but in contrast to what the console is capable of, PSO feels a bit lacking.

There are only two major drawbacks when playing. For starters, the gameplay is simple to pick up, but this means it gets repetitive fast. If you aren't obsessive-compulsive, or aren't hooked on all the ins-and-outs of PSO, you'll find yourself thinking it to be a basic hack-and-slash, nothing more. The second problem is how online games are handled: Sega opted to charge server fees for anyone who goes online. It'll cost you $9 each month, which isn't too bad, but a hard pill to swallow in the shadow of Xbox Live's "play free" plan. Not to mention that you will need a credit card to get online, which means you won't see me around, at least not for a while.

All it boils down to is this: do you like mindless hack and slash? Do you like playing online games, and interacting with other living, breathing beings while pursuing a mutual pastime? Are you ready to forfeit your social life in the real world?

Then welcome to the world of PSO.

· · · Hero