Take one teenage girl with a lost brother in a strange world ruled over by a tyrannical master and his army of Wolfen, throw in lush environments, a solid combat system, and one of the most unique travel modes that has been seen in video games in some time, and you have Atari's new action-adventure, PlayStation 2-exclusive Kya: Dark Lineage.

The game's story opens with Kya and her brother sucked into another world and separated. Kya sets out to find her brother but finds all is not well where she has ended up. The evil Brazul has laid waste to the city of the local inhabitants, called Nativs, and turned many of them into new members of his Wolfen army.

It becomes apparent to Kya that in order to find her brother she must help the Nativs throw off the rule of Brazul and restore the Wolfen-transformed Nativs to their proper form.

Through the nine levels of the game, with more than 50 main and side quests, Kya will encounter and combat Wolfen. Once the Wolfen are defeated, Kya may use collected magic to transform the Wolfen back to their Nativ form. Thus restored, Nativs head home to Nativ City and begin to rebuild it. Homes and shops are rebuilt. The shops are where Kya may go to buy items she needs, upgrade her boomerang weapon and even purchase training to increase the degree of her hand-to-hand fighting skills, like belts in karate.

For an action-adventure game, the hand-to-hand fighting system is quite sophisticated. Kya has 30 fighting moves accessed through three-button combos. The combat system also allows her to engage up to seven enemies at once. This is no button-masher either. If one attack is used too often the game's AI will adjust its defenses and render the attack ineffective.

As players guide Kya in her quests, they will have the choice of confronting Wolfen head-on, sneaking past them, and even, in one case I saw, tricking the Wolfen into fighting each other.

One of the most stunning aspects of the game is the way Kya travels between different areas of the world. Through holes in the ground great columns of air rush up. By jumping into these moving columns of air Kya can fly to different levels of terrain. The control for this is akin to the way a skydiver controls his descent in a free fall: flattening out causes Kya to catch more wind and fly higher while tucking in will let her drop. While using these air currents players must be very careful to keep Kya within the wind's influence or she drops like a stone.

While in the currents the world rushes by at a dizzying speed without losing the beautiful detail that makes this game such a pleasure to watch. The effect truly has to be seen to be appreciated.

All the play and graphics wizardry is accomplished through a proprietary engine developed by Atari's own Eden Studio in Lyon, France. It has taken them two years to achieve the game's blend of solid gameplay and stunning visuals. If the proper polish gets applied to this gem before its November release, the game could be a real sleeper hit for the holidays.