Pto Iv

Cookie Monster · February 7, 2003, 17:11

Desperately calling out to all KOEI game fans!

Anyone pick up PTO IV for PS2 yet? If so what are your impressions thus far? I heard that there are no land battles now which to me is kind of a bummer. Is this game worth getting?

P acific T heater of O perations IV is a game by KOEIgames.com which covers naval battles across the globe during WWII. You can choose to play any one of 4 countries. Japan, Germany, USA, or UK.

dudemanjack · February 7, 2003, 18:22

I didn't even know a PTO 3 came out..

Frankychan · February 9, 2003, 21:27

I just picked up PTO IV a few days ago...here's what I think:

You're right in that there are NO land battles to command. Rather, once you take over an enemy territory with your fleet, you take over the entire territory.

As for playable sides, You can be Japan, Germany, United States, and United Kingdom. You can switch the allegiances for the countries. There are two campaigns-Germany vs. UK (US and Japan are not in the war yet), or Japan vs. US (hostilities haven't begun yet).

In game, there's two phases Strategic and Tactical. Strategic is more "diplomacy" where Tactical is more "battle phase". The interaction between allies is dummed down to only "Send Aid" and "Give Tech". Which kind of sucks.

Also, you can delegate tasks to the comp, like building ships, sending spies, assigning aircraft to fleets/airfields. Which helps. You can also create custom ships. I personally made a super battleship that's kicking the USA's butt (I'm playing Japan right now)

The battle phases are pretty good...graphics are crazy! When in battle and you are trying to take over a territory, you have to destroy EVERY fleet and Airfield present in three days or you lose.

The crappy thing is that PTO IV is only 1 player! WTH is that?

Well, i think I've rambled on long enough. PTO is a pretty good game, but I think it could have been done better. If your a KOEI fan like I am, Haupt. Dietrich, you might want to pick this game up. But if naval battles aren't your thing, I'd say save your $$$ for the next KOEI game.

PTO-7/10. Okay but could have been done better.

you can go to gamers.com to check out the reviews there.

Cookie Monster · February 10, 2003, 09:22

Frankychan:

Thanks for your review

I took a chance this weekend and picked up the game. It is like you say a fun game but it could have been done a little better. I think they "dumbed" down PTOIV compared to PTOI and PTOII. Never played III because it was never available in the USA. Not having land battles is a little disappointing but I can live with it. There still is plenty to do.

One thing I like is the ability to invest in tech every turn. Being able to build ships, airplanes, airfields, etc. every turn is cool too unlike how it was done in PTOII. No more having to wait until the monthly war room meeting. You still have to wait a few game weeks for big items like ships and airfields to be built, but airplanes are added immediately to your inventory.

You're right about the battles being good. While you no longer have control over individual ships the fun is still there. You now issue orders to the fleets and watch them carry them out in realtime. I think the battle system works fine although I haven't seen my aircraft do any real damage yet. It could be because most of my battles so far have been in territories that have only one airfield. I'm playing the Britain vs. Germany campaign as the Germans.

I wish this game allowed more than one human player and had more territories to battle in. Those are my only two complaints. Other than that I would give this game a 7/10 as well.

Just as a side note I am a big KOEI fan. Back when I had my Super NES I had almost all of their games. Now for my PS2 I have Dynasty Tactics, Dynasty Warriors 3, ROTK VII, and now PTOIV. I think overall KOEI has made their games a little simpler to appeal to a wider audience. In the past only the hardcore strategy gamers would play their games. Despite this they still make great games IMHO.

Frankychan · February 12, 2003, 04:01

Damn, you got Dynasty Tactics? Crud, I've been looking all over for it and can't seem to find it anywhere.. Geez, I've been playing the "Romance" series since #1 on the NES. I haven't gotten anywhere close to beating any of them yet....

Quote:

In the past only the hardcore strategy gamers would play their games. Despite this they still make great games IMHO.

True that. When I found out another of my friends was a "closet" Koei fan, I freaked out. Finding people who like Koei games is rare, IMHO. Glad to see another one out there!

Cookie Monster · February 12, 2003, 17:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Frankychan
Damn, you got Dynasty Tactics? Crud, I've been looking all over for it and can't seem to find it anywhere.. Geez, I've been playing the "Romance" series since #1 on the NES. I haven't gotten anywhere close to beating any of them yet....

Ah RTK 1 for NES, now that brings back memories. Nobunaga's Ambition was another great game for the NES as well.

BTW I found Dynasty Tactics at my local Electronic Boutique store. They had one copy left and it was the display box. Lucky for me I guess.

Hopefully Koei will come out with an updated Nobunaga's Ambition, Liberty or Death, and Uncharted Waters games for the PS2. Now that would be cool!

I used to think that there weren't too many Koei game fans out there but check out www.gamefaqs.com under their PS2 section. Then search for Romance of the three Kingdoms or Dynasty Tactics and you'll see quite a few strat guides and fans who play these games.

Comrade Tribune · February 13, 2003, 18:11

I wish they hadn´t stopped making games for the PC, like their brilliant Ghenghis Khan.

Frankychan · February 14, 2003, 13:59

Holy crap, I forgot about Liberty or Death, Genghis Khan and Uncharted Waters....now THAT's old skool. Thanks for the tip, I'll go check out that site. I still can't find Dynasty Tactics tho.

As for PTO IV...I've just taken over the US with Japan last night. Muahahahaha. All the Axis powers have to do is take over Britain and we win!

BTW-Do you know how to assign aircraft to certain fleets? My Japanese 2nd fleet has a max capacity of 322 planes and right now I have about 128. The US P-52's are kicking my Zero's and Bombers a**.

Cookie Monster · February 14, 2003, 16:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Frankychan
BTW-Do you know how to assign aircraft to certain fleets? My Japanese 2nd fleet has a max capacity of 322 planes and right now I have about 128. The US P-52's are kicking my Zero's and Bombers a**.

That's a good question. I have yet to assign any planes to carriers. So far I've only played the 1939 Scenario as the Germans and as you might know they didn't really have many carriers. So far my game has been pretty challenging. Can't wait to try out as Japan or the US.

Anyway, I wonder if you try clicking on the base that contains the fleet with the carriers. Then click on deploy/aircraft and hopefully there is an option for assigning aircraft to carriers. I don't think the manual explains how to do this so I'm just guessing. But how about sending the carriers back to the home port and seeing if the computer automatically assigns aircraft to it. I think the manual does state somewhere that the player has no control over assigning aircraft to certain ships but I hope this doesn't apply to carriers.

One of the best features of PTO II was the ability to specify what planes you wanted assigned to certain carriers. I used to load up CVE's with nothing but fighters and assign those CVE's to fleets with CV's. The CV's would have mostly bomber and torpedo planes. This is playing as the americans of course. The Japanese did not use CVE's. So for them I would assign an equal amount of fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes and have several carriers in one fleet. Again I'll say that I hope that PTOIV let's you have the freedom to assign planes to your own carriers. I'll have to look into this.

Frankychan · February 17, 2003, 00:36

Thanks,

I think I've found the way to assign certain planes to certain carriers. The way I figure it...

You first have to take over the 'Deploy' option. Next you have to select the fleet that you want to assign the aircraft. Then, you have to select 'Carrier'instead of 'Airfield'. This will bring you to the ship screen. From there, you select the ship and assign them which plane goes to which ship....I forget right now.

I found this out when I assigned my Japanese 2nd fleet with the Flying-Wing Bomber I created....the 'Daimyo'. Thanks for helping me out and giving me some hints about the CV's and CVE's.

I give you props trying to play the German's right off the bat. I tried that I got my behind kicked....so I switched to my second fav. and picked Japan.

Good luck and Thanks!