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Pretty good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off i think the graphics are good, but the down side is it takes a long time to build ships and your alies suck they alway lose only if there british you know but so and so its a good game.

Cool game but way too easy

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

PTO IV has excellent graphics and animation -- it's more like watching a war movie than playing a video game. But the AI is ridiculously bad. This game is about as challenging as clipping your fingernails, and that goes for both the strategic and tactical phases.

The way the game works is, you control the naval forces of one major combatant during WWII (US, UK, Germany, or Japan). PTO IV is turn-based, so you start each round in a strategy phase where you design and build your fleets, gather intelligence, and go fight the enemy. Problem is, the game doesn't give you much to choose from in this phase -- it's completely obvious at all times where to devote your resources, who to spy on, and what enemy sea zone to strike next. Not only is it almost impossible to do anything wrong, but if you do make a mistake, the AI is so non-aggressive you don't have to worry much about paying for it.

When you launch an attack (or on the rare occasion that the enemy actually attacks you), the game shifts into a tactical phase where you direct your forces in battle. The AI is a little better here, but unless you're totally asleep at the wheel through the strategy phase you'll go into every battle with enough of a decided advantage to just steamroll the enemy.

About the only way to make this game remotely challenging is to play as a single country against 3 opposing navies. So much for the idea of historical simulation; more importantly, the only real effect is to prolong the inevitable.

This game is fun to play through a few times but gets boring quickly. Unless you just really have a thing for watching computer-animated ships explode, I'd look for something else.

If you LOVE WWII naval combat...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: August 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Some reviews remind me of the phrase, "Those of you who think you know what you're talking about are annoying those of us who do" when it comes to PTO IV.
Pacific Theater of Operations IV follows in the line of Koei's underpublised but successful title series of World War Two combat at sea. If I was to be in solitary confinement for six months, and could have just one video game, PTO IV would be it.
Aside from the purely historical context of being able to take control of the navy of either Japan, German, Great Britain or the United States (and see how you and your ally would have performed), the game allows a player to select from a range of scenarios as well as the full campaing series.
But, the sheer depth and beauty of PTO IV that many novices miss is in the ability to design and create your own types of aircraft and warships; modify exisiting warships; and continually upgrade both based upon your research and development expedititures. With a bit of effort (and some note-taking) you can create truley devastating weapons systems.

Another note about PTO IV's value is it's high resale cost, and general difficulty to easily obtain.

The game does have some serious flaws; but recall it was the first venture of it's type on the PS2, and the title does read "Pacific Theater of Operations". Taking out an enemy region as a "target of opportunity" doesn't provide a player with any real advatage in rewards. Leaving warship construction up to the games' AI can be a very frustrating excercise...the United States begins cranking out escort carriers in record numbers. What some other players have experienced in a "dumb" AI having a superior fleet destroyed is reflective of several things programmed into the game design; ever hear of torpedoes being fired at night by other surface warships?

One of the truley nifty things about PTO IV is the ability to take on the world all on your alone; playing as Germany (in example) against Great Britain, Japan and the USA. For a definite challenge, do this while letting the AI delegate all other operations...shipbuilding, aircraft deployments and so forth. It's this function that replicates (in a simplified manner) all of the excessive yak and argument with other military elements experienced in PTO II.

PTO IV also allows for the "what-if" element, in that warships and aircraft that didn't see combat use during WWII can; eventually; be employed here. But I would STRONGLY advise tinkering, you might be surprised with the killing machines you can develop with just a little tweaking of various attributes.
Recall also that the Japanese designers always used metrics, so you may have some trouble initially with gun calibers; but "bigger is better" always works.

There will always be those who will endeavor to find some small item to nit-pick on a "game". PTO IV is a game with great depth, and game-realism (not real-life), and as such is outstanding value for the money. If the game were to carry greater complexity on a video-game console, you'd have to be a)without a significant other, b)without a job, c)without an external life, and d)have an inherent ability to pay your bills without ever leaving the house or using the phone.

Koei skipped out on creating PTO V for the PS2, and has competition with Konami for a similar game on the upcoming PS3. Few details have been released so far, but it looks like many of the gripes will be resolved...not all, but many.

The game has exceptionally high replay value, and is a definite keeper.

PTO 4

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: July 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I liked this game because I got to control the ships. If you are looking for a game that you comand the navy this is it. It's pritty easy, and doesn't have the best graphics, but you get to here poeple yelling, and ships blowing up. I would recommend you rent it before you buy it.

this game is the worst game ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 19
Date: May 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is sorry you do not do any thing but sit there and move fleets of ships and sit there and watch your ships get sunk during raids. This game is not even worth a -5 stars I put one because that is the worst i could put. I hope this helps u to make your mind.

Give it a chance!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: November 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This seems to be a game that people either love or hate. Is it as good as PTO II? Not even close. The main reason is the lack of ground forces. This takes away a LOT of strategy and options in the game. Also the music dosen't do much for the game like it did in PTO II. Also, the AI is seems to be much weaker than in PTO II, but it can still be a lot of fun if you're willing to look past these things.
The new menu allows you to build your warmachine and manage your resources much better than before. Also, the promotion of commanders is much clearer, and the fact that they can control individual ships is a lot better than having them control the entire fleet. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they fit better on one type of ship than another. Also, bringing Germany and Britain in as playable nations was a great idea. For you history buffs, there are bios on ALL commanders, ALL planes and ALL ships that tell you what they did in the war. There must be at least 50 techs that you can reasearch and a lot of planes and ship classes too. They even threw in planes and ships that never saw combat, but were planned. The Germans built 3 prototype fighters that looked earily similar to the stealth bomber. Build some of those and watch those P-51s drop like flies.
Some say this game is too easy. OK, an experienced palyer fighting with an ally can probably win the game in less than 8 months game time. But, if you want a REAL challenge, try winning the war fighting three nations. Every single decision you make MUST be the right one, or you WILL be crushed.
I bought this game aobut six months ago, and I still play it to the wee hours of the morning. I still think PTO II was the best game of the franchise by far, but I do not regret buying this game.

pushing graphics, forgeting game play.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was really blown away by the graphics in the newest version of the P.T.O. series. My first run through the game was alot of fun. Although the game is too EASY!!! I also think the depth of the previous games was not even close to being matched. To take control of a base or region in this game all you must do is destroy 1-3 air fields. NO GROUND TROOPS!!!!! So rent it for a weekend or better yet go hook up your SNES and play P.T.O. II.

Not too bad

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Being a history junkie and someone who loved PTO2, I was really looking forward to this game when I heard about it. Starting off, I love the fact you can change a nation's side from Axis to Allies. I do wish there were a couple more nations to choose from, such as the Soviet Union, Australia, Netherlands or Italy (which granted their units are added as part of Germany's). I also long for some ground forces. Yes the Pacific theater was naval oriented, but without Marine units or Army units, base takeover would have been impossible in the war (in PTO2 there were ground forces but you could not control them). I'd like to see ground forces with at least some control over them.

Also, I would like to be able to give commands to each individual ship, such as in PTO2. During the war, a fleet would have a general objective but each ship could have their own targets.

As for graphics, the battle scenes are all right. Nothing to write home about. The actual images of the ships and aircraft are superb. The historical information on each ship class and aircraft and commander is a wonderful addition.

Overall, this game would get a grade of B- or C+.

Average

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As a big fan of Koei games, and a stratigic game player, I thought PTO 4 would be right up my alley. I played the first one back when it was on the SNES, so I expected it to be similar. It wasn't. But sometimes, that's a good thing. However, in this case, it wasn't.

Some of its cooler features are that you can set it up so you can make any side Axis or Allies. For example, you can set it up so Britain and Germany are Axis, and the U.S. and Japan are Allies. Plus, it accurately describes many of the vehicles used in the Pacific Theater operations.

The downside to this game is that they had the potential to use better graphics, since the PS2 is well capable of doing so, but they don't look as nice as I'd expected. The battles themselves are what I don't like; real-time strategy is something Koei has been doing a lot of recently, and it's bugging me. These strategy games are much better suited to be turn-based instead of live action. Plus, the A.I. of your vessle fleets is really bad, and the combat isn't animated very well.

I'm not even sure dedicated WWII game fans would like this one. Definitely rent it before you buy.

Ethan allen 95 can't review

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: April 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm not going to make this a total rant, I just need to rant Ethan Allen a little bit then I can get on with the review. First off, the entire point of the game is naval combat, only naval combat. SO WHAT IN THE HELL WOULD POSSESS YOU TO SAY WHY AREN'T THERE GROUND FORCES. Instead of exploiting problems like the easyness and poor macro management he goes on to rant and flame his ignorance on a good game. NO KOEI SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED.

This game is really fun in the beginning, like all simulations it gets boring a while on. When you start out you should try a campaign without the advanced options, familiarze yourself with combat and officer deployment, your first campaign should hold your interest, then you can go and do a full roundabout of the game, which in it's whole is much better, but flawed. The real time battles are fun but also slow, the macromanagement is easy and complex yet lacks the right stuff, this game basically neutrals itself out on all levels. Basically simulation fans should get this game, fans of the series, and even new comers, but be forewarned, you need to mix things up a bit in order to keep it fun.

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