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Not So Good!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: March 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I must say that this game disappointed me and I am a fan of the series since the first game. What's frustrating about this game?:
1. YOU CAN'T CONTROL GROUND FORCES
2. YOU CAN'T ATTACK INDIVIDUAL NAVAL BASES
3. THE METHOD OF ASSIGNING FLAG OFFICERS TO FLEETS IS [BAD]
4. YOU HAVE VERY LIMITED CONTROL
In one case I assigned FADM Ernest J. King to a ship. I mean this guy was an important person, just as ADM Nimitz yet I can assign him to a little destroyer all the same. Now isn't that just a little ridiculous? So I can pick Germany, and Great Britian now big deal. You have no control over ground forces and that was basically the bulk of German forces right there. This game suffers from the developers trying to do too many things at one time and it basically destroyed this game. Koei ought to be ashamed! THIS GAME BITES!

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.

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.

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.

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+.

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.

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.

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.

NEEDS WORK

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The graphics on this game are awesome but as far as the game play is concerned it's not very good you can't take your fleets anywhere you want and it only takes you about six hours to wipe out a country. They sould have kept the game more like PTO2 but with the better graphics they must not have tested this game because thier is too many flaws in the game i mean all you have to do is attack at night and take over the base seeing they can't attack at night. I was hopeing they was going to leave it so you could control the marines and the army but with no marines at all you don't even have shore batteries to protect your base at night i still hope they keep the series going but with better game play all of us PTO fans have got to try too keep the series going but try to help them fix the problem. I think they were just in a hurry to get the game out because it had been a long span between PTO2 i know every body has there own ideas on how to fix this game but i would like them to go back to every day moves instead of weekly moves sure they tried to shorten the time to play the game. So in closeing i hope they come out with a PTO5 but with the problems fixed so contact koei and let them know how they can fix the game to make it more fun to play.

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.

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