P.T.O. IV

by Koei

Product Features

• Over 50 Theaters of Operation!
• 15 Regional and 2 Global Campaigns Based on World War 2!
• Change the Course of History!
• Swarming Fighter Squadrons! Blazing Cannons!
• Naval Supremacy and Global Conquest!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007KUU7
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 4, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,342 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #39 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Strategy

Product Description

Infested Fighter Squadrons Blazing Cannons watch the war developed in real time 3D. Control camera movement and get close to the action; More than 50 Theaters of Operations From Midway to the Mediterranean, every campaigns is one step closer to victory. Position your fleets and storm enemy garrisons; Create supply lines with 15 Regional and 2 Global Campaigns Based on World War II Strike Leyte Gulf.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Give it a chance!, November 27, 2003

By 

"synnical" (Roanoke, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: P.T.O. IV (Video Game)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you LOVE WWII naval combat..., August 5, 2005

By 

Kalaloch214 "Eater of Migs" (Forks, WA USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: P.T.O. IV (Video Game)

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.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Game would be totally awesome, if it wasnt broken., February 16, 2003

By 

Miltiades Douzopoulos "happy with 360" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: P.T.O. IV (Video Game)

The game has awesome visuals, but the gameplay is broken. Submarines are ridiculously overpowerd - you can destroy the entire enemy navy with 1 submarine fleet I kid you not. It's horrible. Subs are always vulnerable after they fire because in ww2 a) they had to surface to fire accurately b) they could only remain submerged limited time and while they were submerged they were very slow thus easy picking for a destroyer with sonar. However this is totally discared in pto 4 and subs are just invincible killers until they expend all their torpedoes, and they have so many torps they can knock out 2 fleets filled with battleships or even 3 fleets filled with light cruisers and destroyers while taking no to very few losses. The anti-sub mines are relatively ineffective as usually all the destroyers are destroyed before they can even use them. Subs should be vulnerable to cannon fire after they launch torps until they re-submerge. Also there should be sub finding and hunting aircraft.

Anyway, the game is totally broken game-balance/tactical wise. You have to refrain from using subs in fleets if u want any challenge at all. Also, the resources aspect of the game is broken. Fleets use no fuel while they remain in the regions, only when you move them. Most of the time however they remain in the regions because there are so few regions all you do is setup bottlenecks and keep yer ships there... no strategy at all. With fleets sitting there all your fuel does is accumulate and accumulate. Eventually it becomes irrelevant. All resources just become irrelevant and only really the cash resource matters.

In terms of base defense, all you have are airfields. Also, quite ridiculously, airplanes can never attack at night no matter what. So there is no point in attacking during the day all you do is attack at night and you can wipe out regions easily. The regions themselves are so small yer ships can just sail all around them in several in-game hours and easily destroy all the airfields. The scale of distance is horrible. Aircraft carriers are pretty pointless also. You dont need a single aircraft carrier to win the game. All you do is destroy all the fleets with a sub fleet then move in yer battleships at night and wipe out the airfields.

Either the people who made the game didnt understand ww2 history/naval warfare at all, didnt test the game at all, didnt have enough time, or just didnt give a damn.. or all of the above. I say this because the tactics is horrible and horribly unbalanced. They should have left shore batteries and marines in the game and aircraft should be able to reliably attack at night with air-surface radar. WW2 planes could attack at night.. their attacks just werent accurate. Also, for some reason no matter what region your in, it constantly rains. It rains prolly 15 hours out of 24 on average. It seems broken it is always raining lol.

Anyway, the graphics of the game are excellent lol. I so much want to love the game, but the strategy and tactics is just completely broken. KOEI needs a new strategy map scheme rework and they need to balance subs, and also allow more control of your fleets in the tactical battles nad more tactics in the tactical battles. Aircraft should be able to attack at night with greatly reduced accuracy until they get radar. There should be coastal shore batteries and marines to defend the islands. Subs need balancing I say again they just ruin the game lol.

As for the AI of the game - it is horrible. The AI never seems to add any aircraft to any of its airfields. Also, no AI country aside from Germany ever uses subs in fleets. Also the AI seems stupid for some reason and their ships weaker for some unknown reason. I always detroyed the AI fleets with ease even when they had superior battleships and fleets I dont know why.

Anyway, to wrap up - the game is still fun to play if u restrict yourself artificially. The graphics are breathtakingly awesome sometimes especially if u every happen to fight a large carrier vs carrier + other fleet battles. BUT the strategy and tactics is completely broken - i mean its not bad its just BROKEN. If it was a PC game it would need an immediate patch. Anyway I guess its dumbed down enough for 6 yr olds to enjoy... but I woulda so loved some more in-depth and thinking gameplay with REAL ww2 tactical considerations combined with the awesome graphics woulda been truly awesome game -im very disappointed =/

I hope KOEI can build on this game base and rework it into something GREAT. It is VERY VERY close, but it needs reworking, rebalancing, and some re-building to be a game on the calibre of FFX for strategy gamers.