P.T.O. IV (PlayStation 2)

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
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Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Justin Speer
• Reviewed on: 02/19/2003
• Released on: 02/03/2003

As the fourth installment in the Pacific Theater of Operations series, P.T.O. IV is a turn-based strategy game that lets you re-create the great naval battles of World War II by putting you in command of the powerful German, Japanese, British, and United States navies. Individual historical scenarios present different victory conditions, after which you can continue the war from that point on based on the result of the battle. Alternately, a full campaign mode lets you rewrite history from the beginning. You can keep things historically accurate or realign Axis and Allied countries to your liking to create interesting and improbable "what if" situations in the absence of ideology. For example, a Japan-US alliance may take on the combined might of Germany and Britain. As you can imagine, the game is best suited for military buffs and isn't for everyone. Some issues with the AI and the tactical combat also keep it from living up to all its potential.

Unfortunately, the broad nature of your commands in battle can be quite frustrating.

A clear and functional map shows you every available detail on the war situation and allows you to issue commands. The game requires that you assemble and move fleets to engage the enemy and capture territory with the eventual goal of occupying all key bases on the map. One turn equals one week in game time. Each month ends with a strategy meeting where officers are decorated and proposed strategic objectives are selected by the player. Though not required per se, these goals can be completed as you see fit to obtain extra government funding.

Resource management plays a large role as well. The game is absolutely packed with details, from technical specifications and regional information to info on actual commanders, ships, technology, and more. As such, there are a lot of statistics to pay attention to if you're controlling all aspects of your country's strategy. However, if you're not keen on micromanagement, you can opt to delegate political duties (spying, research, and so on) and building and deploying units to the computer. Though doing so can be helpful, it's something of an all-or-nothing choice, because you can only grant the AI control over broad areas on a turn-to-turn basis.

Delegating everything possible to the computer will definitely skew the difficulty toward the easy side, but since planning is such a large part of your overall strategy, serious players will want to handle most decisions themselves. Doing so allows you to improve your technology as you see fit, using newly developed weapons and armor to create original ship and aircraft designs that can provide great advantages in battle. For reasons like these, controlling every aspect of your country's strategy and production can be quite rewarding, despite being very time-consuming. This is partly due to a somewhat cumbersome interface, but turn-based strategy isn't known for its brisk pace.

See more CNET content tagged:

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• 3.0 stars

  "Graphic-Intensive Naval Strategy Game"

  on January 30, 2005

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