One thing I think all of us gamers can agree on … we have had no shortage of WWII games to play this 2002 year and start of 2003. Everything from GI Combat, Battlefield 1942 and Deadly Dozen on PC to Medal of Honor and Commandos 2 on PS2 and Xbox have kept our strategic minds churning and our trigger fingers aching as we have blasted hundreds of Axis or Allied soldiers away. Well, KOEI now graces the PS2 once again, but this time with a little change from its usual feudal Japan or China theme … this time we take to the sea in a battle for naval conquest and supremacy during WWII.

PTO IV places you in command of an entire naval fleet from the U.S., Britain, Germany or Japan and allows you to play out every aspect of leading a country to victory by testing every element of strategy that you can imagine. You begin by selecting one of two different gameplay modes. The first is campaign mode, which has you battling on a map with 50 different regions controlled by you, allies, and your opponents that you must capture and defend. You will also get orders from high ranking officials who will increase your funding and will help you build more ships or planes. The second is scenario mode, which allows you to play out historical naval battles like the battle of Midway in 1942 or Okinawa in 1945. In addition, you can also transfer the results of the scenario to the campaign mode afterwards to keep going.

The basic idea of the PTO IV campaign is simple. Capture all 14 Key Bases on a strategic map in order to claim victory for you and your allies. It sounds easy, but what goes into achieving this goal will test your strategic and management skills to the max. The initial phase of battle is the Strategic phase, which shows the map and all airfields and control points that need to be captured or could present a threat to you or your allies. During this phase, you have to build new fleets and planes, research new technology, deploy fleets or ships, send spies to gather enemy info, research new ship or plane models, send aid to an ally, and a number of other things. Everything has a certain importance in how the end of the game may come out, and while some things may sound somewhat minor … everything has it’s own importance and can lead to defeat if not utilized properly.

The next phase is the Tactical phase, which comes up after a fleet has been deployed into a hostile area or an opponent has invaded one of your controlled areas. Entering this phase will give you an objective, such as “destroy all enemy airfields”, and gives you control of up to three fleets to attack an enemy or defend your territory. During this phase, you will have to patrol areas, launch frontal assaults on enemy fleets, and do some recon and scouting in the area. This phase will also test out your strategic thinking as well, since many factors can lead to victory or defeat. For example, if you go in with heavily armored ships, they pack a punch and can take some big time damage, making you think that you are unstoppable. However, they lack speed to get away if things get ugly, and may be defenseless to aerial assaults that can take an unstoppable fleet down to floating scrap after multiple torpedo and bomb hits from circling enemy planes.

One really impressive feature in PTO IV (aside from the immense depth of the game) is the AI, both yours and your opponents. Aggressors are really aggressive and will present a challenge regardless of where you are in playing both in the tactical and strategic phases. Also, you can tell your ships in tactical mode to act as they see fit to do, and usually they would react as needed for the situation. If a bigger and more powerful fleet attacked them, they would many times try to get to a far distance and fire at the enemy to decrease chances of getting pummeled. If an enemy had been all but wiped out, they would many times go into a full frontal assault. In addition, admirals assigned to ships will often give severely damaged vessels the order to retreat which gives you the opportunity to repair it later on rather than lose it altogether. It’s not perfect, which is where you come in … but it is helpful when dealing with another fleet that may be in need of more attention and knowing that the computer wouldn’t just sail you into getting smashed.

Another feature here in PTO IV that is impressive is the fact that you will not beat this game over a weekend, unless you glue yourself to the TV for multiple hours on end. There is a ton of things to be careful of and plan well, and even having “the perfect fleet” … or so you think … may wind up sending you back to home base to re-plan your strategy due to something you didn’t expect. In addition, there is a ton of replay value here since you have over 300 different ships and endless ways to combine and put fleets together. Even little things like day or night raids or weather effects can play a part in what happens, so if you lost a particular battle the first time through, play it again using another fleet combination and maybe try coming in under darkness vs. daylight. It’s all up to you.

There are only a couple of things that I can see which would keep someone from wanting to play or enjoying PTO IV. The biggest one is a Koei trademark … detail overkill. Having a game that has that much to manage and do is good for the heavy thinker and big time strategy fanatic, but trigger-happy action fans (WWII buffs or not) will probably find this game to be way too slow or possibly too confusing to mess with. The strategic phase has so many options and nothing going on except a still shot of the map, this may be seen as dull or just “what in the heck do I do now”. The tactical phase has you issuing orders, then sitting for a while and flipping the camera from fleet to fleet, then issuing orders, then watching and flipping from fleet to fleet to see what’s going on, then issuing orders, and so on. There is also a definite learning curve to playing, and the first couple of tries that I made had two of my fleets in a traffic jam trying to go in circles and getting picked off like fish in a barrel. I also tried to do too much too soon a few times (even though I had three full fleets and tons of air support) and just sadly watched as I was sent to a watery grave.

The other downside to PTO IV is in the graphics … or environments really. Now don’t get me wrong. The graphics to PTO IV look really spectacular and during combat it felt like I was watching a movie from an aerial viewpoint. The ocean had little rippling waves in it and good lighting effects, and ships moving along left churning white water trails behind them. The weather effects and day/night transitions also look great, so those things are not the issue. The issue is just in repetition … pure and simple. Granted (and in all fairness to Koei), this game is a naval battle game and should take place in the water. However, every tactical phase seemed to be endless ocean with periodic land involved over and over again. It would have been nice to have some things like starting out a mile from a beachhead (Normandy), dispatching troop transports, then shelling the heck out of key points on land every now and then just to break up monotony. This may or may not be an issue for you, but that’s just one reviewer’s opinion.

In the sound department, it’s not bad at all. The music has a WWII style cadence theme to it, and while it’s not as dramatic as Medal of Honor or a movie like Saving Private Ryan, it gets the job done and doesn’t seen out of place. The droning of overhead planes and crushing and popping explosions of torpedoes and turret fire is present, and gets pretty heavy during an intense firefight and is enough to rattle the windows if you are using a 5.1 sound system and have it turned up to the levels that I use to annoy my wife.

Well Admiral “PS2 Gamer” … your orders for this mission are simple. If you are a fan of major strategy games, past Koei strategy titles or past PTO titles that have hit the shelves, go out and get this one … it will provide hours of naval warfare fun from the comfort of your couch or chair and provides satisfying results in knowing how well you manage your gaming abilities when it all comes to an end. If you are more of a “run and gun” or button mashing action title fanatic …regardless of how big a WWII gaming fan you are … you will definitely want to rent this one before buying it or you may be sorely disappointed for possibly wasting $50, regardless of the cool cover art.

Gameplay: 8.0

While there’s a definite learning curve to playing it and some losses you will take due to trial and error, everything consists of one button presses and after a few hours of play time … you will have a good idea of what needs to happen and when to have an opportunity to emerge victorious or zip around the tactical screen. Koei went out of their way on the detail element of the game, and you strategy fanatics will have a ball with this one. The AI is good, and while not flawless, provides a decent backup when things get a little heavy and will present a good challenge for even you veteran strategy players out there. Add in a ton of initial gameplay and replay value, and it proves a good buy.

Graphics: 7.9
The graphics look really good overall, and details like ships catching fire and big splashes or explosions from enemy fire add to the cinematic quality of the game. Night missions will even conceal enemy craft even after they have been pinged on radar to add to the challenge, and the weather effects like rain or fog looked really good and provided a realistic atmosphere. I felt that regardless of the fact that it is a naval strategy game; some other environmental things could have been done to break a possibly monotonous presentation. 

Sound: 7.6
The sound for PTO IV consists of some decent WWII style music, but a little more dramatic style or even dramatic changes during certain points in the game would have added to the overall environment. The explosions and combat sounds of planes and water effects also sounded good and will probably give a satisfying smile to you surround sound users out there.

Difficulty: Hard
I’m going to have to say hard on this one, because once you’ve mastered the controls and all of the strategic elements of the game, you never really master the game itself. Almost every time you think you have the perfect strategy … your enemy throws a wrench in the whole thing causing you to go back and re - plan.  

Concept: 8.1
Not only is this different from your typical FPS or RTS style gameplay of other WWII titles out there, but Koei did a good job in combining strategy and detail with cinematic quality graphics to bring a good looking and challenging game to the strategy loving PS2 owners out there. 

Overall: 7.6
Overall, strategy gurus and any gamer looking for a challenging title in that style of gameplay probably won’t be disappointed with PTO IV. Also, you Koei fans and past PTO gamers who loved the other games in the series will be pleased with this most recent offering and shouldn’t hesitate to pick it up, and it will provide endless hours of war time fun. For those of you who are more into constant action or itchy trigger finger style gameplay looking for a new WWII game … this is most likely not it and if you are considering playing it … definitely rent it first.