Review by Stuart Christie Name: Pacific Theatre Of Operations 2 - P.T.O. 2 Publisher: Koei Format: CD-Rom Available: Now Requires: O/S: Win 3.1 + Processor: 486-SX/33+ RAM: 6mb+ Graphics: SVGA CD-Rom: X2 Soundcard: All major cards supported Tested on: O/S: Windows 95 Processor: Intel P133 RAM: 32Mb Graphics: Diamond Stealth 3d 2000 2mb CD-ROM: Aztec 6 speed Soundcard: Soundblaster Pro Controls: Keyboard/mouse
P.T.O. 2
P.T.O. is a full scale wargame of the war in the Pacific 1941 - 1945. You have the option to select a particular battle, but basically it is all here blow by blow. The Pacific war seems mainly overlooked this side of the pond and it is a topic I am interested in, so I approached this game with some enthusiasm.
Rather than just move units on the board, the game allows you scope to develop your forces as you see fit, deciding which new units to build and what to research - a very important area in war ! One good example of this is radar - Japan never bothered with this much until towards the end of the war, in spite of their exchange of technology with Germany. It is a point of debate that if the Japanese ships (and even more importantly submarines) had had even a crude form of this technology, then the battle of Midway might have had a different result, and the whole course of the war changed! You have the power to make this decision!
Developing your units and technology is as vital in the game as its was in reality. This aspect forms a large part of the game as a whole, and obviously can have a strong effect on the individual encounters. I have to ask though, is resource management area of interest to most wargamers, or are they more interested in trying out their battle strategies ?
So the scope of this game is large! You can control individual units, their composition, and equipment. For this reason the game appears quite complex, and takes a lot of getting into! To help combat this, the game has a vast list of custom options, so that you can select the level you want to play at. It is even posssible to turn off control of land forces and concentrate on the naval side, which in the Pacific was the most important area.
I am not very fond of games running in windows, especially when they start in windows rather than full screen. I like to immerse myself in a game, and seeing my standard windows backdrop puts me off. P.T.O.'s whole intro does this and I think loses impact for it. The intro is a cross between digitised vintage footage and some 3D Studio clips. A competent intro though not atmospheric.
Like most wargames graphics seem to have taken second place, not that they are bad, just very ordinary! The game is played over a large scale map of the Pacific, with windows displaying options, information, and orders opening up from this. As with most wargames, when a battle is fought out you are treated to a little graphics display, again nothing special to look at but its there.
Sound in the game is a different story! The programmers seem to have realised that when you play other games of this ilk you almost always get sick of the tunes and turn them off so there is a variety of background music in the game, all of a decent quality. The only other game that comes close for variety is Command & Conquer and I think this one just pips it! You can even play the CD on you ordinary CD player - Not that I am that sad yet! Anyway worth a pat on the back - pity the games sound effects are so mediocre really.
This game is a true wargame and is turn-based - Japanese movement, American movement, Japanese planning, American planning; not completely straightforward but basically standard wargame type stuff. I like planning phases because they prevent you fighting a reactive and therefore mainly defensive war and get you thinking further ahead.
There is no limit to the length of time you can take on each turn, or the number of actions you can carry out. Each turn is meant to last a day and therefore any action possible in that time is allowed.
The instruction manual is quite basic and therefore it is difficult to decide what to do with your forces during your movement/planning phases. It seems to take a few games and playing around before you know what is what and how to proceed. This is a bit of a shame, a tutorial level would have solved this kind of problem, and helped introduce people to the game. Instead, I feel a lot of people will lose interest, rather than persevere with it!
I have to admit, that though I like the idea of this game, and cannot really see much wrong with its implementation, I have found it a serious struggle - its is just so remote! Yes you have lots of control over the units, you feel ownership for them but the scale of the game in relation to them is just too much for me. So many things have to be got right in order to win whereas something quite simple can cost you the war, never mind the battle ! How many times will you re-start a game like this before you give up when each attempt costs you several hours and you have to replay the same stuff just making one or two different decisions?
If you love your full-scale pure wargame type affairs then I think you should like this game. If, however, you are more of a light-weight wargamer (like me) and Steel Panthers, or Warhammer S.O.T.H.R. is more your thing then you will find this very hard going!
I don't think this is a bad game, there is nothing about it that I particulary dislike. I just cannot seem to get into it, no matter how much I want to and try, and I don't think that I would be in the minority!
Verdict: Interesting but inaccessable.
================================= Rating: 7/10 Good (but not great) =================================
