PT Boats: Knights of the Sea war game

PT Boats: Knights of the Sea (2009)

Categories: naval simulators

PT boats (Patrol Torpedo boats) were designed in 19th century, but until World War 2 they were rarely used on large scale. During the Second World War they gained recognition for their versatile character and variety of missions they could used for. PT Boats: Knights of the Sea put those overlooked heroes of World War 2 in the spotlight offering chance to see how tough and dangerous their service actually was.

While we are in charge of the PT boat, or even the whole flotilla of boats, the game is not exactly a simulator, it is rather something between simulator and shooter (similar to World of Warships or Steel Ocean). In campaign mode we take part in series of missions on different fronts of World War 2 and from both sides of the conflict - Soviet tiny boats in cold waters of Baltic Sea, German boats on English Channel or British ones dealing with Kriegsmarine. We have quite few weapons and options available: machine guns, torpedoes, rockets, anti-aircraft guns, smoke screens, even depth charges. We can switch between the stations to get a feeling of the boat, we can also give the orders to other boats through the map screen.

The missions we are taking part in are quite interesting - from typical patrol and escort missions to rescuing allied forces, bombarding the enemy airfield, sneaking past enemy patrols, attacking convoys and just straight forward clashed with enemy boats. However the areas on which the missions take place are very small (like few square miles) and very simple, so usually the whole battle takes no more than few minutes and often it is much simpler to just operate the flotilla through map rather than deal with the stations aboard the boat. Another problem is that we do not have choice in missions - we have to finish each of them in order to get access to next one, which sometimes is frustrating.

While the game had original concept (PT boats and completely different missions than in other naval simulators) and deals with less known heroes of World War 2, overall PT Boats: Knights of the Sea is just average game. Oversimplified simulation, very small areas, very little choices - all of it makes the game feel like a simple casual game rather than actual simulator.