January 6th, 2008 by Wolfwood
Harking back to WW2
World War II is certainly one of the most visited settings in PC games, especially amongst online multiplayers. PT Boats: Knights of the Sea, however, will transport us to a completely new environment – that of the sea battles involving the small and versatile craft known as torpedo boats. Akella is well known for their many sea-based simulators and action games and thus the perfect choice when it comes to bringing these battles alive on the players' monitors. The game offers a single-player campaign or an online experience entertaining up to 16 players in LAN and Internet multiplayer.
I got to try my hands on the press demo of the PT Boats: Knights of the Sea. And even though all functions and options were not yet quite there, I must say that, for a fan of the genre, this is certainly something to look forward to. But be prepared: you will need one powerhouse of a computer to run this with the best graphics options available!
Mosquitoes of the sea
Historically, the PT boats appeared in the navies of the US, Great Britain and Germany. Mostly, their purpose was to be cheap and relatively quick to build launch craft for torpedoes. Larger craft, such as cruisers and destroyers were obviously very costly and time consuming to build, and required a large crew to pilot them. Thus, smaller craft with small crews and a couple of torpedoes seemed like an attractive idea – especially since they could be used to bring down the bigger and more expensive ships that the enemy had.
Naturally, being small and fast, the allied PT Boats were extremely vulnerable to enemy fire. They could easily withstand small arms fire and splinters, but a direct hit from a big gun could easily wipe out the entire deck crew and destroy the boat. Thus, the allied PT Boats were best suited for night-time attacks when they could sneak up to an enemy fleet and let loose some torpedoes before turning tail (the torpedo launches having revealed their presence to the enemy) and running away as fast as they could. In order to scare off the pursuing destroyers, the PT Boats used depth charges. In essence, they were not a craft best suited for face-to-face combat, although they were very effective in sinking Japanese supply barges in shallow waters where destroyers and other bigger craft could not manoeuvre.
The German variant of the boat, called Schnellboot or S-boot for short (and known as the E-boat to the allied forces), was twice the size of the allied versions and thus better suited for long range, open sea activities. Historical battles include examples where the E-boats were able to chase off bigger and stronger British ships.
Knights of the sea
Akella has followed the history of the PT boats very carefully and the scenarios in Knights of the Sea are drawn from actual contemporary accounts. The game also includes an in-game encyclopaedia that provides further details on the people, events and technical aspects of the ships and boats themselves. The aeroplanes, ships and boats, as well as their weaponry, featured in the game have been modelled according to authentic schemes and documents of the originals
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