Chromehounds Single-Player Preview: Great Big Robots

As numerous console launches have proven over the last decade, no new system is complete without a solid simulation-style mech-combat game, and luckily From Software has appeared to fill the big-robot void on the Xbox 360 with the upcoming Chromehounds. We've been hearing about this game since E3 2005--a good six months before the 360 even made it to shelves--but finally we've gotten our hands on a nearly completed English build of the game to investigate its large-scale mech combat, not to mention its complex-looking mech-assembly mode and its intriguing near-future storyline. From what we've played so far, we're thinking Chromehounds ought to provide a satisfying experience for anyone who's been a fan of this genre on past platforms.

Chromehounds assumes that the Cold War-fueled nuclear arms buildup of the 1980s ended not with a peaceable disarmament but instead the, uh, somewhat less desirable outcome of full-scale nuclear war. Twenty years after World War III, conflict continues to rage amidst a redefined global political landscape, and the shadowy freelance military society Rafzakael supplies both gigantic bipedal machines of war--referred to as hounds--and the mercenaries who pilot them to the highest bidder. The game takes place in the newly christened region of Neroimus, which is made up of three bitterly contested nation-states: Tarakia, Morskoj, and Sal Kar. The missions we've seen so far have pitted us against enemies both from within and without, so hopefully we can expect a good amount of variety in the mission objectives and combat situations that will arise throughout the storyline.

Contrary to the old adage, if you've seen one giant robot you have not, in fact, seen them all. The game splits the available hounds up into six quite different categories: soldier, sniper, defender, scout, heavy gunner, and tactics commander. The campaign portion of Chromehounds is thus divided up evenly between these six types, with a set of seven sequential story missions available for each one. These six minicampaigns are ordered by difficulty, and after a brief training mission explaining the basics of controlling your mech and operating with your radar and communications network on the battlefield, you're free to play any of the campaigns in any order you want. Each of these campaigns is accompanied by its own discrete storyline, which is populated with unique characters (most of whom speak with slightly dubious Russian accents) who will advise you throughout each mission.

The six different mech types certainly differ in more ways than just name and looks--from what we've played so far, each one offers distinctly unique gameplay, as well. The soldier is an all-purpose combat vehicle, for instance, while the sniper naturally specializes in long-range strikes. The defender is a heavily armored hound often equipped with tank treads instead of legs, which is tasked with getting right up in the enemy grill and laying down major trouble. The scout is the quickest and most lightly armed of the hound types and is often used to capture enemy communication towers. The heavy gunner is an artillery hound useful in destroying enemy installations, and finally the tactics commander hangs back and assigns squad orders to carry out an overall mission to completion.

Despite their unique attributes, all of the hounds share common control elements, so once you've gotten a feel for Chromehounds' basic gameplay mechanics, you can hop pretty seamlessly from one to the next. From's designers have oddly opted not to provide an artificial aiming reticule on the screen--instead, you'll have a tiny picture-in-picture window in the upper right corner that shows a slightly zoomed-in view of what you're aiming at, complete with crosshair. On an HDTV, we found this aiming window clear enough to use for quick targeting, but when playing Chromehounds in standard definition, it was easier to use the zoom view, which essentially swaps your third-person perspective into the small window and brings the zoomed aiming view into the full-screen portion. Switching from machine guns to rockets and so forth is as easy as tapping the right bumper, and generally we found the combat accessible and easy to pick up after spending an hour or two with the game.

You'll also have access to a tactical map of the current mission, which is overlaid on your standard combat view, so you can still run around while studying your objectives. This map is divided up into a grid that your allies will refer to over radio chatter, for instance directing you to quickly head to point G6 to take out an enemy depot. You'll only hear this chatter--or even see targets on your map, for that matter--if you're within allied communication range, and you'll be able to expand radio coverage by capturing the aforementioned communication installations, called COMBAS towers. You'll want to stay within range of your allies as much as possible, since the situation--and thus your objectives--will regularly change throughout a mission and require you to solve new problems in new locations at the drop of a hat.

As you'd imagine, the six different hound types are outfitted with widely varying weapons, and you'll see everything from rapid-fire machine guns to shotgun-like burst weapons, single-fire rockets to cluster missiles with a ridiculously destructive payload, long-range artillery to timed bombs that you drop at your hound's feet. Each time you begin a mission, you're offered a "borrowed hound" already designed and preloaded for the parameters of the mission, and you can go into a garage setting to view the explicitly detailed specs of all the weapons and equipment you'll have access to throughout the mission.

Then again, if you're not happy with the default weapons loadout of your hound--or you think you could do a better job designing the hound itself--you're free to jump into Chromehounds' garage mode and build your own mech literally from the ground up. However, you won't have any parts to start with; instead, you'll earn components of all types by completing story missions, and from what we can tell, the better you perform in a given mission, the more gear you'll get out of it. The granularity of your mech design in the game is extremely specific: You're choosing not just legs and weapons but even power generators and internal system components that affect stats like stability and mobility. And even within specific categories, you've got a ton of options. In the "legs" department, after playing only a few missions, we had not just legs but also tank treads, a four-wheeled design, and even a hovercraft at our disposal. The garage mode lists seemingly endless stats for all the parts, so budding gearheads ought to be able to spend hours in here putting together the perfect war machine. And if this all sounds a little abstract to you, you can check out a gameplay movie detailing this customization mode.

We were a little disappointed to see the terrain in Chromehounds is sparsely detailed and a little bland--but maybe that's just in contrast to all the game's other visual elements, which have been quite striking so far. The hounds and other combat machinery in the game feature fine mechanical detail, and there's nothing lithe or graceful about them like you might see in some mech-based anime; this is clearly machinery designed for war. The violent explosions and glow of burning wreckage after you've decimated a wave of enemy hounds and their base of operations is also especially pleasing. The game even features some subtly impressive flourishes of presentation--such as the realistic motion blur when you go into the zoomed-aim mode or the way your viewpoint is thrown around violently when you take a direct hit--that add a lot to the overall realism of the battles. Of course, these things are better seen than described, so check out a whole bunch of new HD-quality gameplay movies (coming soon!) to get a feel for the game in action.

So far, we've appreciated the solid combat and impressive visuals we've seen in Chromehounds, and the garage mode looks like it'll add a lot of replay value for those willing to invest the time and brainpower. You'll even be able to bring your custom hounds into the game's online modes, which we haven't gotten to try out just yet--but you can come back next week to read all about the multiplayer. Stay tuned for those impressions, as well as further info on Chromehounds, as the game's early-July release date approaches.