Perfect for fans of mech sims and those who have an interest in the genre. If you have Xbox Live that is...
As a whole, Chromehounds is pretty much a mixed bag in the graphics department. The Hounds themselves very detailed and look amazing in motion. The explosions and weapon effects? A work of pyrotechnic art. The lighting effects are also very impressive, particularly during the night time missions. The light from the flares you’ll often have to fire to aid your teammates looks incredibly realistic bouncing off your Hound’s metallic frame. But on the flipside, everything else is rather bland in comparison. The environments are often very sparsely detailed and incredibly dull. The populated areas are a bit more detailed but still lack that extra layer of polish that would’ve made them shine. Another positive worth mentioning is the mostly impressive framerate. While it stutters from time to time when looking at an explosion or when walking or rolling through a river or desert from the weapon camera perspective, it is incredibly smooth and doesn’t bog down enough to ruin the fun. Simply put, if the environments were as detailed and alive as the Hounds are, this could’ve easily been the best looking game on the Xbox 360 thus far. As it stands, it’s only slightly above average.
The combat is another mixed bag. At times, it feels great, strategically paced, well executed and just plain fun and other times; it feels rather dull and uninspired. Thankfully, the dull portions were offset by the overall very strategic and entertaining combat which became commonplace online. The sometimes dull single player moments are mainly due to your sometimes overwhelmingly powerful hound. The only real challenge comes from the terribly infrequent encounters with Hounds similar to your own. Throughout the single player campaign, the enemies you encounter are woefully underpowered compared to your often very powerful Hound.
The story mode is a bit on the slim side in terms of depth. Taking place in the present day, the republics of Tarakia, Sal Kar and Morskoj (loosely based on the US, Middle Eastern nations and Russia, respectively) are locked in a global conflict, but instead of the war machines of today, they have constructed 40 foot tall walking tanks called Hounds with which to kill each other. These Hounds fall under one of six categories called Role Types. The RT’s, Soldier, Sniper, Scout, Defender, Heavy Gunner and Tactics Commander, all boast their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. The storyline for each of the RT’s is pretty decent but it’s not implemented as well as it could’ve been. It consists of a half dozen missions (seven when counting the mandatory training sessions) for each of the six RT’s. These missions feel like little more than basic training for the real war online. They do a good job of getting you acquainted with the nuances of each RT and their individual strengths and weaknesses, but outside of that, they feel pretty shallow. The Soldier and Sniper RT’s are the two easiest to master, moving up to the Scout and Defender at medium difficulty and finally Heavy Gunner and Commander, the two most difficult. I found them all to be fairly easy. Newbies can easily blaze through the Soldier and Sniper RT’s anywhere between twenty minutes to forty five minutes depending on the player’s skill level.
The garage is where you’ll likely be spending a lot of your time. This is where you custom build your Hound, from a wide variety of parts you unlock as you progress through the story mode and Neroimus War. The customization here is very deep. Not as deep as some mech sims (Armored Core) but deep enough to satisfy the gearheads in all of us. Once you’ve unlocked enough parts, you can build a truly unique and powerful Hound for each of the six RT’s. There is a wide selection of weapons to add to your hound, such as missile launchers, machineguns, shotguns and howitzers. Starting with the mandatory mobility base, chassis and generator, players then build from there, adding weapons on top of weapons, and support parts such as an extra fuel tank, armor plating or a radiator. The weapons are a mixed bag in terms of effectiveness, and all have their strengths and weaknesses. While Howitzers are extremely powerful, they are somewhat difficult to wield properly. Sniper cannons have devastating attack power and the ability to effectively hit targets from long distances but have long reloading times. Support parts are pretty much underutilized in the campaign mode, but are almost necessary for survival online, you’ll want to spend some time testing out individual parts before you head online, to see how they function.
Regardless of what Hound you end up creating from the wealth of customization options, the practice field is where you’ll likely be spending a lot of your time, testing your Hound, seeing how it handles and testing weapon groupings and support parts.
The Multiplayer mode is where the real meat of the game is and where you’ll get your money’s worth. It consists of a persistent online campaign, in which the three nations mentioned above from the Single player mode wage war for control over the Neroimus region. In the beginning of your first multiplayer campaign, you are asked to align yourself with one of the three warring nations and take part in that nations campaign for control. You do this by selecting missions on contested battlefields, and you along with up to five other members of your squad battle players from other squads, attempting to gain control of the region for their country. Winning gets you more money to spend on your hound and gives your nation more control over the region. Communication between you and the other members of your squad is crucial to victory in these conflicts. If you do not work well together as a team, you will not fare well in this mode. The level of depth and complexity of this mode is surprising and gives dedicated players further incentive to play.
Along with the in depth Neroimus war campaign, there is also the free battle mode, to allow players to wage war against each other without having to worry about the fees and penalties of losing a battle to another nation. There is a good variety of multiplayer modes, ranging from the traditional Deathmatch to the COMBAS keeper mode, which has you capturing COMBAS towers and then defending them from enemy assaults. Assault the HQ is a pretty exciting mode in which the two teams wage war to destroy the enemy headquarters and prevent them from doing the same. My only complaints stem from issues with the interface, which make it rather difficult to jump into a quick battle when you want to. Each Neroimus war lasts for a set period of time (a few weeks) or until a victor is declared between the three nations. Once the war is over, the server goes down for maintenance and to restart the war. This can be a hassle, as players are completely unable to participate in any online conflicts, even outside of the Neroimus war for the duration of the maintenance. Another problem is that you are forced to sit through the Neroimus war filter (updates on campaign status) and there’s no way to get around it, even if you do not want to participate in the war itself.
In the end, Chromehounds is a fun, original title for the Xbox 360. While the single player game is lackluster in comparison, the multiplayer modes make up for it in spades. On the other hand, this makes it hard to recommend to a player who doesn’t have Xbox Live. This makes the experience a love it or hate it affair. Those who love it will probably really love it. Those who don’t will likely be turned off by one of the numerous problems and complications with the interface, and the sometimes dull combat. Fans of mech sims should definitely give this game a try, as they will likely be hooked.