Chromehounds

Chromehounds, a game I've had my beady eye on for a while. A game that seemed to get a large amount of stick at least around the gaming websites, before I'd managed to secure a copy. So the vibe was negative, Mech fans were slating it, review websites we're marking it low, everyone who was anyone had an opinion on the game, and I'd only secured a copy on the morning of its release 7th July 2006. I booted it up with some trepidation. And played through the first few missions. Perhaps I'm not critical enough, but with a bucketload of prepping to be totally disappointed with the game, I wasn't. It looked good. The Mech style was gritty, realistic, the way I like it, remiscient of Mech's in Ring of Red on the PS2. Only more real. Shiny chrome pistons. No glam and glitz of the MechAssault series. I should stop calling these things Mech's, in this game they are Hounds. These hounds had weight behind them. Slow, measured weight. Deliberately lumbering and large. A big criticism of the game from the early previews/demo play, was that they moved too slow. And that the slow pace was rampant amongst the whole spectrum of Hounds available. Even the scouts with their unusual inclusion of tracked and wheeled mobility were considered morbidly slow. There is some degree of truth to this. But, I feel the game is being judged harshly if its not looked at as a whole. The single player missions are well crafted, enough to give you a taste of what it is like to employ tactics and strategy as part of a scripted team. You follow scenarios and play your part, almost being tutored in what will work and what won't. But its in the online game, where a slow determined pace is valuable for a squad of players to inform and control each other. To win battles in Chromehounds online, theres no room for lone MechWolves. Your hound is part of a pack. And the pack requires time to direct. The slowing down of the hounds gives a sense of weightiness. A sense of scale. You will brush large trees aside. And stomp upon soldiers tickling you with their gunfire. Tanks are mere toys to be crushed. A lot of the combat and searching for the enemy online is fairly slow paced. But it can be riddled with tension. Blind other than the voiced commands from your leader, you endlessly search the horizon for an intruder. If you work as a team, with supporting abilities, you can devastate an un-coordinated opposition. Parts funded from combat, or captured and won in a lottery can be much more effective than the initial parts you gain via the single player missions. And to see scouts out in the field, you'll swear they're fast, and you try and land rocket, shell and grenade on them.

Ultimately, its a game for people who enjoy large Mech combat. The extra cohesion necessary to capture the appropriate communication towers so that you can freely talk with your commander, and spot enemy and give tactical directions, only enhances the large scale explosive combat. The single player campaign, gives you the basics. And contrary to what the majority of reviewers on the web say, I thought it was an enjoyable lead in to the online game. Somewhere you can hone your Hound and try out some things you wouldn't want to take online. Once you've found yourself a decent squad and you've started taking part in the persistant world war, making a difference, capturing enemy parts and capital cities, it all becomes very addictive. Tweaking hounds with different combinations to fit in with your squad members. Then testing your mettle in the heat of the piston pumped battle. Not everyone will take to it. Especially if they only scratch the surface that is the single player campaign. This is War! It's begun!