Chromehounds

Quite a cool name for a mech game - and perhaps what's best about it too.

	Version Xbox 360	Developer From Software	Publisher SEGA	Genre Action

By Stuart McAndrew

Produced by From Software, Chromehounds sees you take on the role of a mercenary Hound (mech) pilot. You will take on jobs for different nations, ranging from chasing down and destroying enemy mechs, to protecting your base and destroying more enemy mechs. This wide variety of gameplay comes in six different flavours, depending on the type of the mech you choose to pilot.

Soldiers are frontline mechs designed to charge in and do the damage to enemy mechs; Snipers stay out of the main battle and provide cover fire for the rest of the squad; Defenders are heavily armoured mechs with powerful short range weapons, and provide cover for vulnerable units like the Commander. Scouts are fast, light mechs that patrol ahead of the squad, recovering COMBAS points and creating distractions to enemy troops; Heavy Gunners are large, heavily armoured mechs with long range, but inaccurate artillery style weaponry; and Commanders have excellent NAV systems and use radar to direct the squad to their enemies.

The story mode in Chromehounds sees you take on one of these role types and play through missions devised for that type. Chromehounds' story is set in a post-cold war, present day Earth. In this vision of Earth, Solar Flares have erupted causing disaster worldwide and leading to riots and near collapse of many societies. The missions in Chromehounds involve you fighting as a Merc for one of three countries, protecting that country from invaders and terrorists.

The storyline is focused somewhat on existing political tensions in today's world, with the former Soviet Republic, USA and Middle East countries all being represented by groups of Chromehounds fighting each other. The backdrop for the game is nicely detailed and it's worth looking at the timeline of the various wars for independence and the invention of the Hounds. The storyline progresses as you run through the missions for each role type, however it rarely adds anything to the actual gameplay other than "Go and destroy these mechs".

Getting to the gameplay, Chromehounds really shows what driving a 200 foot tall heavily armoured robot could be like. Slow. Very very slow. Even the faster units such as the scout trundle along at what feels like a (absolutely gigantic) snail's pace.

When playing with slower units such as the Defender, you feel you could point the mech in the direction you have been commanded to go to, put it on autopilot and make a cup of tea before you got into a fight. If this pace was chosen to highlight the tactical element of the game, they should probably have provided missions where you needed tactics other than to close down and destroy enemy Hounds.

The slow pace and lack of variety in Chromehounds is a real shame, as much of the game looks very promising. Graphically, although not stunning, the game engine does a very good job. Explosions look great, and smoke pouring off the weapons when fired is fantastic. Much of the landscape can look very similar due to the fact you are fighting across open terrain. It would have been nice to see enemy mechs leave their debris behind when destroyed.

The weapons feel good when you shoot them and the controls are reasonably easy to get to grips with. You will find yourself checking the map frequently to make sure you are heading in the right direction; this is done with the click of a button and can be left on screen while you clank along whatever mountain, deset, or snow-covered field you're traversing.

The sounds that accompany walking, turning and shooting are all well and good. The soundtrack itself is background muzak, and adds nothing at all to the game. A lot of the big fights you have with squads of opponents would have been better if a more frantic pace of music could have been adopted.

Level design is another major flaw. The pre-rendered footage at the start of the game shows Hounds fighting through city streets and collapsing buildings for surprise assaults on mechs on the other side. In the story mode this simply never happens. Your mech is left to wander through open expanses and mountainous regions, coming across the odd city or town very infrequently.

There is never a city fight with buildings high enough to cover the fact a 200 foot tall heavily armoured robot is marching through. Your Commander will point you in the right direction via the radio, however if you miss this and the map doesn't have a marker, there is nowhere to see what your objective is. This can lead to 10-15 minutes of searching the level for one elusive mech you missed earlier.

Presentation is another issue, with Chromehounds' front end looking like it was snatched straight from a Super NES game circa 1992. The lack of options at some stages is appalling, especially considering how many options there are when creating a mech. When you pause in-game, you can select from options including "Unpause" and well, just unpause. Should you need to quit for any reason the only eligible way to do so is run in front of the biggest gun you can find and taunt the owner until they kill you. If you are in a heavily armoured mech this process can take some time as well.

For all the obvious flaws Chromehounds has, it does have some very nice features as well. You will want to complete the story mode to unlock parts for your own Hound. Putting a totally customisable Hound together is good fun, easy to do and simple changes have big effects on its performance. It is also very satisfying to go out on the battlefield and destroy someone else's Hound with the giant robot tool you created.

Online, you can choose to ally yourself with a country. There is also plenty of bonus online missions to build up cash to spend on parts. Clans are easily created and your achievements are broadcast to other players fighting on your side. Unfortunately any free/deathmatch battles we tried to join on Xbox live suffered from terrible lag and an inability to get everyone ready to start the game quickly. While these issues can be resolved through updates and better servers (I understand they are hosted in Japan at the moment?) it really should be better.

I met my first Japanese people on Xbox live playing Chromehounds. If this is what Japan is playing, I'm not surprised the Xbox 360 is not selling there.