ChromeHounds review

[Akeldama]

One week on, some server fixes made and time spent battling in the massive persistent online war - what can we make of Sega's ChromeHounds. Does it deserve the critical mauling it's received so far?

Some battles will see you take on AI units, other times you'll be pitched against human opposition from a different faction. Whatever the case may be, you'll be aiming to destroy the enemy HQ on one of 100+ detailed maps. Teamwork pays dividends and having a good mix of unit types and a player able to take the role of commander.

The rewards for success include medals, achievements and money to spend on more mech parts and even donate to your faction. The whole thing is wonderfully involving and perhaps the best use of Xbox Live I've seen for quite a while, despite some server problems in the days following the game's release.

You can read the whole of this ChromeHounds review (http://xbox.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=11882) over at Boomtown.

[Asmodan]

No... it doesn't not. After playing the game and getting the reaction of the vast majority of others playing this game is a resounding success at being what it aimed to be. The bad reviews seem to perfectly illustrate the problem where reviewers go in with preconceived notions of what they think the game is (for example Mechassault fast paced run and gun here) and then bash it when it's something different.

This game is obscenely fun mulitplayer and looks like it will, at the very least, develop a very hardcore base following. One has only to look at the EvAv Chromehounds Squad thread in the console forum here to see reactions of real people playing the game.

[Jack B]

Yeah, this guy gets it...

However if your fond of strategic action and want a break from Ghost Recon and its ilk, then I do heartily recommend ChromeHounds. I'm actually having more fun online with this game than GRAW thanks to the even greater emphasis on team play, role types and big robot things exploding.

I've sat for a couple of hours today building various versions of my heavy mech and not once was I bored. And right now I'm eager to get this review online so I can go take the beastie online and cause some expensive damage. ChromeHounds looks like a mech action game and I can see why many people have been disappointed with it for not being one, but if like me you enjoy an epic mulitplayer tactical battle game it really is a little slice of noisy heaven.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm needed at the front.

I have had more fun on this than GRAW and GRAW had set the bar for an FPS for me, so that's saying something. Some of the reasons.

1. The MMO War. You do feel you're needed at the front. Watching the map change in real-time from from the results of our battles to take back our home city was a different experience than GRAW lobbies. You do find yourself checking the map each time your return to the lobby. MMO's are very different.
2. The lobby. You always pop back into your squad lobby. You know everyone, so it's always your team in the lobby. It's also a persistent lobby. When you fire up XBL it drops you into the Evil Avatar lobby. How great is that. No hunting for everyone. You have a home... :)
3. The garage. Everyone in the lobby can jump into the garage, shop etc, and still continue to talk while tweaking your Hounds. And you can easily share your work.
4. The map sizes. The outdoor maps are freaking huge! Seeing a flare light up the sky a mile or two away is an incredible sight. The clouds and lighting are the best I've seen.
5. The sense of scale. The you can go from seeing little bitty soldiers to huge mechs and even bigger buildings, that dwarf the mechs... Stepping on trucks and enemy soldiers is fun too.
6. Customization. GRAW doesn't have much there.
7. Variety of enemies, parts, weapons etc. It's an amazing amount of choices. Also, each country has different parts, so defeating the enemy to capture their parts has real value. GRAW has quite a few weapons, but I'd chose one of about 5 or 6 and that was it. Choices, building Hounds etc, will likely go on for months.

I do enjoy GRAW, but I think we now need persistent MMO's for the FPS world. Huxley, Quake Wars etc. I think the bar has now been set for FPS type lobbies, squads, etc. Someone may improve it, but I think we're on the right track.

Oh, and here's the map of the War. In the game you can click on the flags and see a lot more detail, but this URL gives you the high level picture. As of this posting we've won back 2 of the 5 stars on Xeres, our Tarakian capital. One more star and we get our flag and our country back.

Surely, by tonight the forces of democracy (with the Evil Avatar squads help :) ) will push back the invaders. click here (http://www.sega.com/gamesite/chromehounds/leaderboard.php)

[CaptStu]

Okay, you convinced me. I'm getting this game. Thanks Jack.

[Asmodan]

I definately want Xeres back... the headlight doesn't really do anything for longrange heavy gunning as my targets are too far to be illuminated by it. Sooner we get our capital back the sooner I can shop and get some nightvision or IR upgrades so I can maybe see what I'm blowing up.

[Rakael]

This game makes me want a 360 more than any other. I may have to scrounge up things to sell for this one.

[torrefaction]

This game will officially be mine :)

[KNOTE]

I picked this up yesterday. It is definitely slow and I can see why reviewers think it's boring. BUT if you enjoyed Mechwarrior 4, it's pretty much that with a Japanese aesthetic and no heat but more customization. I am loving it. Definitely shines more online than the single player. Reviewers can't cope with the fact that it is a hard core mech simulation that does NOT try to please the mainstream by making it faster. This is for serious mech-lovers and is more of a thinking man's action game. Much more so than GRAW.

[Lekon]

Few things from my point of view:

In the demo, I saw a lot of promise, while playing it I thought "If the multiplayer just focuses on teamwork..." And it does. Oh god it does. the XBL games we were playing last night, once we got someone to be a commander were awesome. ONly the Com gets to see the map's blips of enemies, so he's busy telling us when someone's trying to sneak up, before they get on our sonar.

Slow mechs? Yup: Except for the scout.. who CAN zip around, and strategicly, the scout we had was awesome, he could capture four or five combas and be halfway across the map to let us know which base was the bad guys... like a *gasp* scout should be able to!

Customization: All of Evil Avatar still sucks at Customization. We all were still building the legged bot with arms that are guns. Then we saw one guy. (Seriously, which of us did it?) Who made a mech with a spacer in the back, that came down and had a machine gun come up between his legs. I think we still won the match, but half the time we were too busy laughing about how... Um... "The hot stream of... lead! Yeah, Lead! That he's firing from his... big gun."

Asmodan, Play some single player, get some S rankings, and you get bonus parts as well as the part you'd normally get. One of the Commander SP missions gave me an IR scanning device. That should really help your hound out.

[Alexious]

Oh man... this sounds great. My wife is going to be pissed when I tell her I want to buy an XBox 360. :D

[MosBen]

Man, that game sounds awesome. Not 'til after the bar exam though...sigh...

[Kefkataran]

Seriously, though, this is what, the third or fourth Chromehounds review front page post? Couldn't we just have one where we aggregate them as we come in or one where we wait until a bunch are in to post it? Seems unnecessary.

[AspectVoid]

Asmodan, Play some single player, get some S rankings, and you get bonus parts as well as the part you'd normally get. One of the Commander SP missions gave me an IR scanning device. That should really help your hound out.

Damn, you get extra parts for S rankings? Now I'm going to have to replay some missions so I can get S rankings and extra parts!

[Asmodan]

The command ones are really the only thing I haven't messed with yet; while I'm not done with all of them I've got enough to throw together some passable hounds. I'll slog through the rest later this even most likely, but I would have probably just bought the IR module to save a little hassle last night.

I've actually managed to pull S ratings on my initial try on most of the missions. Actually, I don't think I've gotten lower than an A; I did fail one of the soldier missions (the 'catch the mouse') on the first try because they are a bit vague as to where your target will appear and I had gone the totally wrong direction.

[miah]

Good review, I really want to check out this game now. Gonna have to send in my gamefly and hope I can get it =)

[GunnyMo]

1. The MMO War. You do feel you're needed at the front. Watching the map change in real-time from from the results of our battles to take back our home city was a different experience than GRAW lobbies. You do find yourself checking the map each time your return to the lobby. MMO's are very different.


That right there is the biggest, single hook for me. Our actions actively affect what goes on in the game world. Right now, as I type this, I have this tugging to get back online; to get back to the front to fight for Tarakia! I feel the urge that my not being there is hurting my country and my squad. Now that is a well designed game, imho.

Plus, exploding robots are cool. :D

[Zanzibar]

Son of a bitch. I'm gonna have to buy this game, aren't I?

[DocOblivion]

I don't even own a damned 360, but looks like I'll be buying this to play on my roommates'. Thanks for the details, guys!

[mightbe]

Unfortunately the EvAv squad is full up at the moment. If someone would like to start a Squad B, I suggest that it be called the "Painted Ladies".