Customer Reviews

Chromehounds

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Chromehounds is a mech simulator. It may sound obvious, but a lot of people seem to think it's the next Mechwarrior. Mechwarrior (for x-box) was an arcade game that was simple to play and easy to learn. Chromehounds is much more difficult to play and the learning curve is very steep.

The single player story mode is shallow and really nothing more than a glorified trainer for the x-box live version. In fact, if you don't have x-box live gold, this game isn't even worth renting.

The graphics run from very good to pretty poor. The mechs look great and are highly detailed. You can customize your mech with a ton of camoflauge patterns and decals. The environments, on the other hand, are pretty sappy. Buildings, grass, and sand look pretty bland.

The mech customization is really the key to play (otherwise equally powered mechs would just be strafing each other and whoever has slightly better aim would win). You can load up on weapons and armor, at the expense of speed. There are TONS of weapons, legs, and cockpits. You can carry missle counters, thermal vision, night vision, and other "assist" parts.

X-box live featurs a "war" with three warring nations. Every player must pick allegiance to one nation (though you can change allegiances) and you can go on missions for your country. The goal of each mission is to destroy the enemy's HQ while defending your own. You also win, but get less points, if you destroy the other team's mechs.

X-box live also features ranked and unranked games so you can just try out your mech against other players before taking it on the campaign.

This game is complex and it takes a while to figure out how to build the right mech for the right mission. My only real complaint is going on missions requires you join up with your squad. If you've ever been in a "clan" on x-box live, you know how hard it is to link up with your team to play other teams. Overall, this game offers a unique mech simulator that assures players won't necessarily be beaten by trash talking 13 year olds with excellent hand eye coordination.

The servers for this game have been taken down. The single player mode is little more than a tutorial for the online multiplayer. With the servers down you cannot play multiplayer. So essentially this game is unplayable. If you buy the disk you will be buying little more than a demo.

Sadly, this was an acceptable game with many flaws that was sort of fun. Until they crippled it completely by shutting down the servers. Now it's completely unplayable. You cannot even use the mechs you built with online parts because now all your parts are gone. You can't play with friends, because there is are no servers. You can't even host your own game because they didn't think that far ahead. You can't get 1000 gamer points because there is no online service.

It was maybe 2.5 stars before. I'd give it 0 stars if I could

As of Jan 6th, 2010, all online content has been shut down. All that is avalible is the single player campaign wich is only a very long tutorial for playing the online portion, which of course is no longer avalible. This was my favorite game of all time, but now it is worthless without the online multiplayer.

ChromeHounds is the first Mech related adventure for the XBox 360. A little bit combat, a little bit strategy, this provides quick, easy missions and then involving online gameplay.

If you've seen mech games before, you know the basic idea. Big, plodding robots with legs, tracks or wheels. Lots of weapons and armor to plunk onto the mech in lego-like fashion. Enemies and buildings to blow up, while staying alive.

Where other mech games go for arcadey non-reality, ChromeHounds tries to keep things real. Your mechs don't zip along at 100 miles an hour. They stomp with realistic weight and speed, leaving behind footprints and track marks. The detail on their glistening metal body is quite impressive. With the incredibly huge amount of customization available for your mech, you can spend hours honing the exact perfect mech for your gameplay style, and really care about its survival.

The world you inhabit didn't get this same level of loving detail. The missions are all very short and really don't need a plot. You are blowing things up while trying not to be blown up yourself. The environments you stomp through are almost an afterthought. Don't look for waving fields of grain or purple mountains majesty here.

As in many modern combat games, the basic mission tree is really all just a training mission for the *real* challenge - facing other human beings. You want to replay the local missions several times, tuning your mech movement skills and your weapon / armor combination to get ready for the team based online gameplay. That is where the real fun and skill-testing begins. Can you coordinate your efforts with your friends to ward off attacks from other skilled players from around the world? You can't just run and blast away - that technique will get you killed quickly. You have to know your mech's limitations and advantages, and then plan joint attacks to achieve that victory. It really is a fun combination of hand-eye coordination and tactical intelligent planning.

Well recommended for people who have online gameplay and enjoy that level of thought. For someone just wanting an arcadey fly-fast-and-blow-things-up-locally, you might want to rent this first to see if the realistic mech functioning will keep you happy.

I have played well over 200 hours as I write this review so I hope to correct some of the misinformation in other reviews...

1) This is a Mech simulator most similiar to the Mechwarrior (PC) series, especially MW2 & MW3.
2) It is nothing like the Mech Assault (Xbox) series.
3) Chromehounds does have single player missions which are really just training for online play. The single player teaches you about each Role Type (RT) and grades you in your performance in each RT.
4) Once online, you must choose a side and then find a squad to join OR you can create your own squad and recruit others. Don't worry too much about which side to choose because you will eventually want to switch countries to acquire each country's unique parts.
5) Chromehounds is a squad based game. Playing alone, although possible, isn't much fun. The most fun is playing with 4-6 per team. There is also a free battle mode that is basically a FPS fragfest.
6) Experimenting with different mech designs is nearly as much fun as testing them in combat. In the beginning you may find yourself spending more time in the garage than on the battlefield. If you like customization, Chromehounds offers millions of possible mech combinations from super fast scouts to heavy gunners than can take out half a grid square.

As much fun as Chromehounds is, it isn't perfect. There are still some bugs to be worked out but patches are in the works and minor maintenance is performed every Tuesday. Don't believe the naysayers who shout that Chromehounds will eat your disks, kill your 360, run over your cat and drop crumbs in your bed; Chromehound's flaws are of the much more mundane variety... money glitches and a few network glitches.

Overall, Chromehounds is the best multiplayer mech simulator since Mechwarrior 2 and is a must for true fans of the mech genre.

Alright, you want to know what chromehounds is? It is a game for gear heads and patient people, and fans of the mechwarrior style genre to bask in its solid gameplay, excellent graphics, and astounding amounts of customization. And thats not even including xbox live.

Now, lets start off with the Gameplay. Its simple, and to teh point. There is no stupid menus you have to use to pick an attack. There is a menu to issue commands, but only commanders can use it, and even then, its not necessary unless in campaign.
Right bumper changes weapons, right trigger fires, the analog stick control movement, and the right thumstick clicks in to give you a first person view that wobbles realistically with the terrain and movements. other than that, there isnt much you need to know, unless surfing through the game menus like the garage or mission selection (out of gameplay).

Onto graphics, now, and be prepared, because they are excellent. The game is normal mapped, which means geometry isnt very complex, which also, while some games are hampered by this, makes chromehounds even better. Because of the hardedged style most mechs are built in, it makes it look more realistic, and also adds a surreal beauty to the buildings, especially in the urban maps like Xerxes, because they can do much more with lighting and texturing. Note also, that I think the particle effects, while on occasion seem a bit redundant, are probably unrivaled on the Xbox 360. Even GRAW's notably spectacular explosions cant stand up to watching smoke trails form in real time, and then fade away realistically in the wind.

Onto maps, and this is where I think Chromehounds takes a bit of a slowdow, but I dont mind, and you shouldnt either. The maps are mindblowingly huge. Take into mind, of course, that you are a threestory tall walking/rolling/floating machine of death. That means you should probably be moving faster than a ground soldier. And it still takes around fiveminutes to cross fully some of the smaller maps. And, they are all well designed with varying terrain in many of them that seems realistic.

Onto online play. This is probably the greatest part of Chromehounds....but Im not enjoying it much, only because I got confused as to how to get into the Neroimus War Persistant World. I am too busy to read the manual, or play with it, but the freeplay and quickmatches are great, fun, and solid. Just takes a bit of patience. Ah, the chaos of a teenage summer.

And lastly, the mindblowing customization. Because of the hexagonal style of the weapons, you can fit many weapons onto one mech. And, you can customize the series which each one fires into four different classes, designated by you. If thats confusing, I mean, you can tell the hounds which weapons to link together to fire. Once you see it, you understand. Also, there are many different pieces to fit in each of the many chategories. Of course, you get a free mech for going online to play with, if your not into doing that, but its really simple to do once you get the hang of it. And, like me, you might just end up sitting infront of the TV set building it and fine tuning it for hours. I prefer a fast mech with a high rate of fire, so I have many chainguns, and I constantly keep my eye on my max speed, keeping it above 200 at alls times. There is also a hexagon which tells you which way your mech leans. You'll recognize it from other games, mainly RPGS...I think there is one like it in Pokemon for the contest things....

Overall, this is a game that will keep me playing for years to come, and despite what people are claiming, I say that the campaign is fun, especially when you tear through it with your own mech, instead of the borrowed ones.

I'm not a HUGE fan of the Mech genre, but I do dig it. I've played 3-4 mech games over the years from pc to xbox. This has got to be the top of the line. The graphic and physics are superb. The single player a bit short, but very educational and it takes you through the entire gambit of all the different general types and roles of mechs as used in the game. Honestly, it really is just a glorified trainer for online play and if you don't have a Gold membership online the game is pretty pointless. I can't imagine having a 360 and not having a gold account though.

The real strong suit of the game is online play. While there are an apparently infinite number of pop-up messages and alerts with information I really didn't find useful, once you get through those you're golden. You can be a single player and do match-ups or you can join a squad. That's where the game really shines. Develop and use squad tactics with all the different types of mechs that you can build.

The amount of customization you can do is really amazing. It's really a game in itself. It's easy to use and fairly intuitive and supports folks who just want to slap something together quickly or folks who want to watch and compare stats on various pieces of gear.

There are currently somewhere over 300 unique parts each with a unique size, weight, attachment option, durability, heat generation, etc. Each of these parts can be placed in a dizzying array of orientations. Weapons often have multiple types of ammunition available with options to carry extra ammo at the expense of weight. Chassey units (wheel, biped, tacks, etc) all have weight limits, top speeds, rotation speed, etc. while cockpits have a set number of devices you can attach, internal power supply, various degrees of armor, etc. Cockpits also support 3 types of modification chips that let you trade off statistics between tying together multiple weapons in a single trigger pull, top speed and acceleration boosts, aim and cockpit stabilization, etc.

To really get a feel for the game you have to pay attention to the details on the parts, but for the beginner it's easy enough to just build and shoot. You can even spend your mech $ earned in battles to buy pre-configured mechs. You can also spend your money (which honestly comes flowing in pretty easily and is almost always in abundant supply) on upgraded parts or even enter a lottery for experimental parts that are given away daily.

You have control down to the paint jobs, camouflage patters and a nice selection of customizable decals to polish off your masterpiece.

Once you have your mech put together you can select from a number of ongoing battles to drop into with your squad and match up either against the computer or human opponents. Eventually you'll learn to pick your map and battlefield situations to best suit your mech's capabilities. Then you work out a battle plan with your squad members.

Graphics are superb as you would expect with the 360. Of course it's not perfect, but pretty darn good where it counts. Online play is amazing as far as mech games are concerned. It's not as fast paced and nerve twitching as say Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, but it's 110% cool as far as mech games go. IMHO there's a LOT more strategy involved in Chromehounds as opposed to something like GRAW.

Oh, to the DarkDan who commented that he couldn't find the menu options he was looking for in the middle of a mission, he's right, you can't access some options in the middle of a mission but if you hold down the BACK button on the controller for 3 seconds your mech will self-destruct and end the mission so you can exit the game.

I've played a variety of mech games over the years. From Armored Core, Mech Warriors, Frontline, etc. This game overall is aobut ABOVE AVERAGE. But i wouldn't say its a great game.

The missions could use a little more work. When you get lost in your mission maps, i couldn't get a repeat of my mission or find out what i needed to do...unless i couldn't figure out how to bring up the mission briefing menu...IN the mission, multiple times, NPCs would get stuck if I didn't clear "objectives" that were in there way. These were a major blow to the game.

Building your Hound, was decent. Legs, engin, cockpit, armors. Especially the way you compose your weapons was a neat touch to this game. I.e. YOu spread out a rifle to your head, left/right arms; when you shoot at your enemies it fires in a triangular pattern, hitting in a widespread fire. OR you can have all your rifles clumped to the right side of the hound. Compressing the bullets together to hit your target in a more close range of firing pattern.

Overall, I think the game could use more depth in the game. Graphic details are fantasic, but lacks gameplay. I think I would rather rent this game to buy...but i already bought it!!! >.<

Chromehounds is a decent mech game that merges the style and customization of Armored Core games with the simple control style of Mechassault. The developers also tried to encourage teamwork by forming RTs or role types for each of the mechs. You've got Soldiers, Defenders, Scouts, Snipers, Heavy Gunners, and Commanders. Most custom mechs will be hybrids of the different RTs but that adds to the strategy of the game. Unfortunately, the strategic element of the game is ONLY realized online. The single player portion of the game plays out more like a training mission to familiarize the gamer to how to use the wide variety of weapons and components. If u don't play online, don't buy this game.

Now, if you do enjoy online play, you are in for a treat. As long as you don't mind sim style play and teamwork, ChromeHounds will provide hours of squad play, mech customization, and occaisionally some pretty wicked battles. Unfortunately, this is far from a 'next-gen' title. The graphics are decent but the environments are Afghanistan-boring. The sound effects are decent but the music is definitely mute-worthy. The online mode variety is top notch though. The biggest draw is probably the persistent war that force clan and nation affiliation. New clan members have to be approved by teammates of course. The war option also has online shops, part trade rooms, squad lobbies, and such that build upon the option that was introduced in the Mechassault series.

Mech customization can be intimidating at first. Each part has a laundry list of stats. Stability, weight, reload speed, energy, heat generation, speed, defense against different types of ballistic weapons (note that this game has no energy weapons or lasers), turning speed, and more. It takes a little experimentation and trial and error but once you catch on it can be fun.

Lastly, the controls are simple but there is an art to it. Each of the different weapon groups require different aiming. This is important because unlike in Mechassault, you can do damage to different parts of your enemy. Blow off all their weapons, wreck a scout mechs mobility by damaging their legs, or simply blow them apart by focusing on their cockpit. Missile racks fire at a wide angle, shotguns spread out, artillery weapons do splash damage at long range(yet must be lobbed), mech melee 'piles' require point blank precision, and so on.

In the end, the fun factor of this game is pretty high if you play online, enjoy teamwork, and like sim-style 'realism' if you will. Offline play for this game is worthless. If you can't play this game online, do not buy it. The single player version can be beaten in about a day and the AI isn't good enough to make CPU matches interesting after a few hours of play.