CHROMEHOUNDS

As a mercenary mech pilot in a alternate timeline version of Earth, you have been hired to execute the tactical requirements of an ongoing ground war. And when I say war I mean WAR. There is no wussy aircraft, no naval defense, nope, just you driving a massive hardcore robot, loaded to the hilt with enough destructive weaponry to destroy other massive hardcore robots. And by the way, hounds are what they call the mechs in this title.

Well, I would love to tell you about a intricate storyline and an engaging plot that drives this game to new heights. I mean, this is the first mech game on the 360 and even more so, it was developed by the same folks who made the Armored Core games, so I felt that there was going to be some sort of complicated backstory about warring nations and ruthless leaders backstabbing each other, plot twists, alliance changes and so on and so forth. But ... that never happens, instead the game was designed for the trigger happy set. Those gamers who would much rather pop a game in and begin pulling the trigger with reckless abandon, storyline or not.

"Now that's why you don't smoke while pumping your gas!"

Instead, the single-player game is nothing more then a really long tutorial on how the different mech types work and how to blow stuff up.  From the get go, you learn quickly that the development team had multiplayer on the brain. This is apparent by the way the game rolls out your mission briefing, repeatedly saying that they will not repeat said instructions. Which was fine for the most part; your field commander would come on and instruct you to go to a designated point on the map and take out the enemy forces found there. Then using the map button you could quickly see which direction you needed to go and head off that way, confident in the knowledge that you would be seeing an explosion very soon.

The mechs themselves have a somewhat unique look to them in the sense that they appear to be something that could be built in real life. No sleek, fast-moving robots here; rather, the game does a good job of using what would be correct physics and weight distribution. I found that you must implement some zig-zagging in almost any confrontation that involves artillery that could do you heavy damage. Sure, there is no problem when blowing up a convoy of trucks, but try taking on five rocket-launching behemoths, you will change your tactics too. 

What I really liked about the game though, was the really user-friendly controls. It works well with how the 360 controls are set up, toggling through the different weapons, using the mini windows found on the HUD to find and target your prey. There is even the ability to switch from third person to first person in order to get a better bead on your targets. And each weapon has differing degrees of zoom depending on their range. It plays really well.

 "Ssshhhhh, maybe if we ignore him he'll go home."

Now please be aware that as you complete missions, you will unlock new equipment for your garage, which in turn you can use to build your own personalized mech. You can name it and put decals on it and do all sorts of interesting things to it to make it unique. In fact, the game does a really nice job of making it easy to build and customize your mech, complete with warning icons that tell you if you have exceeded weight or do not have enough power for the systems you installed. Plus, if you mind your weight, you will notice that you can stack weapons into clusters since the barrels are all hexagon shaped. If you make a scout-style mech, you may want to go easy on the heavy weapons and armor, so your speed will be faster.  Likewise if you want to build a heavy gunner-style mech, you can load it up with all sorts of cannons and try and pick enemies off at a distance.

But in order to get the full experience, you must understand that Chromehounds is a game that is best played on Xbox Live, wrapped around an online war campaign called the Neroimus war. Here you will fill one of several designated positions on your team's squad and join up with one of the three warring factions that exist in this world (U.S., Russia, Middle East). From there, you will need to learn to work together as a member of a squad made up of six players. Once formed you can go up against another group of six, or work together to defeat an A.I.-powered opponent. One thing is for sure, the teamwork of your squad had better be good or you will get the nuts and bolts beaten out of you. This title reminded me of the SOCOM games on the PS2 because of it's heavy demand for teamwork and communication, without it you will be lost. Plus the only way to work through the war campaign is to learn to play together.

Gameplay: 8.5
Chromehounds really controls well, the button configuration, the easily navigated in-game controls, smooth transitions from field map to third-person to first-person perspectives.

Graphics: 8.0
Well, the mechs look good, and the lighting effects look good but the environments were done a bit uneven. Plus, the urban portions of the game don't feature the kind of destruction I would have expected from a war that has been going on with city-leveling robots.

Sound: 7.5
The game does take advantage of the in-game Dolby Digital, but I wished the programmers would have pumped it up to levels I've never heard of. These are massive robots tromping around, let's get the room rumbling people.  The idea that your communication range is amplified the closer you are to the giant radio towers was a pretty novel approach.

Difficulty: Medium
The real challenge is forming an online team and completing the war campaign; the single-player mode is too short and too easy.

Concept: 6.5
Building the mechs was pretty cool, there is a slight learning curve for this and the online menus that often force you to hear about the war (even if you don't care). Still, any game could benefit from a good plot. This one is MIA.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Easily the game's selling point. Chromehounds is an online game and with the exception of some hiccups, is a relatively rewarding experience.

Overall: 7.4
The single-player game is sorely lacking in several key areas, and the online game, while fun, does require a lot more effort on the player than say ... (insert favorite game here). It is, however, a good first effort for a mech game on the 360, and that fact alone will help those players pining for a little mech action.