Chromehounds (Xbox 360, 2006)

Chromehounds is a basic Mech-Sim game. This game is 50x better then the Mechassault series. Chromehounds offers the ability to fully, and I mean FULLY customize your HOUND (mech) with a small variety of weapons, cockpits and chassis, additional parts (night vision, thermal vision, radiators, etc), armor, etc. There are 6 types of Mechs. Defenders which are built for defense of other important HOUND units or HQs, Heavy Gunners which are meant for long range bombardments of enemy HQs and HOUNDs, Scouts which are fast-moving HOUNDs that can quickly swift by enemy territory and feed intel back to the other squad units, Commanders which carry around a large radar known as an NA maker that can spot allied/enemy units on the map and command other squad members to move to different areas and tell them to watch for enemy HOUNDs/defenses (tanks, minor mechs, infantry [lol the infantry can't do nothing in this game]), Soldiers who fight on the frontline of defense against other enemy units, and Snipers which provide long range attack against other enemy HOUNDs from behind the squad.

The singleplayer mode is just one huge training/tutorial campaign that just teaches you how to properly use a certain mech. The SP mode seperated into different campaigns for each type of mech. Though they do vary in difficulty.
The main focus for most players on this game is the online play.

Online play has three modes, free battle (which includes deathmatch, team deathmatch, CTF, etc.), Individual Missions, and the main focus is the Neroimus War (a conquest mode very similar to Mechassaults Conquest mode). For Individual Missions and the Neroimus War, players are required to join a squad or create their own (basically clans). There are three factions to join a squad in (Morskoj, Tarakia, and Sal Kar). Once a player applies for a squad to which faction he/she chooses and is accepted, he/she is eligible to join their squadmates in a battle on the map for conquest domination. Basically in the Neroimus War mode, a squad member launches a mission at a certain area on the map, then chooses a battlefield in which to fight in. If you own the area or not depends on how much of the battlefield you occupy, whcih can be viewed at the briefing screen to the left, being represented as two bars, one being your faction and the other being the enemy faction. Once one of those bars is completely filled, that battlefield is their's. Once at least two/three (depends on how many battlefields are in that area) then that faction owns that area. Once that area is conquered, it opens up new roads to different areas. To knock out another enemy faction, you must conquer the captial (a large flag with a large red circle at the base). How to play the Neroimus War battles is the two squads of HOUNDs must find the enemy base that each squad chose (there are usually three HQs and one is chosen by the host to be the main HQ while the others lie as decoys), and destroy it. The main base is determined by a flag on the side of the base. Two other other ways to win are to eliminate all the enemy HOUNDs or have the most COMBASs captured by the end of the time limit (COMBASs are large communcation towers that allow players to communicate with each other within the tower's range).

HOUND customization is wide-open. What you place on your HOUND determines what type of mech you are. Although there are limits so be careful of those.

I'm running out of space so all I can say is buy CH. Enjoy!

Chromehounds is one of those games with a cult following. It's no Halo or GTA but those who like it play it all the time.

Not unlike Halo, the majority of users prefer XBOX Live to play Hounds. The standard game isn't nearly as exciting or fun but playing against other people around the world adds to the fun.

Another great thing about the game is the ability to build and modify your machine. While there are standard Hounds available, aquiring funds through victories provides you with the opportunity to modify the standard Hound with upgrades or even build your own Hound from the ground up.

With all the different classes of Hounds, choices of upgrades, including weapons, the possibilities are nearly endless. There are different locations for battles and some options are better than others for each battle. Playing each one helps you choose the best Hound for that game.

Playing online provides another facet to Chromehounds, teamplay. Playing one on one is fun but gathering up a group of friends to form a group is even better. Each player can choose a role and work together to defeat the opposing team. This is where Chromehounds really shines!

If you like this type of game your love Chromehounds.

To be completely honest, I Purchased this game because I loved the Mech Warrior games. Seeing as this was the closest thing to those games on the 360, I decided to give it a shot.

I personally enjoyed this game quite a bit, though it has a pretty steep difficulty curve. If you have played any of the Mech Warrior games this should not be too different for you. The gameplay is basically the same, though slower than the Mech Warrior series. You basically play a mercenary mech (or HOUND in chromehounds) pilot for three different nations in the game's storyline (which takes place in an alternate reality 2006). The story itself is pretty sparse, though what there is is pretty interesting.

Graphics-wise this game is about on-par with most Xbox 360 games. The mech models are pretty well done but the rest of the game looks pretty boring and average.

The online component of Chromehounds is (from what i have heard, as i have not yet tried it) apparently very good. Basically you join a nation (through different campaigns) and fight for it against players of other nations, gaining money to upgrade your mech, etc. From what I understand (again I have not played the online component of the game yet) the only drawback is that there are not many people playing this game anymore online (which is to be expected for a game that came out in 2006).

Overall I would say that this game would be worth it for anyone who liked the classic Mech Warrior series, or anyone who wants to blow things up with a giant mech!

My Ratings: (out of 10, with 10 being the highest)

Gameplay: 8.0 (controls could be tighter and can be slow, but overall fun)
Graphics: 7.5 (Average except for mech models, which are nicely detailed)
Audio: 6.5 (completely average and repetitive, save a song or two)
replayablilty: 9.0 (multiplayer is why this rating is as high as it is)
Story: 7.5 (not really that much, but what there is is interesting)

Final Score: 7.3 (Fun if you like these types of games, though you might be
put off by the slow pace of the game)

Since MechWarrior 5 was never made and none of the Xbox MechWarrior Games are playable on the 360 (as of this writing) I decided to give this one a try.
First the good stuff:
The story is likeable with nice cut sceens and better sound. Excellent designs for the machines and a somewhat similar layout for modular 'mechs weapons.
Nice ability to customize your Hound over the course of the story.
Also like the ability to play different roles in the game such as Sniper, Scout, Soldier, and Gunner. All of which have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Now for the bad stuff:
The controls are a bit counter-intuitive ( being different should not be more dificult). This makes controling your Hound have a bit of a learning curve. There is no cursor for targeting in the standard view (think Tomb Raider) which means you will have to switch to views before you can fire with any degree of accuracy.
Also the graphics seem concentrated on rendering the Hounds so other objects suffer accordingly, especially smaller objects.

In closing:
Because of the previously mentioned snafu with the MechWarrior games for right now this is pretty much the only choice for Xbox 360 users. Gamers who are fans of the MechWarrior license may want to fire up the pc and relive the old days a bit longer. For new gamers looking for some giant robot action this one may be for you.

Chrome Hounds is a real time action war strategy game. Simular in its presentation to the armored core (and to a lesser degree) gundam series. The robots, known as "hounds" range from slow and heavly armored to quick with minimal armor. Each robot can hold multiple weapons as well. At times the game has some minor squad based combat elements. The graphics and sound are (and should be) sharp, controls are extensive, using every butoon on the controller, but in 10 mins the buttons just make sense and using the controll becomes second nature. I hve yet to find anything that I dont like in the game, and for owning it over the last 2months (as of 2/10/07) I really dont think I will find a fualt with the game.