In choosing each type of mech in the Story mode you end up playing with all the nations in the game, and thus venture across very different terrain. Snowy mountains, desert landscapes and deep forests are all part of the strategy as well as the problem as far as your enemy is concerned – ambushes can come from any side and if you’re not aware, you can get your bonnet flung clean off. The types of mission that each mech undertakes make for an interesting pace in the game – the Soldier missions may have you slugging it out all night long, while choosing Heavy Gunner story missions will give you pacey, accuracy-style games.
There are some initial drawbacks to Chromehounds, though. For one thing, it has the ‘From Software’ curse latched onto it – it can be a very enjoyable experience and a great game in itself, yet there seems to be something about it that can make you drop it the next second and play something else. We can’t explain it, we daren’t – it’s a curse, after all.
If we were to explain it though, the solo mode can be attributed to this, as many missions can be blasted through if you know what you’re doing. When playing, if you happen to be spotted by an enemy, the CPU’s accuracy is somewhat relentless – you can’t seem to dodge enemy fire by zig-zagging unless you decide to go in exactly the opposite direction of where you want to go. Not ideal. However, these are minor niggles for the single player mode, and those who explore the multiplayer modes will find a whole new side to this game.
For you see, the online mode of Chromehounds is very impressive. Far be it for this reviewer to think this would end up another ‘deathmatch’ style multiplayer scenario, playing the game online is just as involving as the main game, if not more so. Before you are able to play, you can convert your scores from the offline mode into ‘Levels’ of ability online – the higher scores you get and the further you are in, say, the Soldier RT mechs will result in an increased level in that field.
It gives you and other players a good idea of what kind of role you are more suited to out of the six types of HOUNDs. You can then choose and create your own mech, or import one from your Garage to play in online wars. Finally, you choose an allegiance to a particular section of the country, from an America-influenced nation, to one more akin to Russia, or one that is small but courageous.
Every time you log onto the servers you get notifications of the status of many cities in the country, with flags signifying who controls what. It’s a massive online game of conquest, with allied online players forming smaller groups of ‘clans’ to effectively take over every last piece of land. It’s a concept that works really well, and plays superbly in practice, with communication through the Xbox headset key to manoeuvring your team around to control Comm Towers and regroup to take on ambushes. If one ever gets tired, frustrated or easily bored from the single-player game, then get them to try the online mode and suddenly Chromehounds makes perfect sense.
SPOnG Score: B
Its single player missions can be too short for some and the action over all too quickly, but the game is saved with the sublime online mode. This is classic SEGA – pure arcade gameplay, with a cracking multiplayer mode to back it up. If you stick to the single-player game, Chromehounds is great for a quick blast before going out to the pub, but you can quickly forget it's there on your shelf. Explore the online side and it becomes a game you can play for months to come.
