This is a love or hate it title if I’ve ever seen one.
How do these situations sound to you?
You’re a heavy gunner mech, basically artillery. If things go well, you may never actually see an enemy, and you’ll be staring at the friendly side of a mountain range all game. You’ll be looking at nothing but dirt and your rangefinder, as friendly units spot for your devastating shells.
You’re a scout mech. Lightly armed, easily damaged. You should be running away most of the time. Your job is to avoid fights, capture towers to facilitate your squad’s ability to communicate, determine the true location of the enemies headquarters among decots, and perhaps spot for artillery.
You’re a command mech. Your main role will be to view your map and call out grid locations of the enemy. You organize your troops and direct attacks and defenses, and have poor combat ability yourself. You may have to put yourself in danger just so squadmates on one side of the map can talk to those on the other side.
You’re a sniper. You camp, because motionless mechs can’t be detected by the enemy command units. You wait for the attacking mechs to come into view, and hope that happens before an enemy scout mech sends your location to the heavy gunner, blowing you off of your mountain in a shower of heavy shells.
You’re a defense mech. You roll around on treads, desperately trying to protect your command mech or headquarters. Hopefully you’ll soak up some of the damage meant for them.
You’re an attack mech. But if you go off alone, or get caught in the open, or don't use the sometimes sparse terrain to your advantage…you’re dead.
How would you feel if you could lose a match without any of your mechs taking damage? Perhaps without even engaging the enemy, because your HQ was located by enemy scouts and then destroyed in a hail of artillery fire?
How do you feel about a relatively plodding pace, where aggression and speed often falls to calculation and planning?
How do you feel about a timed, fifteen-minute session before each sortie where your squad examines objectives, chooses roles, and perhaps even designs mechs for the situation? How would you feel if often, much of those 15 minutes get used?
How do you feel about managing weapon configurations, body types, and upgrades. Engineering your combat vehicle from the ground up? Are you a veteran of the tabletop Battletech or Heavy Gear mech management decisions? Do you want to worry about power, fuel, and heat?
So far this game reminds me of a Mech version of Operation Flashpoint. Large terrain, sparse graphics. There can be a lot of slow travel time. You’ll need patience, planning, and communication to succeed. Did you like Ops Flashpoint? Are you a hard core mech fan? Did you buy the Steel Battalion controller? Did you find yourself being fine with, or even excited by, the questions I posed above? Try the game.
If not, don’t. You won’t like it. Really.
Oh, and single player is really just a tutorial-like warmup for the online modes. Don’t get it if you are staying off live.
This is not mech assault.
So far, I like it a lot. The reviews are crazily spread, just like Op Flashpoint. The online version has a persistent war campaign, details here:
http://www.sega.com/gamesite/chromehoun ... rboard.php
I’ll be making or joining a squad for sure.
Chrome Hounds 360
Moderators: Bill_Abner, ScoopBrady
Chrome Hounds 360
Last edited by webdanzer on Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Danimal
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Thanks Web, it's nice to see an excellent post / review in these forums. I didn't get this yesterday and got LOTR because i had heard so much bad press on it. Your review makes me think i made the wrong choice.
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Well, lots of players will no doubt hate this game. I can easily see and understand people who will look at my questions and say, 'Yeah, boring.'
And perhaps more than any other online game out there for the 360 right now, your experience will be hugely dependant on who you play with and against. If you don't play 'correctly' it can be boring too. Like, if you just walk mechs out into the center of an open field and start firing at one another...well yeah, there's not much there. Strafing until someone falls over. I think this accounts for some of the disparity in the review scores. A lot of the game is just like a big toolbox -parts, roles, weapons, equipment, etc- and how the players USE those parts in cooperation with and against one another is what makes the game.
The whole idea is to get the combat fought on your terms, and that is a total squad undertaking. People looking for 'individual action' -and don't get me wrong, often (most?) times when I fire up a videogame this is what *I'm* looking for- will be disappointed.
And, It's just CRAZY that people design mechs in the briefing period before each battle.
And perhaps more than any other online game out there for the 360 right now, your experience will be hugely dependant on who you play with and against. If you don't play 'correctly' it can be boring too. Like, if you just walk mechs out into the center of an open field and start firing at one another...well yeah, there's not much there. Strafing until someone falls over. I think this accounts for some of the disparity in the review scores. A lot of the game is just like a big toolbox -parts, roles, weapons, equipment, etc- and how the players USE those parts in cooperation with and against one another is what makes the game.
The whole idea is to get the combat fought on your terms, and that is a total squad undertaking. People looking for 'individual action' -and don't get me wrong, often (most?) times when I fire up a videogame this is what *I'm* looking for- will be disappointed.
And, It's just CRAZY that people design mechs in the briefing period before each battle.
After reading the TeamXbox review, I think I may be picking this one up shortly. It sounds like it's right up my alley. I like the idea of actually using strategy in a shooter. I'm a huge fan of Operation Flashpoint, so this looks great. I'm thinking I may stop by EB tonight...
2319!
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
Yeah, the TeamXbox Review is quite good, but I do question their bias from time to time. I think the 1up review also gives a good feel for the game:
The backstory of the game is that a trinity of small countries (with various superpowers backing them) is locked into warfare a few decades after the eruption of sunspots made traditional electronics very nearly nonfunctional. This clever (goofy, but clever) hook explains why there are giant robot tanks walking, rolling, and hovering all over the place. Put anything too far into the atmosphere, and the sunspots cook its electronics. Therefore, no planes or long-range missiles, let alone spy planes or satellite networks, so no warfare as we currently know it. This justifies the game's resources/capture points: comm towers. Capturing these hardened stations gives you radar and the ability to chat with your squadmates within their broadcast radius. They're big enough to be easily spotted at a distance, but not big enough to stand on or enter, so they're essentially impossible to defend.
This drives the combat style, which consists of a lot of frustration for lone wolves and unorganized squads. The six types of Hound aren't all necessary, but a scout and a commander are essential to enjoying the game's excellent multiplayer. Most Hounds move fairly lethargically, but by using a commander's localized radar and comm systems to coordinate the squad and sending the fast (especially by comparison) scouts to actually scout, a good squad can put its Hounds exactly where they need to be. They can lay down an incredible amount of artillery fire to support their position or their advance. A scout or a fast soldier can create a diversion while the rest of the squad moves to seize the real objective. And once combat breaks out, it's a savage, beautiful festival of explosions and heavy weapons. Chromehounds isn't just a shooter where you play a tank-on-legs, it's a mech game where the combat actually plays out like high-tech science-fiction tank warfare. Multiplayer like this isn't what we're used to, but it's excellent despite being unfamiliar.
The backstory of the game is that a trinity of small countries (with various superpowers backing them) is locked into warfare a few decades after the eruption of sunspots made traditional electronics very nearly nonfunctional. This clever (goofy, but clever) hook explains why there are giant robot tanks walking, rolling, and hovering all over the place. Put anything too far into the atmosphere, and the sunspots cook its electronics. Therefore, no planes or long-range missiles, let alone spy planes or satellite networks, so no warfare as we currently know it. This justifies the game's resources/capture points: comm towers. Capturing these hardened stations gives you radar and the ability to chat with your squadmates within their broadcast radius. They're big enough to be easily spotted at a distance, but not big enough to stand on or enter, so they're essentially impossible to defend.
This drives the combat style, which consists of a lot of frustration for lone wolves and unorganized squads. The six types of Hound aren't all necessary, but a scout and a commander are essential to enjoying the game's excellent multiplayer. Most Hounds move fairly lethargically, but by using a commander's localized radar and comm systems to coordinate the squad and sending the fast (especially by comparison) scouts to actually scout, a good squad can put its Hounds exactly where they need to be. They can lay down an incredible amount of artillery fire to support their position or their advance. A scout or a fast soldier can create a diversion while the rest of the squad moves to seize the real objective. And once combat breaks out, it's a savage, beautiful festival of explosions and heavy weapons. Chromehounds isn't just a shooter where you play a tank-on-legs, it's a mech game where the combat actually plays out like high-tech science-fiction tank warfare. Multiplayer like this isn't what we're used to, but it's excellent despite being unfamiliar.
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Millennium
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Well, traded in Gun and MLB 2K6 (!) for Chromehounds last night. So far I'm really diggin it.
I really like how each mech has a certain job to do, and NEEDS to do it in order for the squad to survive. I've done the training and a couple of missions in the soldier and heavy gunner mechs, both are fun, although the sailor in me prefers the heavy gunner (ever since I got to see the New Jersey and Missouri fire their 16-inchers I've been hooked on the big guns!)
I haven't gone online yet, but the whole way it's setup looks awesome. You can create a squad, buy and sell parts and even whole mechs online, and there is the persistant war going on sort of like WW2 Online. You can also play against the AI, so you can generate some cash for your squad (although those missions do not effect the outcome of the war, they are strictly for profit). Money is given based on performance and success in a mission, minus expenditures for fuel, ammo, and repairs. A countries budget determines how quickly it gets more advanced weapons. You can even donate cash right from your account to your country to help with the funding of the new weapons. The manual also talks about elections to determine the leader of your country, but I'm not sure how that works yet.
Oh, and the communication tower idea is brilliant. As you capture towers, your NA (Network Area) increases, which allows to to not only have enemy units appear on radar, but communicate with squadmates. Go out of the area and you can't talk over Xbox Live any more, how cool is that? Commander units have a sort of portable NA that enables them to keep in touch with squadmates who are close by.
I also messed with the mech building portion for a bit too, it's another very cool feature that rivals Forza in the options available for customizing your mech. Not only can you choose the various parts, but also how and where they will attach together, so you could have 2 mechs with the same parts, but they will look different because of the way they were put together. Add to that a ton of options for painting the mech and designing custom decals to put on it and you have one heck of a custom shop for tricking out your mech. All the designs you make can be given custom names, saved, and even passed to squadmates.
Plus you are not locked into creating a certain type of mech. There is a small chart that shows you how your mech will probably best be used, but if you want to put a single howitzer on top of a fast pair of legs, you could have a scout with one hell of a punch, although he wouldn't be as fast as other scouts due to the weight of the weapon. Everything is a tradeoff, but it will be cool to experiment and see what designs people come up with.
The comparison made to Operation Flashpoint is accurate I think. Everybody has their job to do, and while the firefights are certainly intense, it is not a constand run-n-gun fest like the Mech Assault games on the Xbox (which I didn't like much, it was too much Quake and not enough Battletech IMO). Too bad PK doesn't have a 360, I think this game would be right up his alley. (Although I don't think I'd want him to be a heavy gunner, after a few beers who knows where his shells would be falling?
)
Count me in if you guys are creating a squad!
I really like how each mech has a certain job to do, and NEEDS to do it in order for the squad to survive. I've done the training and a couple of missions in the soldier and heavy gunner mechs, both are fun, although the sailor in me prefers the heavy gunner (ever since I got to see the New Jersey and Missouri fire their 16-inchers I've been hooked on the big guns!)
I haven't gone online yet, but the whole way it's setup looks awesome. You can create a squad, buy and sell parts and even whole mechs online, and there is the persistant war going on sort of like WW2 Online. You can also play against the AI, so you can generate some cash for your squad (although those missions do not effect the outcome of the war, they are strictly for profit). Money is given based on performance and success in a mission, minus expenditures for fuel, ammo, and repairs. A countries budget determines how quickly it gets more advanced weapons. You can even donate cash right from your account to your country to help with the funding of the new weapons. The manual also talks about elections to determine the leader of your country, but I'm not sure how that works yet.
Oh, and the communication tower idea is brilliant. As you capture towers, your NA (Network Area) increases, which allows to to not only have enemy units appear on radar, but communicate with squadmates. Go out of the area and you can't talk over Xbox Live any more, how cool is that? Commander units have a sort of portable NA that enables them to keep in touch with squadmates who are close by.
I also messed with the mech building portion for a bit too, it's another very cool feature that rivals Forza in the options available for customizing your mech. Not only can you choose the various parts, but also how and where they will attach together, so you could have 2 mechs with the same parts, but they will look different because of the way they were put together. Add to that a ton of options for painting the mech and designing custom decals to put on it and you have one heck of a custom shop for tricking out your mech. All the designs you make can be given custom names, saved, and even passed to squadmates.
Plus you are not locked into creating a certain type of mech. There is a small chart that shows you how your mech will probably best be used, but if you want to put a single howitzer on top of a fast pair of legs, you could have a scout with one hell of a punch, although he wouldn't be as fast as other scouts due to the weight of the weapon. Everything is a tradeoff, but it will be cool to experiment and see what designs people come up with.
The comparison made to Operation Flashpoint is accurate I think. Everybody has their job to do, and while the firefights are certainly intense, it is not a constand run-n-gun fest like the Mech Assault games on the Xbox (which I didn't like much, it was too much Quake and not enough Battletech IMO). Too bad PK doesn't have a 360, I think this game would be right up his alley. (Although I don't think I'd want him to be a heavy gunner, after a few beers who knows where his shells would be falling?
)Count me in if you guys are creating a squad!
2319!
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
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pk500
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Grant:
I don't think I could wrap my head around the whole mech thing even if I had a 360. I just don't like mech games at all.
It's the same with Star Wars games. I know people praised the hell out of the two Xbox Star Wars RPG's around here, and I almost broke my RPG cherry with one, but I just can't wrap my head around the whole Star Wars thing. I saw the first one in 1977, thought it was a good movie, but never had any interest in seeing any of the others.
Bottom line: I'm not a sci fi guy at all.
Take care,
PK
I don't think I could wrap my head around the whole mech thing even if I had a 360. I just don't like mech games at all.
It's the same with Star Wars games. I know people praised the hell out of the two Xbox Star Wars RPG's around here, and I almost broke my RPG cherry with one, but I just can't wrap my head around the whole Star Wars thing. I saw the first one in 1977, thought it was a good movie, but never had any interest in seeing any of the others.
Bottom line: I'm not a sci fi guy at all.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
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XBL Gamertag: pk4425
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
XBL Gamertag: pk4425
So who's getting the squad started? We'll need a name and a logo I guess. And a country to fight for too, although in the current war one of them has already been taken out.
Also, this is a news blurb from the web site:
"The Morskovian government has announced that Mitsuba has made a massive donation to the country. Though seeming a bit stunned by this sudden offer, the government has expressed their gratitude and awarded the Silver Patriot medal to Mitsuba. "
Cool.
Also, this is a news blurb from the web site:
"The Morskovian government has announced that Mitsuba has made a massive donation to the country. Though seeming a bit stunned by this sudden offer, the government has expressed their gratitude and awarded the Silver Patriot medal to Mitsuba. "
Cool.
2319!
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
I'll set up a squad in Sal Kar tonight, and I'll be on in it at about 11pm EDT. I think you have to ask me for membership, so please do!
The only thing is, though, is that I think they are resetting the world map on the 18th, so I don't now how far we'll get before things get reset.
I thought about joining Tarakia, but we'd be stuck battling in one location, and without the possibility of getting new parts from the country. And I just didn't want to join the front runner...
Right now I have servicable soldier, scout, and command designs.
Are you going heavy gunner, Grant?
I'll post back here once I know the squad name, (and have made sure it is accepted.)
The only thing is, though, is that I think they are resetting the world map on the 18th, so I don't now how far we'll get before things get reset.
I thought about joining Tarakia, but we'd be stuck battling in one location, and without the possibility of getting new parts from the country. And I just didn't want to join the front runner...
Right now I have servicable soldier, scout, and command designs.
Are you going heavy gunner, Grant?
I'll post back here once I know the squad name, (and have made sure it is accepted.)
Yeah, I'll go heavy gunner. I did create one (The Black Widow ), but as I just started the campaign I don't have a lot of parts for it yet. Although once we go online I think we get some cash, so I can use that to upgrade a couple things I hope.
After the war resets, the squad still stays together, right?
), but as I just started the campaign I don't have a lot of parts for it yet. Although once we go online I think we get some cash, so I can use that to upgrade a couple things I hope.After the war resets, the squad still stays together, right?
2319!
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
Gamertag: "Gurantsu"
This game is starting to get lots of forums love. The GWJ guys and NeoGAF guys are pretty psyched. From a GAF post:
The squad tactics are almost limitless. The persistant war allows you to fight constantly in specific areas and actually see the progress you're making. Every battle is a gamble, with either a large chunk of cash lost to repairs/ammo/fuel, or a sweet payout that divides out to the whole squad that participated.
And the mech customization... my god. This isn't sitting in your basement fiddling with a mech designer. People actually see your designs online. And every piece of the mech means something. Have enough room for an armor panel on the right side of your cockpit? Stick it there. Place your squad emblem on it. When in battle, remember that you have that armor plate there and try to keep it aligned with incoming fire to suppress the damage. Notice as it gets blown off and adjust your tactics accordingly.
Want to stick 2 autocannons facing backwards on your mech? Sure. Now you can fire behind you. Want to get some height on that sniper rifle? Stick 3 spacers on your head and put the sniper rifle on top. Perfect for poking only the sniper rifle over a hill crest and maintaining a smaller target for the enemy to hit.
God I love it. I want to play it all day.
The squad tactics are almost limitless. The persistant war allows you to fight constantly in specific areas and actually see the progress you're making. Every battle is a gamble, with either a large chunk of cash lost to repairs/ammo/fuel, or a sweet payout that divides out to the whole squad that participated.
And the mech customization... my god. This isn't sitting in your basement fiddling with a mech designer. People actually see your designs online. And every piece of the mech means something. Have enough room for an armor panel on the right side of your cockpit? Stick it there. Place your squad emblem on it. When in battle, remember that you have that armor plate there and try to keep it aligned with incoming fire to suppress the damage. Notice as it gets blown off and adjust your tactics accordingly.
Want to stick 2 autocannons facing backwards on your mech? Sure. Now you can fire behind you. Want to get some height on that sniper rifle? Stick 3 spacers on your head and put the sniper rifle on top. Perfect for poking only the sniper rifle over a hill crest and maintaining a smaller target for the enemy to hit.
God I love it. I want to play it all day.
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Millennium
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What I strongly suggest people just getting it do is to go ahead and play at least a few of the offline story missions first, maybe 2-3 of the Soldier role (gives you a good 'all-purpose feel) and then a couple of the other roles that may interest you. (Feel free to skip the 'story' cutscenes if you want to...you are not missing much) This will unlock parts for you to use to build you own Hounds, and it will give you an idea of whether or not you'll like playing certain roles.
Then when you feel you have a idea of the basics, go ahead and hop online. So we can all be together, choose Sal Kar as your starting country. (we can switch if we want to later) Once you have a country, you are given a good chunk of cash and the ability to buy parts to make your own Hound. (You are also offered a hound too, which you can take, but it sucks) Make a couple of hounds, and take them out on 'test runs' (an option from the garage) to see how they work. You can save many different assemblies, so if you want to fool around making some of different roles, go ahead. Just name them something to help you recall which is which.
Once you're comfortable with a hound, come join the Squad for some matches. I understand once you are in a squad, it is very easy to find other online squad members and jump into their games. We'll fool around with 'whatever, whenever matches' for a couple of days, and hope to get at least 6 members. When we get 6, I'll post our first 'official' Squad day both here and at OS. I'm hoping we can do that by the middle of next week.
I should be on a lot tonight.
Then when you feel you have a idea of the basics, go ahead and hop online. So we can all be together, choose Sal Kar as your starting country. (we can switch if we want to later) Once you have a country, you are given a good chunk of cash and the ability to buy parts to make your own Hound. (You are also offered a hound too, which you can take, but it sucks) Make a couple of hounds, and take them out on 'test runs' (an option from the garage) to see how they work. You can save many different assemblies, so if you want to fool around making some of different roles, go ahead. Just name them something to help you recall which is which.
Once you're comfortable with a hound, come join the Squad for some matches. I understand once you are in a squad, it is very easy to find other online squad members and jump into their games. We'll fool around with 'whatever, whenever matches' for a couple of days, and hope to get at least 6 members. When we get 6, I'll post our first 'official' Squad day both here and at OS. I'm hoping we can do that by the middle of next week.
I should be on a lot tonight.