ChromeHounds – My New Crack

Well, I've finally been able to kick the GRAW habit by replacing it with a new one. If you're too lazy to read this entire post, just let me say right up front CH is da shiznit.

This game has received terrible reviews, and I wasn't interested in it at all. Then I read some threads at Geezer Gamers (yes I'm an old fart by gaming standards), that were discussing building and tweaking hounds. I love to build stuff, and better yet I love to blow stuff up (yes in real life, both counts, but that's for another blog) so that got my attention.

Before you run out and grab your copy, there is one main thing to consider, and that is this game takes time to get into. If you are simply looking for something to pick up, play and have a blast from the git-go, you'll likely be disappointed.

To get started, you'll probably want to play the single player missions, which are basically a tutorial for the online play. As you progress through the tutorial, you are awarded parts for building your own hound. If you play games at 4-6 hours per sitting like I do, you should blast through most of the single player in a couple sessions.

The meat of the game, really the only aspect to consider, is the online play. You have to create or join a squad to compete in the war. It is basically a built-in clan system and it works great. Just find someone on your friends list that is playing and hook up with them.

There are six different role types that have different jobs.

Scout - grabs combas towers for comms, spies on the enemy, possibly a base killer if base is left undefended
Heavy Gunner - artillery
Defender - Typcially big cannons, rockets, etc. mainly will defend your base or your squadmates.
Sniper - self explanatory
Commander - has a special "NA Maker" part that shows the enemy positions on their map, they then communicate the info and possibly direct the squad.
Soldier - all around fighter, close range weapons, takes enemies on face to face. (this one usually dies first)

You can build your mech in limitless ways and combos so that you can have a versatile machine suited for more than one role. You can run a heavy soldier with big guns, or a defender with a couple of sniper cannons, maybe a commander running artillery, etc.

A lot of the fun in this game is experimenting with different parts, builds and roles to figure out how you best deal out death.

For example, you can have quad legs, bi-ped legs, inverse joint legs, tank treads, wheeled chassis, or even hover chassis. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and there are many variations of each type.

Some different weapons include:
Assault Rifles
Shotguns
Straight rockets
Rocket Pods with 6 rockets
Heat Seeker Missles
Artillery and mortars
Heavy Cannons
Incendiary Rounds (FUN!!)
Sniper Rifles and Cannons
Grenade Launchers
Spikes
Machine Guns
And the list goes on and on. Each weapon type has many different configs of weight, rounds, reload time, durability, damage penetration, etc.

Add these to the long list of various cockpits, generators, and hordes of assist parts, and you can be lost in building that war-winning frankenmech for days.

As you figure out the mechanics and best techniques for building, you will be working with your squadmates and learning team skills and strategy. There is no flying solo here, as the team that works together kills together.

There are 80-something maps on this game. Yep, that many. They aren't that gorgeously detailed as most graphics expense went into the mechs. However, I'd rather have 80 unique places to fight that were average instead of 10 awesome maps. (That got old on GRAW quick. And yes I got the DLC, but that was too little, too late IMO.) There are mountainous maps, snow-covered areas, night maps, wide open fields, fog, rain, and even sand or snow storms where you must use thermal vision to see 10 meters in front of you. There is a ton of variety, and though I've logged close to 200 hours in this game, I seem to be playing a new map almost every day.

If you like Siege on GRAW, you'll probably love this game. This game takes more time and planning as it requires more strategy and loadout prep. When your squad of different Role Types follows the plan, and everyone sticks to their role, this game is a total blast and the time investment is worth it. Planning an ambush, charging an enemy squad, working a single enemy from 4 different directions, switching up tactics between games, the list goes on - there is nothing else like this on the 360.

If you're a fan of fast FPS games and you want straight up deathmatch with no waiting, this may not be the game for you. But, if you like to think and mastermind the obliteration of your enemy before rapid-fire button-mashing, check this game out. Just have many hours to spare, as you'll likely get hooked.