Chrome Hounds has been written off in many gaming quarters. The arguments state that the single player is terrible, it’s too slow with not enough action, it’s too serious and it’s not very ‘next-gen’. And they’re all correct...

...in the same way that Ocarina of Time is just standard Zelda fare if you never make it as far as Hyrule Field.

Chrome Hounds is a war game, in that everything is about ‘The War’. The single player mode, the mech construction, the story, the sober tone, everything about the game is focused on pushing the player towards ‘War’. More specifically the Neromious War. A fictional war in fictitious countries played as a persistent MMO. It’s where regions are fought over by squads of giant mechs; the new fighting force on an Earth plagued by solar flares that render aircraft and long range missiles inoperable.

The sombre story mode offers merely a series of training modules that prepare the player for war, laying down the foundations of the story, demonstrating the different types of mech and giving the player the opportunity to win enhanced mech-parts to be used in the main war.

The tag line for Chrome Hounds is ‘Hunt Like a Pack or Die Like a Dog’ and as tacky at that sounds, it is the crux of the game. There are six different mech types: fast moving, lightweight scouts; frontline soldiers; heavy escorters called defenders; long range but vulnerable snipers; virtually stationary but extremely powerful heavy gunners using indirect fire; and the Commander, the eyes of the squad. They all rely on one another.

Commanders are key because only they carry the necessary radar equipment (an NA Maker) to view the enemy mechs on the map and relay this information back to the team. But they are reliant on the other mechs to capture the COMBAS radio towers around the war zone, because without these they are blind. Using the in game mech garage, the player could build a fast commander to capture the COMBAS towers, but the mech wouldn’t be able to carry many weapons and would be virtually defenceless.

There’s always a trade off, always a price to pay. The mech customisation isn’t as in depth as Armored Core, but it’s wonderfully balanced. Do you go for a complete soldier mech or a half-way house between a sniper and scout? You could build a heavy gunner with three huge cannons, but you would have to sacrifice the weight for an extra light and flimsy cockpit. The firepower would be immense, but one well-placed shot from a sniper and you would be toast.

A soldier with an NA Maker sounds perfect, but that NA maker sucks a lot juice. Now you need a bigger, heavier generator and with the combined weight you now need sturdier but much slower legs. Now your fighter can take on anyone (if it can ever get to the fight).

The mechs need each other. A fast moving scout may not pack a punch, but he can pick off a heavy gunner at close range like David did Goliath. This isn’t a game where teamwork is a luxury. Games aren’t won on acts of singular ability, this war is tactical. The slow pace of the mechs demands that players work together with each other and with the landscape, whether it be in the tight confines of the cities or the rolling hills of the countryside.. There’s no rocket jumping or circle strafing to get you out of a hole here. Battles are won and lost at the tactics screen before the fighting ever commences.

Some of game’s design decisions are curious, until you realise that this is how it’s meant to be. War is Hell after all. That only the Commander can distinguish between friendly and enemy mechs is deliberate. It forces players to paint their mech in ways to distinguish themselves. Squads are compelled to create their own squad colour schemes and emblems, a feature fully supported by the game, enhancing the feel of war. Winning battles allows the player to plunder the enemies booty and possibly win advanced weaponry to further distinguish their mech.

Chrome Hounds is not a game to buy for the single player game. It is even not worth purchasing for the standard multiplayer modes. Everything is about the war and unless you have a group of friends you can join a squad with and participate in the war together, frankly forget it. This makes this game an incredibly niche title, but since when was niche a bad thing? Don’t we want titles like this, that demand both intelligent play and teamwork to succeed? If this is you, then the war will suck you in and every battle won will be a moment to savour.

But think on this. As niche as this title is, it’s a hundred times more mainstream than Steel Battalion: Line of Contact, the game that it resembles. And because of that it should have a healthier lifespan. The initial server problems where only a few players could connect have now been irradicated, but there are balancing issues and tedious glitches that still need to be resolved. Both From Software and Sega appear committed to this game in the medium term at least, but be warned, when the servers eventually die this game will become worthless.

Chrome Hounds makes no apologies for what it is and it isn’t looking for your appreciation. It just wants you to fight in its war. Pretenders need not apply. But if the lure of war is tempting you, then sign up.