Gamebrink has posted an import review of the much anticipated Chromehounds. Bad news: it looks to be sub-par at best. Neither a slow and methodical mech sim, nor a fast and arcadey shoot 'em up, Chromehounds can't seem to make up its mind. From the review:
"The first thing you'll probably think to yourself when you start a game of Chrome Hounds is, "Wow, this is really slow." No matter which type of Mech you choose to pilot you'll always feel like movement around levels is way too slow. That along with the fact that it's usually the case that the more weaponry you have on your Mech the slower it moves, and you've got all the ingredients for boredom. Now I guess this would be fine if the actual process of aiming, moving, and firing required a lot of micro-management thus making it a simulation type game but Chrome Hounds unfortunately has very limited controls."
Ouch. The review does note that the much hyped mech customization is very deep. Unfortunately, the online portion -- ostensibly where you'd be using your custom mech -- is not easy to navigate. The online persistent war is great in theory, but finding people to play with can be a chore apparently. What's that you say, you just want to play a quick deathmatch game? Too bad, because it's not an option. If you want to have a good time online you'll need five buddies who can be online whenever you are, because that's the only way to play.
Also, the music selection is pretty slim. That is to say, there is exactly one piece of background music. On the plus side, um, the graphics are pretty good. Gamebrink's advice: if you've got Live Gold, give it a rental. If not, skip it.
For my part, I wish it weren't so. Anyone still going to give it a try?
Update 1: it looks like Gamebrink completely failed to mention other online modes, which do in fact exist. Good thing, too, because I actually enjoyed the demo. And, for what it's worth, Famitsu scored the game 33/40. Not bad. My apologies for linking what I assumed was a well informed review. Ken and Chris G. sicced the ravenous weasels on me last night and I have learned my lesson.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-05-2006 @ 7:55PM
J00nBrains said...
Played the demo didn't think too much of it but i will give it a rent, cant see it doing much though :(
7-05-2006 @ 8:02PM
ben furneaux said...
well i have mine on pre-order and the money's already flown it's way out of my bank account so i hope i'm proven wrong.
i'm not too bothered about the soundtrack when i can just whack on some of the better music thats on my hd.
fingers crossed its better than that review but the demo did seem verrrrry slow...
7-05-2006 @ 9:17PM
Goobers said...
i can't trust GameBrink at all. all i get is a BAD vibe... and for me... my vibes tend to work.
"Wow, this is really slow." based on most gameplay vids i've seen (including the a few made by GameBrink)... they move about the same as MechWarrior for the PC. and i'd buy MW5 in a heartbeat (if it ever came out).
i think it might be better to wait for the "other" sites to review the US version... sites like GameSpot, IGN, 1up, etc.
7-05-2006 @ 11:21PM
dapperdan said...
it's gigantic robots!!! how fast do you expect them to move, now i am not saying this is going to a fantastic game, but of course i love over-g fighters. i am just saying that this game in no way pretends to be virtual-on or some other mech game. if you look at all the screenshots the mechs look like thrown together custom mechs, i know that is blantantly obvious, but i am just reiterating the fact that this game is about slow moving mountains of metal with frickin' guns, legs, and tank treads on them. i mean come on when was the last time you saw an a-1 abrahams tank rocketing across the desert?
just my honest opinion
7-05-2006 @ 11:24PM
Logan T. said...
I got bored halfway into the demo, so I'm definitely not giving it a try. The "Hounds" moved way too slow, and the aiming was clumsy and aggravating.
7-05-2006 @ 11:52PM
MK84 said...
I've had the game for 4 days now. Bought the Japanese edition that came with the faceplate made by Joytech. To sum it up...
It's more Mechwarrior-like than MechAssault, despite the simplistic controls. The physics in this game is believable. Where you mount a particular weapon is important, as the recoil will affect accuracy. I could be wrong here but it feels as if each weapons is fired individually when you pull the trigger, instead of firing as a group. Shells will also be affected by gravity.
The game feels slow because of the huge map.
7-06-2006 @ 12:25AM
zeroKFE said...
It's really a shame that you link to such a poorly researched review. He is entitled to his opinion (after all, the game's pacing is not for everyone) but the least he could do is get the facts right.
There ARE a bevy of multiplayer modes in addition to the persistent war. In fact, one of the well circulated trailers for the game focuses on showing off the wide variety of "free battle" game modes in the game, such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, CTF, and territory capture.
More shocking than the fact that he didn't do his research is that you haven't as well. At least have the decency to update the blog entry to point out this falacy.
7-06-2006 @ 7:59AM
Meliv said...
That reviewer is incompetant
7-06-2006 @ 11:18AM
zeroKFE said...
Thank you for correcting the post. Now if the original reviewer could only be made to fix his glaring error...
7-06-2006 @ 12:05PM
Richard Mitchell said...
I'm actually really looking forward to this game. I can look past the "instant fun" factor if the overall experience is satisfying. The demo wasn't great, but I managed to have fun with it.
Here hoping.
7-06-2006 @ 4:38PM
Josh said...
Dude this game is going to be SWEET and the guy that wrote this is an idiot there GIANT MECKS there not going to go 0-60 in 3 secs.
7-06-2006 @ 5:21PM
RedPhoenix HD said...
While I usually am very open to anyone's opinions about games etc, I have to say that whoever write the original review really has no clue how a good mech game should work.
The problem is that the game is fairly realistic, which is what in-depth mech players desire. Mechs are not going to be fast. Strategic wars are also not going to be fast.
With the exception of some server issues, which nobody seems to be clear on what is happening, the game seems pretty solid so far, based on reviews from mech players that are actually playing it.
7-06-2006 @ 7:35PM
TeamTBA said...
I dont trust GameBrink at all, they seem to very amature game reveiwers that base their reveiws on their prefference in gaming... in other words, if they dont like a good game simply because they dont like the genre, they give it a bad score. Also, if they do not like a game, they fail to mention any redeeming value and pretend it dosnt exist.
Dont trust these guys, on gamespot forums they got very angry and immature when people pointed out how bad of a reveiw they did on Over-g (reason for them not liking it..."All you do is blow stuff up in the air and on the ground"...are you joking?)
play the demo and i loved it
7-10-2006 @ 8:11PM
Barcode said...
Here's hoping for this to be a strategic version of Mechwarrior made for the 360, minus the cheap combat tactics (jumpjet-shooting) and the ballistic weapon superiorities from the series.