I knew the name From Software, but I don’t know that I’ve ever played any of their games before Chromehounds. Dying to have a new X-box 360 game that wasn’t a FPS, I picked up Chromehounds on a friend’s* recommendation. The solo player game leaves much to be desired, but anyone playing it will quickly realize that there’s a reason for that — the single player game is obviously just a tutorial for the “real” game, the multiplayer experience.

The story for the multiplayer game is simple. Each player declares loyalty to one of three warring nations, and then proceeds to fight battles for that nation in arenas picked from a small map. The money earned in these battles earns the money that the player needs to buy more parts to build a better HOUND. While the game itself groups hounds into six distinct catagories, there’s no real requirement that a HOUND must fit squarely into the categories. There are a ton of customization options, and it should be very interesting to see how people build HOUNDs that fit their own playstyle.

The only downside that I can really see is that the HOUNDs move very, very slowly (like giant walking tanks would be fast), even the fastest, the Scout class, and that’s something that’s fairly minor and easily ignored after you’ve gotten used to the game play. Overall, it’s an excellent game, and I’m really looking forward to playing it with a slightly larger squad after I get some of my friends to pick up the game. (Unfortunately, NCAA Football ’07 comes out tomorrow, so we’ll see whether I can actually get them to play.)

*Incidentally, said friend has left me hanging, leaving me to fight in the Neroimus War all alone.