Controls & weapons
Shooting is triggered through the use of just one button and aiming through the use of a simple crosshair. There’s a slight delay between each shot whilst using certain weapons, but means that you’ll need to spend that extra few seconds to assess your surroundings and get your aiming spot-on, other times you’ll just get hit whilst waiting for the downtime to elapse. On most occasions this isn’t a significant problem, you’ll never get taken out with just one hit; these are huge mechanical beasts after all. In the top right hand corner of the screen sits a box, which shows the view from the cockpit of the mechanical beast. This is ideal for long ranged shooting and the box is the perfect size for gaining a close up view of the action. There’s also a zoom function which is crucial if you need to save ammo and don’t want to send shots spiralling way past the enemy. Aiming and shooting is extremely easy and targets can be picked out at will due to the slow speed of the crosshair
Click for larger imageThe weapons pack a powerful punch and can quite easily take out whole buildings with just one missile sending them crumbling to the ground in a mass of smoke. The majority of the environments are destructible, you can trample over trees and through buildings but you won’t be able to blow up any of the numerous radio towers scattered around the vast wilderness.
Click for larger imageThe sniping vehicle requires a totally different approach to the action and works almost the same way as using a sniper on the likes of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Due to the long range capabilities of the sniper, you can position yourself away from the battle, find yourself a nice vantage point, and snipe away from relative safety. The variation in the 6 different vehicles means that you’ll be working with a complete squad that offers the same versatility as our own present day armed forces – only this time you’re in a mechanical dinosaur. The ‘Hounds’ movements are controlled using the left and right analogue sticks; left controls the movement whilst right controls the targeting.
The simplicity of one button firing, the rapid weapon switching method, and the overall simplicity of the controls makes Chrome Hounds instantly accessible to those who are familiar with first person shooters.
During night-time battles there’s a convenient light that can be switched on and off by pressing the left thumbstick, be aware though, this can give away your position.
