Some Assembly Required

Where would the fun be in playing a game with giant war machines if you couldn't customize them? In Chromehounds™, customization is central to the gameplay. The whole point of taking on missions, other than to whip your opponents' butts, is to earn money so you can tweak your ride.

From the very beginning, you can create your own Hound, although your options are limited in the early stages. You start with one base, a bipedal unit called the AF2-TL-2. You add a cockpit, a power generator, and weapons, positioning the pieces to your own specifications (within reason, of course).

Build the ultimate Hound.

Collect the Pieces
Initially, you only get a pair of machine guns and a bomb dispenser. They will not satisfy you, but have no fear. As you play through the missions in Story Mode, you'll earn more parts, including weaponry. Depending on how well you do (yes, performance matters), you can earn Hound equipment with each mission you successfully complete.

You have no control over which pieces you earn from your missions, but they come in a logical order. When you enter the Garage from the main menu to build your Hound, you'll find your new parts waiting for you. What you do with them is your decision.

Customize with coloring and decals.

Put It Together
Once you enter the Garage, you'll be given several choices. If you've already assembled a mech, you can modify it, renaming it, switching out parts, changing weapons and power settings. You can also change ammo on the weapons that take a variety.

As you get new pieces, you can add them to your Hound to suit your fancy. Select a new piece, then rotate it and move it around on your Hound until you find a spot you like for it. The designing process is flexible enough so that you can feel free to be flexible with your Hounds design, within reason, of course.

Each piece has junctions or sockets into which you can plug other pieces. This prevents you from attaching your cockpit on top of a machine gun, for example. Additionally, there are two types of parts: E parts and B parts. The E parts are the extras. The B parts are basic pieces, large and heavy, and are mostly required, like your cockpit and your stabilization system. You're limited to attaching B parts to other B parts. This also enforces a certain physical logic to how you build your Hounds.

Obviously, you don't want your mech to be too top-heavy. Load on too much hardware, and you'll slow your mech down. You can use the provided spacer parts to keep weapons and accessories far enough apart so they don't interfere with each other's functions. You can even use the spacers for aesthetic purposes, to raise your cockpit, or to make a gun stand out on its own.

When they go up against your custom-designed Hound,
will people call you an engineer, an artiste, or perhaps
something that can't be printed here?

Save It or Sell It
Once you have your Hound the way you like it, always remember to save your data. This will not only allow you to add to a collection of designs, but will also give you a group of mechs to start with when you want to do some additional customization. Save a good basic design you like, and come back to it time and time again, customizing it for different missions. Always keep in mind when assembling your mech, though, that parts you've earned in combat on Xbox Live™ can only be used in online combat, not in the Story Mode.

You can sell your extra parts on Xbox Live for in-game currency, called Funds. Your assembly data requires that all the parts used remain in your inventory, so you can't sell off any parts you're usingYou'll only be allowed to sell parts that are not attached to a mech. This is an excellent way to increase your Funds, which you can then re-invest in your Hound.

Add everything but the fuzzy dice.

Since you're selling your surplus parts, you can, of course, purchase other parts as well. If you want, you can even purchase the assembly data for a new Hound. You'll only be able to use it if you have all the necessary parts both E and B in your inventory, so make sure to stock up before trying to put a new mech together.

Once you've got your mech the way you like it, the game gives you the opportunity to take it for a test run. Test out your weaponry and look for the weak spots in your design by running through a closed scenario. Take the time to practice your tactics with this new mech as well. When they go up against your custom-designed Hound, will people be calling you an engineer, an artiste, or perhaps something that can't be printed here?

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy