Warhound  Preview for Xbox 360

- Luke, Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

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Title: Warhound .............................................. System: Xbox 360 .............................................. Genre: First Person Shooter .............................................. Publisher: TBA .............................................. Developer: Techland .............................................. Release: Fall 2007 .............................................. Online: Yes .............................................. ESRB: Rating Pending (RP) .............................................. Although the past year has brought us many new takes on different styles of games, it seems overly odd that we still haven’t experienced a true, free-roaming action game, much in the mold of Mercenaries. After all, the power of the systems around now is prolifically immense, and you would expect to see something along those lines to come our way. But, alas, we still haven’t gotten anything like that. And with the actual sequel to Mercenaries quite a while off, someone had to step in and fill that as-of-yet unquenchable gap. Thankfully, developers Techland have stood up and taken notice of this missing link, and plan on making their new first-person shooter Warhound, give us what we so sorely need; renegade action. Due out for the Xbox 360 and PC, Warhound looks set to become a fantastic addition to both libraries. In Warhound, choices are integrated around the entire spectrum of the game. Everything you do will be about choice, and in a lot of cases, you will be the one making some tactically difficult decisions. As an elite mercenary, it is your job to take down enemies, regardless of the dangers. Whether you are assigned missions by the government, private mobsters, or even people looking for someone to be killed, all of them must be taken into consideration before you accept an offer. However, in Warhound, the aim of the game is to make money for yourself. How you do this is entirely up to you. You can take the missions of anybody and everyone and face some severe consequences for your cold actions; otherwise you can pick and choose your way through tirades of offers. You won’t just be picking random missions either; some will have serious repercussions on the whole of the world. Take out a drug kingpin for instance, and you may find hired assailants tracking you down for blood money. Not only that, but gangs may not offer you jobs, seriously depleting potential funds. Again, the emphasis on the choices you make are underlined by the effects it can have on other aspects of the game. Ultimately, it is up to the gamer to make their own destiny. Regardless of how you go about the game, Warhound provides everything you need to make your way to the very top of the mercenary ladder. Your character will be entirely customizable. Not only in general appearances, but also how they perform in missions. You may choose to focus on the sneaking aspect of your character, thus not giving targets or their acquaintances, a chance to see you until the moment you fire your shot. Others may want to focus on movement when in the midst of a raging fire-fight. It is entirely up to you, and it should be interesting to see how much balance you can create when choosing your characters all-round attributes. Of course, to get any where in the world, you have to have the very finest equipment. Warhound has a vast array of weaponry, vehicles, and reconnaissance items for you to utilize to their maximum capabilities. All these will come out of your finances however, so buying the most expensive items straight off the bat won’t get you far. Instead you’ll have to pick up dropped items from fights and sell them on the black market, and of course use the funds you gain from your missions. If you do end up with a huge amount of money, endless possibilities open up in Warhound. You’ll be able to buy intelligence data for missions, layout plans for certain areas, and even transport for taking you to different countries. Warhound is also pretty physics driven, and this can really give you different options on how you approach different missions. You’ll be able to move objects for cover, as well as use certain environmental hazards to eliminate your foes, such as collapsing roofs, and rolling barrels towards enemies. Guerrilla warfare will most certainly come into play at one point or another, and you can be sure that taking down anyone can be accomplished just as well without brute force. Nowadays, most games aren’t complete without a solid multiplayer mode, and Warhound does not let gamers down one bit. Up to 32 players can battle it out on both the Xbox 360 and PC version in battlefields hardly rivaled by any recent game. You can even import your characters from the single player game, as well as all their equipment. Not only that, but you can also highly customize all the game modes to your specific liking. Visually, both versions look stunning. The PC version supports DirectX 10, and includes Pixel Shader 4.0 effects, including smoke, rain anf fire. However, this doesn’t mean that you are going to have a game looking exactly like Crysis, although Warhound does come pretty close. Both versions will look pretty much the same, so fans can be sure that whichever platform they are playing on, the game will always look fantastic. Techland are currently working away on the game to get it polished and ready for release. If Warhound can live up to it’s promise of being a completely free-roam shooting extravaganza, then we could be looking at one of the best games to be released in modern-times. With some excellent gameplay options, and incredible visuals, Warhound looks absolutely stunning.