Hounds: The Last Hope First Look Gameplay Video

This time we're going to be taking a look at a game called Hounds: The Last Hope, it's a free to play third-person shooter published by Buff. As usual we'll go through the game and show you some of what it has to offer. So let’s jump right on in!

> Play Hounds: The Last Hope for FREE here

Watcha Playin'? is a FreeMMOStation show where we give you a first look with commentary on the most popular free-to-play MMO games available.

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

Now right off the bat, I noticed something as soon as I started it up. The game is advertised as having “new generation” graphics, but honestly to me it looks like it came right out of 2008. I'm mentioning this because it's right on their home page as a selling point. However it's not -that- big of a deal to me, as graphics don't necessarily affect gameplay. Also, there was no main menu. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but you'll get thrown into the game immediately after all the logos. But it’s just a closed beta, I guess this will change.

Hounds: The Last Hope is a third-person shooter with RPG elements. It has a leveling system, a skill system, inventory with items and even quests that you can gather from NPCs in the persistent world or lobby area. The controls in Hounds Online are very familiar as it has the traditional shooter control scheme, moving around with WASD, crouching with ctrl and so on.

Upon entering the game you'll have to go through a short tutorial that will introduce you to all the elements in the game. The game tries to have a cinematic storyline but it falls short with stiff character animations and not-so-great voice acting that really kills the immersion, at least for me. Running around doesn't look or feel natural to me. There's no jump button, spacebar is used to dodge roll, and the animation is spastic and sort of looks more like a cartwheel than a roll.

Hounds has two game modes so far, Co-Op and PVP. Co-Op is an objective type mode where you must work together with a team (or solo) to complete the objectives or missions while fighting hordes of zombies. Yes, that's correct! ZOMBIES!!! There are Main Missions, Sub-Missions and Boss missions. I'm not entirely sure how sub-missions and boss missions work as it wasn't available to me during my playthrough. I will however say, that despite the faults in this game, Co-Op was actually pretty fun. It sort of reminded me of Left 4 Dead, as it has zombie hordes, special infected types, safe rooms and even a finale. Besides, mindless zombie violence is never really a negative, now is it?

The PVP mode has different game types as well. It has your run of the mill Deathmatch, Sabotage and occupation type modes. I didn't play all of the game modes, but I did do Deathmatch and it's pretty standard stuff. What I don't like about playing is that the guns are supposed to be hitscan, but there seems to be a delay between firing and when the bullet hits the target, distance has no effect on this. I know the game is currently in beta though, so perhaps this is a bug or some sort of server lag. The game’s crosshairs aren't very accurate either, or perhaps I'm just not very good.

Overall, I'd say the game is worth checking out if you like zombies and want a free-to-play experience similar to left 4 dead or Killing Floor. It's not bad in the sense that it's unplayable, but there are a lot of issues that I feel need to be worked on before this game is fully released. Animations could definitely be smoother, the textures could be a lot better and that hitscan bug or lag definitely needs to be fixed.

I hope you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe to FreeMMOStation! And as always, I'll see you guys next time!