Warhound is an open-ended First-Person Shooter (FPS) set in modern times. In the game, you will play as an ex-Delta Force operative, now working for the world’s largest military contractor. In Warhound, you’ll complete a variety of challenging missions in battlefields around the world, while later uncovering a massive terrorist plot that targets the United States and thousands of its citizens.

Warhound focuses on complete freedom of choice, and as such, you will have unprecedented opportunities to pick your missions, weapons, battlefield tactics and vehicles. You will select mission start times, insertion/extraction points and the types (land, sea or air) of insertion. You will also need to keep on top of your training, finances and position in the highly-competitive mercenary market to ensure you receive only the most select missions. More successful missions equal more money, which can be used to buy new equipment and weapons for future jobs. Warhound’s innovative First Person Perspective (FPP) cover system will allow you to bring the battle to your enemies in ways you’ve never dreamed of before.

More information after the jump. Here are some nice high-resolution screenshots from the game:

Unprecedented freedom of choice in an FPS

• Tackle missions in the order you choose, create your own path through each mission’s objectives
  
• Plan your tactics and equipment load-outs
  
• Buy satellite photos, recon data and other intelligence about the battlefield situation
  
• Pick a deployment time and location, then pay for the means of getting in and getting out

• Train your character in several skills, including climbing, repair, and weapons proficiency
  
• Skills are earned and developed as in the real world – for ex., shooting ranges improve accuracy, running tracks and climbing walls boosts cover and movement skills
  
• Develop and use skill specializations to gain advantages in combat; new skills offer fresh opportunities for advancement through the mercenary ranks, and new ways to complete missions

• For the first time in FPP/FPS games, you’ll be able to use the innovative cover system, which will forever change your way of looking at FPS games. Use items, trees, buildings and other elements of the environment to hide from the torrent of bullets. Shoot at your enemies from behind safe covers.

• Earn money for each successful mission and by selling materials picked up on the battlefield
  
• Use your newly earned riches to buy weapons, ammo and new gadgets
  
• Invest in learning new skills

• Every mission is laid out differently each time you play it, enemy units take up new positions, post new patrols, lay traps in different locations, set up ambushes, etc.
  
• Enemy A.I. takes into account how you’re playing the mission, and counters with unique strategies and tactics

• A fully interactive environment means plenty of surprises for the enemy – destroy buildings they are hiding in, set villages on fire to “smoke them out”, cause avalanches and knock down trees to clear your line of fire or to create obstacles for the enemy and cover for you

• Climb up the career ladder and increase your reputation among the elite mercenaries of the world
  
• Successful players will earn prestige among their peers, which leads to better and more lucrative contracts

Warhound is an FPP shooter where you make a career of the elite mercenary. When you are not working, you get new licenses and improve. When at work, you take part in the hottest world conflicts

Because you are a Warhound – an elite mercenary on the side of good.

The choice is yours. You’ve got a laptop and a map of the world. Presidents, businessmen, and ordinary people ask you for help where nothing more can be done officially. You choose a mission, then fly, clean and disappear. You get the reward and nobody knows anything.

Will you lead your carrier to reach the top?

GAME FEATURES

• Manage your carrier. SOS messages come from many places. Freely plan you way of a mercenary.
  
• Develop your skills. Gain the license of an Alpinist to climb harder and harder rocks, learn to operate new vehicles – from jeep to tanks and boats; practice shooting and test weapons on your own firing ground.
  
• Fight the way you want. Each mission has a number of ways to reach the goal. The number depends on your abilities.
  
• Go back to where you already fought. Enemies are like weed which revive in uncultivated soil. Many missions can be repeated many times.
  
• Manage your equipment. Buy better weapons and trade the equipment found on the battleground.
  
• Use the intelligence service. Buy information that will allow you to learn more about your enemy.
  
• Specialize. By completing tasks of given type you become a specialist. Build your reputation which will bring you new orders and will open the way to the top of the ranking.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

• Support for all modern per-pixel lighting and rendering techniques, including:
  
  • 64-bit color High Dynamic Range rending pipeline
    
  • virtual displacement mapping, multi-bump mapping,
    
  • wide range of post-processing effects (depth-of-field, light blooms, refraction, heat distortion)
    
  • high quality pre-computed lighting with ambient occlusion
    
  • pre-computed shadow masks, omni-projector lights
  
  
• High quality Spherical Harmonics Lighting
  
• Outdoor light scattering simulation
  
• Dynamic shadows based on global hierarchical shadow-maps using hardware shadow mapping
  
• High quality character models built from high-poly meshes using normal maps (bump mapping)
  
• Multi-morphtarget facial mimics
  
• Accurate simulation and animation of vegetation, fumes and smokes – reaction to wind, moving object, etc.
  
• Global Physics simulation system including the simulation of:
  
  • rigid body dynamics, clothes, next generation muscle-skeleton ragdoll
    
  • natural phenomena simulation: fire, smoke, liquid, electricity and wind effects,
    
  • objects properties influence with liquids
    
  • surface parameters such as friction
  
  
• Effective and easy to use authoring tools
  
• Real time multi-layer foliage generation

The game is yet to carry a release date.

The PC version is now expected to be released simultaneously with the console version; Europe’s release date remains the same.

Pawel Marchewka – Techland’s CEO said : “We made a decision to begin production of Chrome sequel early in 2005, however the pre-production really started in the beginning of this year. Now, when Call of Juarez – our currently most important project enters beta phase, part of the team may redirect its work to first stages of Chrome sequel development. For some time now we are experimenting with interesting concepts taken form books, comics and sci-fi movies that at this point were never ported into video games or were ported without success. Basing on the few first elements we prototyped for the next part of Chrome we think it will revolutionize sci-fi games, allowing players to experience brand new content and original gameplay.”

The announcement also stated that the game will feature a single-player campaign as well as multiplayer squad-based play for up to 64 players. No release date for the project was set.