kingkenny76
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 | Subject: 10 Ways to Not Get Owned in Killzone 2 Multi-player  Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:46 am | |
| - Quote :
- GENERAL TIPS
#1: I heart default guns
In the average online shoot-out, the first thing you'll want to do is get rid of your annoyingly underpowered starting weapons. Killzone 2 turns that logic on its head: the ISA and Helghast rifles you pack as a lowly Rifleman Private stack up well against anything the servers can muster, whether you're dodging grenades in an alleyway or laying down hot hollowpoint love from across half the map.
The Helghast get their hands on some ISA rifles
By contrast, you'll really have to pick your moment if you want to call on more impressive tools of destruction. A rocket launcher will bag you a lot of immediate, incendiary gratification, but once you've used up its three shots you'll be stuck with a pistol - and thanks to your antics, every enemy player in the vicinity will be aware of your position. Heavy machine guns are satisfyingly cacophonous and do sterling work when you're crouched motionless at one end of a corridor, but gallop around shooting from the hip and you'll just hit rubble.
So get used to those default rifles. Learn to love 'em. Not that you'll have a choice - it'll take most players a good dozen hours to unlock all the other firearms.
#2: Be creative with cover
Everything in the universe can be used as cover, if you're desperate - and you'll be desperate several times a match. Flapping locker doors. Bits of broken turret. Stairway rails. Pillars. Free-standing shelves. Urinals. Sure, that centimetre of doorframe you're skulking against might only buy you one additional second of life, but that's an additional second in which you could fire one additional bullet, and that additional bullet could buy you another kill. Little victories like that are the meat and potatoes of Killzone 2 online.
#3: Healing Hands
Medics are the beating heart of any defensive action, able to zap downed allies back to life (if they're quick enough) or toss medical packs to those still breathing. But never fear - playing the Good Samaritan has its more belligerent, less conscientious side. You might, for instance, revive a battered friendly right under the other team's nose, then charge in for the kill while they're busy gunning him down a second time.
Let mommy kiss it better
#4: Eyes in the sky
With visibility at a premium in Helghan's spectacularly disordered, multi-levelled urban sprawl, why not call on some of your secondary abilities to help you flush out the foe? The Engineer's turrets and the Tactician's aerial drones can rack up juicy experience-laden kills when deployed near popular thoroughfares, but given a bit of shelter, any halfway skilled human player will have little trouble taking them apart. If they're not always lethal, though, they will at least let you know where your enemies are, sending a hail of bullets towards any would-be stealth flanker the moment they sidle into range.
ISA and Helghast engineers and drones
As a Scout, your first instinct may be to shun the company of your squad mates, lug your sniper rifle to the top of the nearest edifice and treat the enemy to a little long-distance dental readjustment. Good for you. But don't forget you can "tag" foes too, making them appear on your team's mini-maps even when out of sight.
#5: Keep your friends close
Killzone 2 lets you put together four-man squads mid-match. Do so. Being part of a workable squad lends you a decisive tactical advantage, particularly in objective-driven match types like Capture and Hold or Search and Destroy. Squad members can spawn in alongside their leader, appear as purple blips on each other's mini-maps and have their own private voice channel.
That shotgun guy on the right should be taking point. Tsk.
If you're part of a squad, put teamwork first. Pick a class to complement those of other members, even if it means sacrificing your own preference. Be accommodating. If some selfish whinging psychopath wants a monopoly on the armour-plated Assault class, just nod graciously, take a few deep breaths and step into the ring as something more indirect, like the sneakily-does-it Saboteur. Be the bigger man.
Killzone 2 is a game where he who squeezes a shot off first stays upright: movement and turning are treacle-slow, and your health bar is as meaty as a tofu salad. With three guys watching your back, each fulfilling a different combat role, you can be reasonably confident some lone gun won't get the drop on you. Or if he does, that he won't be around to crow about it.
BLOOD GRACHT
Remember that ex, the one who stubbed out cigs on your mother's best tablecloth and poured Guinness over your custom-built Elite by way of an "amicable break-up"? Blood Gracht makes her look like Hermione Granger. It's a savage little thumbscrew of a map, a pint-sized architectural wildcat that will have all but the most level-headed players hurling controllers at passers-by. For that very reason, it also makes you feel like a complete hero when you do, somehow, stumble onto a winning streak - but be prepared for a rough-and-tumble ride.
The Helghast try to take out one of the ISA's drones on the left, and right, Blood Gracht's pride and glory: the trench of doom
The smallest of the beta's maps, the Gracht is dominated by a deep litter-strewn trench, four or five metres across and eighty-ish lengthways, overlooked from the west by a maze of run-down residential blocks. The ISA kick off in some two-storey buildings at the southern end of this trench, linked to the residential blocks by a patchwork iron gangway, while the Helghast hold the higher ground to the north, looking out onto some skeletal platforms. Stairwells link each base to the trench, and a narrow, covered channel juts out halfway down into the midst of the residential complex.
#6: A rock and a hard place
As a gurning, wet-behind-the-ears noob pup, your choices on first setting foot in the Gracht are twofold: you can either hop over the guard rail outside your base and enjoy a few thrilling seconds running for cover in that trench before a bullet peels open your skull like an R-rated Jack-in-the-box, or you can mosey on into those residential blocks, bump around blindly for a bit and get shredded from three directions at once as you stop for a breather.
A Helghast Scout doing his very best Batman impression
If you're not so keen on those apples, best decide in advance which angle you're going to take and kit yourself out appropriately. If you're gunning for the trench, it's Assault class all the way. You aren't totally exposed - there are oil drums, wooden struts and bits of corrugated metal to provide fleeting refuge - so remember Point #2 and improvise. Deploy a drone if you have the capacity - those rattling airborne death insects can be a useful diversion. If you're on the defensive, just bust out a heavy machine gun and dig in like crazy.
If you're off into the rabbit warren, bring a shotgun or SMG. There are three or four linked, parallel routes through the residential blocks, two on the first floor, which permits no end of furtive flanking manoeuvres and surprise counterattacks. Try to move out in groups of three or more - two players to keep an eye on the entrance and exit to a room, a third to provide fire support, toss the odd grenade or heal and revive. Watch those corners, and stay the hell away from the windows.
This chap didn't read Tip #6
#7: Running the gauntlet
Knowing exactly when to exploit that trench, which lets you move directly and rapidly to the other end of the map, can be vital: if everybody's tied up over a few key rooms to the west, it may be worth making a break for it. Having bypassed the battle raging in the blocks, you can either ambush any reinforcements as they re-spawn or double-back and catch the other team in the rear. If you're carrying the beacon in Capture and Retrieve, getting down that trench intact will pretty much guarantee you the match.
RADEC ADADEMY
Real-world schools suck, there's no two ways about it. We much prefer Radec Academy, Helghan's gold educational standard, where neon-eyeballed maniacs trot between bookshelves and shell-shocked, unshaven farmboys take cover in the canteen. Like Blood Gracht, the Academy splits its action between one, headshot-friendly open area and smaller chambers better suited to beat-down specialists, but the division isn't quite so drastic, and the map is roomy enough to support 32 players without inducing bloodshot vision.
The central courtyard
The ISA start out in an airy garage the southern side of the map, while the Helghast inhabit a damp, mouldering barracks to the north. Exiting either base, you pass through some large outer rooms (the Helghast appear to have a kitchen, though coffee machines weren't in evidence) to a central open courtyard dominated by some abstract neo-fascist sculptures. First floor windowed galleries and walkways look down on the courtyard, and to the east an ornate antechamber leads off to a tiered lecture theatre (a great place for a shoot-out) and library. All these areas are connected by stairways and passages.
The antechamber on the left, and the lecture theatre, right
#8: The Great Escape
The bulk of players on either team will infallibly absorb themselves taking potshots across that courtyard, or storming the chambers adjoining it, but the bases are also accessible by way of two subterranean passages hidden beneath a stairwell to the west. This is less of a critical vulnerability than it sounds: only one player can use the ladder out of the depths at a time, making it easy for base defenders (once alerted) to pick off infiltrators as they emerge.
As a means of escape, however, the tunnels can be invaluable. The reason for this is that it's fairly easy for a well-organised team, perhaps packing a rocket launcher or two, to trap a disorderly enemy force in their base, particularly if that team is playing ISA. Underground route aside, the Helghast have only one way out of their barracks - a narrow doorway screened by a brick facade. Two or three skilled ISA players positioned in the cluttered room beyond - one on the stairwell looking down, one to either side of the door - can seal the bees in their hive for an entire match.
Either somebody sneezed, or that's a Scout decloaking
The human outpost, by contrast, has a nice wide ground floor entrance and immediate access to the first floor, making it harder to close off. Don't get too cocky though: outside the entrance there's a corridor which leads directly to the courtyard, giving distant Helghast riflemen line-of-sight on unwary ISA troops as they appear. Keep your head down if you step out for a smoke.
SALUMAN MARKET
Get your oranges, fresh vegetables, pirate DVDs! Perhaps a bit of foreign confectionary or blue-veined cheese? Lord only knows what the Helghast used to sell in Saluman Market, but now the only goods on offer are shrapnel and bullet casings. If you're looking for that true-blue 32 player experience, this is the place to stage it. A colossal zig-zag, the Market is hemmed in by first floor sniper's eyries and clinched at the waist by a pair of spacious two storey warehouses, themselves yoked together by a walled bridge. We've managed to obtain a painted overview from Guerrilla's cackling cartographers - feast your eyes on its cross-hatched brilliance:
#9: Stretch those legs!
As the largest beta map and one, moreover, liberally stocked with vantage points, the Market is a natural haven for snipers. It's also a great place for utterly epic mid-range battles, especially if you're playing an objective-driven match type. The two Capture and Defend/Search and Destroy points squat right out in the open, assailable from several angles, while two of the three Capture and Hold points are tucked away in more defensible but still pretty open nooks, and the third has been plonked atop the bridge. The action in the centre can be pretty intense, as rival marksman lay down covering fire for the up-close-and-personal players duking it out between the pillars of those warehouses. If it gets too hot for comfort, avail yourself of the alleyways round the back of each building.
In the shadow of the bridge, left, and the Helghast nail another ISA grunt, right
#10: Tactican's choice
With a journey from base to frontline costing a precious minute or two, the Tactician's spawn grenades are a man's best friend. Toss one of these on the ground and you'll create a temporary spawn point, as marked by a plume of coloured smoke, ensuring a steady flow of grunts to any contested objectives nearby.
Spot the spawn grenade in the background
It's important to be scientific about how you do this. Dropping a spawn grenade in full view of a few cover points or sniper's nests will simply serve up respawning players to the other side's bullets on a platter, so try to squirrel them away in passageways and the like. Even given such precautions, the other team will eventually lock onto the spawn grenade and do their utmost to camp it to oblivion: you can, if you're disposed to be wily, exploit this by having a few players spawn in on the grenade to keep the enemy occupied while your main force attacks from a different angle.
That's enough sage advice for one day. Fire up our single player preview for more goodies, or get your fill of the developer's thoughts from our latest interview here. | |
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