Killzone 2 (KZ2) is one of my most favourite games for the Playstation 3. Killzone 2 is a very different game as compared to the other run-of-the-mill FPS’s out there. Now, I might not be the best player out there but I’ve played my fair share of it. So, I thought of jotting down some quick points for the different classes, how to play them and how to make the most of them according to my opinion. I hope to make this a series where I would discuss the strategies for a class and its primary and secondary abilities and once all classes are covered, I’ll probably touch upon the rest of the aspects of the game. Please read them and supplement them with real practice to see the benefits. And yeah, do not hesitate to point out the flaws if any and I’d also love to hear about the tactics that you follow as well as KZ2 is a game where the element of surprise is very important which calls for unusual strategies many times ;).
So without wasting any more time, here is a really really basic set that you should follow:

  • Engineer’s Prime Role: Understand that your role is not that of a front line assault. An engineer is best suited as a defender or a support class.
  • Engineer’s Weapon - Shotgun: The shotgun is called the one shot killer. It fires a burst of various pellets resulting in a much larger hit area and so you need not be extremely accurate. But it has some salient points to be noted while using it.

    • Shotgun is useful only in a very short range. Avoid long range combat because 99% you will find yourself dead without even getting a single hit point at the opponent. This means lurk around in corners or alleyways, take the less travelled routes to your destinations, and let your turrets do the most of your job for you

    • Shotgun is slightly heavy as compared to other weapons and hence you will find yourself moving that right analog stick quite a bit more for aiming.

    • Shotgun has a high reload time between bullets and especially the full magazine. So if you are in middle of a fight and run out of a mag, it’s best to take out your M4 revolver instead of waiting to reload (or just run away if you are not confident enough of your revolver or haven’t unlocked it yet)

  • Engineer’s Primary Ability - Turrets:
    • Find elevated places. It has two advantages. First, it is more difficult for the opposition to take it out because it is above the eye level and second, your turret has more chances of getting headshots leading to faster kills and more points.
    • Cover up alleyways/alternate routes which the enemy can take to flank your team. This is more important than you think. You are, in effect, forcing the opposition to take a route where most of your team mates can easily take them down.
    • Don’t place them close to walls as it makes them more susceptible to damage.
    • Don’t bunch up your turrets, keep them a safe distance apart. This has two advantages. First, it is more difficult for the enemy to take out your turrets (otherwise they can take them out together easily), plus each turret can give cover to the other and also attack the enemy from two sides taking him down quickly.
    • For rounds like Search & Destroy/ Defend or assassination, don’t place turrets very close to the objective point but at a slight distance, at a place where the turret has clear line of sight to the objective point and/or the path to it. This will make it safe from the enemy while raining hell onto him while he is concentrating somewhere else.
  • Engineer’s Secondary Ability - Repair:
    • Repair ability is a very underrated ability. It might not give you a hell lot of points by itself but it is very important for your team.
    • Repairing ammo crates is a natural thing as your team mates might need it but that is not the most important thing to concentrate upon as people might not need them too often as people die often in KZ2 and moreover they might not want to waste time taking stuff out of the crate and risking their life.
    • First important use of repair ability is to repair your own turrets. Your turrets go under wear and tear as time progresses or when attacked by someone. It is of utmost importance to keep repairing them because you have to wait for a lot of time before you can set up another turret while repair ability recharges much faster.
    • Second is to repair the emplaced/mounted machine guns at various places in the maps. Repair them and use them to take down the enemy quickly (especially useful for S&D). But make sure that another guy/turret is protecting you from out of peripheral-view attacks. So that’s it for now. But keep in mind that just reading these tips won’t help unless you practice. Let me know if you found these tips helpful or if you have any map/situation specific queries and if you would like to add your own strategies. I’ll take up a new class next time.