It doesn’t make any sense. You’ve played plenty of shooters before and kicked copious amounts of ass in them, but there’s something about Crysis 2’s multiplayer that you just don’t get. Every confrontation ends with you watching some mercilessly long killcam while a bunch of super-soldier gorilla-men run around committing impossible acts of parkour and badassery. It’s unfair.
Above: You got the drop on this guy and he still kicked your ass
We understand your confusion. We really do. In this guide, we’ll detail some of the basics that have been escaping you, a few suggestions for your custom multiplayer class loadouts and a list of some Nanosuit modules (Crysis 2’s version of class perks) that you should avoid like the plague. Enjoy!
The Basics
Your melee attack is laughably ineffective
Despite what every other Call of Duty-esque shooter has taught you in the last five years, bringing a knife to a gunfight is one of the stupidest things you can do in Crysis 2. Your melee attack doesn’t produce an instant-kill via some quick knife-play (that’s exclusive to stealth kills) so much as an ineffectual girly slap. Enemy players take two good hits to take down. Even better, if they have their Armor activated, then you’ll have to hit them anywhere from three to four times.
Your ammo isn’t that precious. If an enemy player is up in your face trying to instigate a game of happy-slaps, open fire from the hip and watch how quickly he goes down. The only reason you should ever attempt to melee a guy is if you’ve snuck up on him and he has absolutely no idea that you’re there. Otherwise, stick to the bullets.
Side Note
Above: Stealth kills are clinically proven to make you more badass
Stealth kills are performed by melee attacking an enemy from behind while in Cloak. The end result is either a vicious throat stabbing or neck snap. Unlike the standard melee attack, these are badass and should be performed as often as possible.
Pick up enemy dog tags, doofus
Crysis 2 implements an aggravating interesting twist on kill streak rewards. Unlike in Call of Duty, simply blowing your enemy’s head off just doesn’t cut it anymore. Instead, you need to collect the appropriate number of cereal box tokens in order to access those nifty support bonuses. The game calls them “Dog Tags.” Check the bodies of every poor sap you take out. These things are bright green and literally impossible to miss – they emit a column of light four feet high and even remain on the field if you die before picking them up, so you can go back and scavenge even after being humiliated.
THIS-IS-SPAR-TAAAAH!!!
All of those cars aren’t just for cover. Using your melee attack, you can Leonidas-kick these abandoned vehicles at enemies and even use them to block doorways (useful for creating bottlenecks in objective-based game types). Remember to scream out some sort of 300 reference while you’re doing it, though.
Your Tactical Visor isn’t as useless as you think it is
“Why the hell would I use the Tactical Visor in a multiplayer setting? This isn’t single-player!”
A fine assertion, good sir. You see, while visually tagging enemy players may seem stupid when you could just, say, shoot them, the red outline that highlights their entire body along with the massive arrow that points directly at them can be seen by every single player on your team regardless of where they are. Keep this in mind if you see a group of enemies who are just out of your range. Your team will thank you.
Use your armor for God’s sake
Above: Armor is your friend
You’ve noticed how the majority of people you square off against (who usually kill you) all seem to be glowing, right? That’s because they’ve activated their Armor. Your nanosuit’s Armor mode transfers a fraction of the damage you receive to your energy pool, meaning that you can take a few more hits than you normally could. In addition to reducing damage you take, it also reduces the bounce of your weapon from taking hits, which means you’ll be more accurate in returning fire while you’re being pelted. Armor is particularly effective against explosives like grenades and C4. You can also activate Armor in mid-air to cushion your fall if you’re the daring type that likes to jump off of very high places. Note, however, that Armor does slow you down, so if you need to get somewhere fast, consider turning it off even if an enemy is firing on you.
He’s stealing second!
Sliding and firing your weapon at the same time is both stylish and sexy. It also makes beautiful women more inclined to sleep with you. Just keep in mind that this maneuver turns you into a fast-moving, small target. Sliding from a sprint makes way more sense than stopping dead in your tracks whenever you see an opposing player and you’re hoping to God that you get the first shot off.
Nano-Vision is your friend
Crysis 2’s Nano-Vision lets you see the heat signatures of all allies and enemies in your field of vision and helps you pick your targets out from all of the visual clutter. Plus, you can spot players who are using Cloak; albeit, their heat signatures are much more faint, but this beats not seeing anything at all. Think about it. Nano-Vision doesn’t soak up that much energy and it’s particularly useful in certain gametypes where players are guaranteed to be cloaked in certain places – for instance, in Capture the Relay, a great defensive tactic is to hide near your own Relay while cloaked, and use Nano-Vision to spot cloaked enemies trying to snatch your Relay.
