Gears of War 2 multiplayer combat guide

The moment is upon us, friends. Gears of War 2 is out two years after the original Emergence Day. Let’s take a moment of silence to commemorate this day…

Good. Now that we’re done with that sappy bullshit, I’m going to tell you how to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. Gears of War 2 is a lot like the original, but with some key differences in the weapons department. This guide will get you well on your way to ownage, but is mostly a primer to bigger and better things in multiplayer.

The tactics can apply to singleplayer as well, but we all know that hunting humans is the most dangerous game.

First things first: The basics.

Boot Camp

Unlike Gears of War, Gears of War 2 separates the stick speed settings for aim and movement. This is a good thing–it allows you to use a slow sensitivity for aiming while preserving the necessary fast sensitivity for un-aimed turning.

Set your look speed in the options to high. You’re going to need it to round corners effectively while sprinting. Not having a high look speed spells disaster for beating your opponents to Power Weapons, items and objectives.

As far as your aiming sensitivity goes, you can set it to whatever is comfortable. In the end, you’ll want to graduate to a high aiming sensitivity too; the quicker you can put your crosshair on someone, the quicker you can kill him and move on to the next target.

There’s also a zoom sensitivity option for when you are zoomed in with the Longshot Sniper Rifle or pistols. Once again, set it to whatever you like, but try to get it as high as possible for flick shots and quick aiming.

There’s generally not a lot of time for camping in Gears 2 matches, so you won’t be spending ages to line up pixel-perfect shots anyway. The majority of your combat will happen in medium to short range with the Lancer automatic rifle, the semi-automatic Hammerburst, and the Gnasher shotgun. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Assault Rifles

The two mid-range rifles in the game, the Lancer and Hammerburst, will be your bread and butter for combat. Never leave home without them, but you need to understand their differences.

The Lancer, having received an apparent damage boost from its Gears predecessor, is more effective at mid-range than ever. Its chainsaw bayonet will take care of anyone who gets close, but be warned: You are no longer invulnerable when chainsawing enemies, so never do it in a crowded area or you sentence yourself to death.

The Locust Horde’s Hammerburst is now semi-automatic (instead of a 3 round burst), but with higher damage. The Hammerburst will fire as quickly as you can pull the trigger, making it devastating in the right hands. However, these bonuses come with a cost: Higher recoil. You will have to pull the crosshair down hard to compensate for recoil when firing the Hammerburst repeatedly.

Pistols

The Snub Nosed pistol and Boltok pistol return unchanged from Gears, packing lots of heat. All players will spawn with the semi-automatic Snub Nosed pistol, which features an integrated zoom function (press down on the left stick) and fires as quickly as you can fire it.

Meanwhile, the Boltok pistol is a revolver-style gun with high recoil and a low rate of fire, but very high damage. In most cases, its low rate of fire and difficult recoil compromise its usefulness. You will need to find this weapon on the map and pick it up.

Lastly, the Gorgon pistol is a brand new weapon in Gears of War 2. It features burst fire from two clips, does great damage, but has a long reload time.

The Gnasher

Gears of War’s Gnasher returns in Gears 2 with some nerfs. First, its shot spread has been widened, making it less effective at medium range. Secondly, the rate of fire has been slowed down. These nerfs are to counteract the “dive directly at your opponent and pull the trigger” tactic that seemed to dominate the original game.

That said, the Gnasher is still a premier close-range weapon due to its high damage. Up-close, it’s the go-to weapon for the majority of players, and you’re going to see quite a few shotgun duels when you play online. A Gnasher with the active reload damage bonus will ruin your day.

When using the shotgun, it’s appropriate to fire from the hip, but remember this: The center of your screen isn’t always where the gunshots will go. That leads us to…

Advanced combat: Firing from the hip

Firing from the hip is more art than science in Gears of War 2, and a difficult skill to learn. The Lancer isn’t too effective from the hip, but the Hammerburst can be, and you need to master it for effectiveness with the Gnasher in shotgun duels.

The camera view in the Gears series is obviously over your character’s right shoulder. But your character isn’t always aimed directly at the center of the screen; he’s aiming wherever his gun is pointing. Standing stationary, your shots will go toward the center of the screen, because the screen isn’t moving.

But when turning, the invisible crosshair moves to the left or right of center. It takes the camera a split second to catch up to your character and recenter the screen–a second that can find you blown to pieces if you don’t know where to aim.

When turning left, your character will aim slightly to the left of center. Likewise, when turning right, he is aiming right of center. Pull the trigger at the right time (lag willing) and you’ll blow your opponents into a shower of gibs. Don’t wait for the screen to recenter, or you know what comes next. A good example of firing from the hip properly can be found in the video below at around 1:36.

To avoid the camera looseness, fire from the hip while strafing left or right. Try not to turn too much when firing from the hip, or the camera, combined with lag, can throw your aim way off.

Advanced combat: Melee

There will be ample opportunity to take advantage of that other combat mode, melee, in Gears 2, because it’s one of the most effective ways to rid the map of enemies. Different guns behave far differently in melee battles, and your knowledge of this will determine your success.

One quick note about melee combat: Gears 2, like Gears, automatically tracks the enemy after you land a successful melee hit. After landing a hit, strafe left or right and start pulling the trigger rapidly; you will be aiming directly at the opponent for a couple of seconds. Let’s get into it.

The Lancer’s chainsaw doesn’t need any explanation (just press “B”), but you need to tap B quicky when you’re in a chainsaw duel. Or you can just use a controller with a turbo function–not that I would condone such a thing.

Aside from the Lancer, the true melee trifecta consists of the Gnasher, Hammerburst and Pistol. Melee with the power weapons or Sniper Rifle is a waste of their potential and not recommended, unless you absolutely have to.

To truly be effective in melee encounters, you must always aim from the hip. The majority of your opponents will attempt to chainsaw you with the Lancer, but some will charge you with the Gnasher.

Your next action will be determined by what gun you hold.

Gnasher melee

If you’re holding the Gnasher and not already aimed at the opponent, dive away. Then shoot to stun him, and finish him off with a second blast. Alternatively, if your opponent was stupid enough to charge you from the front with the Lancer, just pull the trigger and keep pulling it until he’s dead.

The Gnasher has a huge delay between shooting and melee, so if you melee your enemy by reflex, get away from him, especially if he’s also holding the Gnasher. You won’t be able to shoot again for what seems like an eternity, and you’ll get gibbed. I don’t recommend trying to melee at all in a shotgun duel; just strafe and make sure your aim is true enough to finish the fight.

Hammerburst melee

In a Hammerburst vs. Lancer fight, shoot from the hip to stun your chainsaw-wielding opponent and don’t stop until he goes down. Don’t get too fancy or you’ll end up dead; the Hammerburst also has a noticeable delay between melee hits and when it’s ready to fire again.

If your aim is off or your enemy dives directly at you, quickly melee him and begin to circle strafe behind him while he’s stunned. Then melee, or start firing as soon as you are able, to down him.

Pistol melee

When holding a pistol, shoot to stun those chainsaw-loving bastards and quickly pistol whip them with a melee attack. Then pull the trigger again while circle strafing to blow their heads off.

Against shotgun ambushes, pistol whip first, then pull the trigger as quick as you can. Bonus points for having the active reload damage bonus–if you do, you’ll be sending your opponents to a better place.

The Snub Nosed pistol is arguably more effective and versatile at close range than any other weapon due to its short melee delay. You can go between pistol whipping and firing very quickly, so make sure to take advantage of it. The other two pistols have high melee delays.

Power weapons

Unlike some of the other weapons in Gears 2, the power weapons are incredibly specialized and their use is map-specific. Aside from the Scorcher flamethrower, they are also all medium or long-ranged weapons, and their use paints a bullseye on your back like no other.

Use power weapons whenever possible to give your team a huge advantage, but know their limitations, too.

Longshot Sniper Rifle

Ah, yes, the Longshot. We know it and love it, and it hasn’t changed a bit since Gears of War. Use it for headshots and other pixel-perfect shots. It’s best against targets that are crosshair aiming and standing up; Torque Bow users will hate you.

If someone gets close, melee them and immediately pull the trigger. Don’t even attempt to aim. If you land a blow, you have a very good chance of downing the enemy with an auto-aimed sniper shot from the hip.

Torque Bow

Nothing much seems to have changed about the Torque Bow, one of the most dangerous weapons in the Gears arsenal. The sound of it spooling up is enough to send an entire team scurrying for cover.

In an entrenched battle, get behind cover and hold down the right trigger to start charging the Torque Bow. Once you’ve held it down enough for the projectile to fly far/penetrate your target, pop up and shoot. Try your best not to charge it while moving around, as you’ll be walking very slowly.

Boomshot

Aim for the ground, but remember: This bastard has a long reload time. Don’t let them get close to you or both you and your opponent are gonna be crispy.

Hammer of Dawn

Much like its Gears counterpart, the Hammer of Dawn can only fire on areas under clear sky. If your opponents have cover, it’s useless. This is arguably the least useful power weapon, but you can clear out an entire enemy team if you’re lucky and they’re stupid.

Mortar

A brand new weapon, the mortar brings a rain of area-effect fire down on enemy players. Use from a distance only, or fire on your own position for a futuristic seppuku. This weapon mostly comes into play in the Annex and Domination modes, where you have to capture and hold points on the map.

You’ll be completely stationary while using the Mortar, so try not to do it anywhere you could catch a bullet in your eye socket.

Scorcher

The aptly-named Scorcher flamethrower is one of the “bigger, better and more badass” weapons Epic promised gamers for Gears of War 2. It can quickly reduce your enemies to smoldering embers, but is best used at short range.

An active reload will increase its range, but stick to using it against shotgunners for maximum effect.

Mulcher (chaingun)

This could be the most badass weapon in Gears of War 2. The Mulcher chaingun reduces your movement speed significantly but allows you to mow down the opposition with ease. Grab it and slide into cover, and your character will slap the Mulcher on the wall/car hood/whatever you’re hiding behind to reduce recoil.

Make note: The Mulcher will overheat when fired continuously, so you’ll have to keep an eye on its heat meter unless you like dying. Use the active reload to assist in cooling. Lastly, beware shotgun ambushes and snipers when using this gun.

Grenades

New to Gears of War 2 is the ability to stick grenades to walls, turning them into proximity mines. Poison grenades aren’t too useful in this respect (the enemy will just run away and wait for the cloud to dissipate), but smoke grenades will stun whatever unlucky bastard is in range, and frag grenades will turn them into bite-sized pieces.

Use them to cover your flank if you’re camping or the last man standing.

One especially nasty thing to do if you get downed from afar is to quickly tap A and move toward your own frag mine. In a game of Execution, your opponent will have to get close to you to finish you off. If he chooses to melee, it’s his mistake, because the frag mine will go off and kill both of you.

You can even win a 1v1 fight for your team this way. The person that triggers the frag mine will die first, giving the win to your team.

Additionally, Gears 2 has removed the ability to stick grenades on opponents from the front. You can still do it from behind, though.

Conclusion

This guide has barely scratched the surface of Gears of War 2. In order to become a true Gears of War 2 warrior, you’ll have to go out and learn the maps and modes. Having a team will help a ton, so grab your XBL buddies together and make a go of it.

GGL is hosting a Gears of War 2 game page where you can join other Gears 2 players. Head on over to check it out and join our Gears of War 2 community. Good luck!