I put this up on the ND Forum and thought I would put it here too. All the pictures were done by me in the UC2 cinema editor.

How do you keep things fresh and interesting while playing UC2?

I think I have got most of the basics down now on how to play and thought I would set myself some challenges to get me out of my comfort zone and keep things fun. There really are endless possibilities you could come up with to test yourself. Thought I would share one I came up with and tell you about my new favorite playstyle which came out of it. Hopefully you will come up with your own challenges and find new aspects of the game which you never noticed before. If you already do stuff like this leave a comment, it would be cool to read what other players do.

Challenge: Only use what everyone else doesn't use.

1) Most enemies I come across usually use two of these boosters.

DTI, SA, Rapid Hands, Fleet Foot.

The first challenge was easy enough, don't use these boosters at all and try out some of the boosters most players have disregarded entirely.

2) Use the pick ups players hardly ever use. Such as the micro pistol which always there when I go past the spawn.

So with my challenge set I started by looking through the boosters I had left to choose from. After trying most of them out I gravitated towards bandoleer and turtle. Most matches no one hardly ever picks up the shield or micro and it seemed a perfect fit to complete my challenge.

With the easy part done it was time to actually master the shield. For two years of playing I had barely touched the shield as I thought it was a death trap. No one I knew used it more than five seconds a match and so I had no experience on how to be good with it. Here's my magical journey in to becoming UC2 shield master XD

The first couple of matches was quite weird. You have a new perspective of the map as your low down to the floor. I found myself staring at parts of the map I hadn't noticed before which didn't help my K/D. What was quite fascinating is how players react when faced with an enemy with a shield. If I had any chance of coming out the winner in these situations I was gonna have to learn quick.

Low level players seemed to do a combo of these;

1) Stop moving
2) Shoot at me and then realize nothing was happening.
3) Throw a nade which usually missed due to poor aim.
4) Continue shooting sometimes while in cover
5) Try to melee.

High level players as you can imagine are **bleep** hard to beat but they did seem to follow a pattern too;

1) They always start with a nade.
2) Shoot at you when you're shooting at them as this is the point when the shield isn't fully covering your front.
3) Try to flank you either by using the environment to climb above and round or just bunny hop from mid range till they can get a good shot.
4) Run off to get a power weapon and come back.
5) Just leave the situation and find other enemies.

To adapt to these situations I started obviously by learning where all the cover was around the shield spawn, along with always being aware of how far away I was to the nearest secondary weapon pick up. Running out of ammo or being caught off guard usually ends up in death and just because you have a shield doesn't mean cover stops being important. Field of vision on the left side is a limiting factor while behind cover as you lose the ability to press L3 to switch views.

In combat the primary aim is to get in close while facing towards the enemy. This is your strongest advantage as they're helpless to a melee attack. Being obsessed with achieving this will usually end up in you being dead though 85% of the time you will kill them with your pistol.

Nades will become your new best friend and I actually had to give up the extra ammo bandoleer gave me and switch to sure foot. Weirdly if you do survive a nade and have sure foot equipped the shield blown back animation still happens. Nades usually will be the end of you but there are two tricks which seem to work. The obvious one is face the nade while moving back and that sometimes keeps you alive. A more likely way of surviving is bunny hopping out of the shield, nade explodes and bunny hopping back to pick it up. This can go horribly wrong if you're next to an ammo pick up and instead of picking up the shield you pick up ak ammo 0.o

A good way of outsmarting high level players is being a one bunny hop away to a high box cover. You can corner shoot from behind the box and then pick up the shield to shoot behind that. It's a good way to confuse them as they don't know where to focus their fire.

If the enemy has no nades then that is already to your advantage. If I'm getting a full clip being fired at me I don't pop my head out and fire back because they will win. Wait till they are half a clip done or reloading and then unleash the pistol or micro.

Obviously being shot in the back is a disadvantage to someone using a shield. It isn't any worse without a shield as the damage is still the same. I found trying to get my back behind cover while always turning round to face them sometimes worked. Once again if your reactions are quick, bunny hopping left and right until they reload or are half a clip will keep you alive. Facing the right way and grabbing the shield again will put you back in the action.

Dealing with power weapons mainly the hammer and rpg is an interesting one. Sure foot will save you sometimes just like if you didn't have the shield. You can take a direct hit to the front of the shield and survive but most high level players know to hit from the side. Close quarters is where you do sometimes come out on top. Players usually blindfire at that distance and either blow themselves up as you reflect the blast or get knocked back which gives you time to finish them off.

I would say the main thing I have learnt is that you have to have patience. Most players follow the patterns I wrote above. With enough practice you will have enough experience to deal with most situations. Sometimes you might get lucky as most players very rarely expect to come across a shield and those few seconds their thinking what to do, you have already shot them with the pistol.

**bleep** this turned in to a tutorial XD I think it just shows there's loads of things to do to challenge yourself and improve as a player. Learning to be good with the shield is just another string to the bow. I might use it exclusively for now but once I'm good I will add it to my normal way of playing. Even if you get your ass kicked hearing the other teams reactions over the mic is a right laugh. On one occasion after I killed one player four times in a row with the shield, he resorted to glitching. Thankfully the shield repels glitcher fire too XD

It's about time I did a positive thread about this game and hopefully you will find a breath of fresh by making challenges for yourselves in UC2.

Try the challenge I made up if you want as using the shield isn't the only way to beat it. Maybe equip treasure bearer and get your BBQ mastery on

Update on the shield:

I've continued to use the shield and have discovered four more tips while using it.

1) I was playing a match with Dai and you know those little boxes with a nade in either side of each temple in the Sanctuary? Well he had got a shield in there and I was puzzled how he did it. Watching the cinema if you're a step up from the shield and press triangle you will lift the shield to your level. Repeat that process and you get in to new areas with the shield you never thought possible.
 

2) Another surprise tactic is to use the shield with the booster launch man/ rocket man. When you see an enemy while behind your shield press right on the D-Pad, L1 and then R1. I recommend practicing your aim in machinima as I think the reticle starts further left than you would expect when popping out from the shield. Anyway it's a brilliant surprise tactic and I promise you no one will expect a rocket to come from a guy with a shield. Do not pull this trick if you are already being shot as even if you're fast firing the RPG the 1.05 health will kill you faster in most cases.

3) Shotgun jack in the box- Pick up a shotgun and a shield and get in close to an enemy just out of melee distance. If he is behind cover this is a perfect strategy. Bunny hop forwards and blindfire with the shotgun he wont know what hit him.

4) The 180 degree spin is something I discovered yesterday. It will help you turn around faster and might even save you from being shot in the back. To pull this off you press square to melee while holding left on the left stick. The reason you always press left is because that is the direction the shield goes when you melee.

  
There you go I can't wait to try out the shield in UC3.
 
Last thing here is a video of me trying to put some of this into action.