Heavy Weapons

Recon Rifle

The sound of the sniper rifle will alert your foes to your presence, but that doesn't really matter if they're dead, now does it?

The recon rifle is going to be the first heavy weapon you come across, and it'll serve you well for most of the game. It's essentially a silenced sniper rifle, making it perfect for taking out isolated soldiers without giving away your position.

Sniper Rifle

The ubiquious-in-FPS-games sniper rifle won't show up until late in the game, but when it does, you'll be able to use it to pop heads from a good distance away. Unlike the recon rifle, the sniper rifle is unsuppressed, meaning that it'll make a lot of noise when you fire it, but it does a lot more damage than the recon rifle, and has a 10x zoom as opposed to the 7x zoom of its weaker counterpart.

Rocket Launcher

While the rocket launcher is essentially a one-shot kill weapon, you're almost never going to actually use it to do anything cool in the single-player game. Ammo for it is extremely rare, so your best shot at using it will be to pick it up off the corpse of a soldier, fire off the four rounds that you'll get for easy kills on four soldiers, and then return to whatever weapon you dropped and pick it up again. You don't want to face off against anyone wielding a rocket launcher in multiplayer, obviously, so try to grab it for yourself before anyone else can.

Machinegun

The machinegun is more of a replacement weapon for your primary weapon than any kind of special, unique-situation weapon, like most of the other heavy weapons are. Instead of letting you dish out damage from long range, or put explosives where you need them, the machinegun is your device when you just want to put a lot of metal in the air. Its fifty-round magazine will let you chop through numerous foes without having to reload. If you have an assault rifle handy, then the machinegun isn't technically needed, but it does do a number of enemies in either single-player or multiplayer gaming.

Feral Abilities

Throughout the game, Carver will consistently pick up new feral abilities. These abilities will help him move more quickly, regenerate his health, or even engage in some good old-fashioned ultraviolence. You don't get the clichéd time-slow or invisibility powers, but you should find that the abilities at your disposal will help you through some situations you might not survive.

Of course, nothing comes for free, so in order to use your feral abilities, you'll need to keep your adrenaline pumping. While adrenaline regenerates normally over time, you can increase its rate of regeneration (as well as your health regeneration) by getting close to your enemies. While the manual implies that you have to do this stealthily, it in fact works even if a whole squadron of enemies knows where you are; just hide behind an obstacle and wait for them to come to you, and you should find your health and adrenaline quickly recharging while you do so.

Feral Attack

The Feral Attack is definitely one of the best feral abilities that you have access to, as well as one of the funnest uses of ragdoll physics that we've seen in a game of late. When you get close enough to an enemy, you'll be able to press your B button to rush up to them and chuck them up into the air, instantly killing most enemies. It's hilariously amusing to watch people fly through the air, but this does take up a big chunk of your adrenaline. Still, if you can get your enemy's attention, then hide behind an obstacle and force them to come to you, this is a good, cheap way of killing someone without expending any ammunition. It works great on Big Boys and other boss-level enemies, as well. You can use your Feral Attack while jumping, as well, which causes a different animation to be performed.

Feral Speed / Feral Jump

There's not much to say about Feral Speed and Feral Jump. When you activate Feral Speed, you'll move much more quickly than you normally would, but only when you're moving straight ahead; attempting to change direction will sap your speed. If you build up a head of steam, you can hold down your jump button to perform a Feral Jump and get a good amount of extra distance on your jump.

What precisely are we smelling here?

Feral Senses

With your Feral Senses, you'll be able to track enemies by their smell, which can be especially helpful in darker areas, or when you're unsure where your foes are located. Later in the game, this ability will be upgraded to allow you to focus in on single enemies; this appears to slightly increase the damage you do while it's active. You'll also eventually earn nightvision, which, of course, makes dark spots bright as day.