Given that the Galil weapon guide I produced recently turned out to be my most popular effort in recent weeks, I figured there must be a decent degree of demand for me to finish the Black Ops series.
As such, I’ve gone ahead and done another one – this time for the Uzi. If there’s a sustained interest in this series, it might just see completion – only 17 weapons remain now!
Transcript
Hello, this is XboxAhoy and this is the twenty-fifth episode of my Black Ops weapon guide.
Better late than never, right?
In this episode we’re covering the fifth SMG, the Uzi.
It’s a fully automatic weapon, unlocked at level 23.
Like the Galil, it’s an Israeli weapon, manufactured by Israel Military Industries, or IMI.
The weapon is as old as the State of Israel itself – with the design dating to 1948.
The Uzi takes its name from its designer – Major Uziel Gal of the IDF.
Largely thanks to the Uzi’s simple construction and low production cost, in 1951, the weapon was adopted by the Israeli Defense Force.
It found its way into the hands of IDF Special Forces by 1954, where its compact size and automatic firepower made it ideal for clearing bunkers and entrenched positions.
The weapon would go on to see a half-decade of reliable service, and a number of variants: such as chamberings for .45 ACP, .41 Action Express – and the scaled-down Mini-Uzi and Micro Uzi models – with their diminutive size enhancing concealability and with an increased cyclic rate of fire when compared to the parent SMG.
The Uzi remained in service with the IDF until late 2003, when its role was ultimately replaced by the Micro Tavor, or MTAR-21.
The Uzi fires the 9-by-19 millimetre Parabellum cartridge – fairly typical for an SMG of its era.
Magazines are of a standard box type, manufactured in capacities between 20 and 50 rounds – in Black Ops default magazines are of a 32-round capacity.
The Uzi is a low damage SMG, typically needing 4 shots to kill at a close range, and 5 at a distance.
Mercifully, rate of fire is high – at 937.5 rounds per minute, on par with most of the low-damage SMGs.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the Uzi is its heavy recoil – it suffers from the highest degree of kick in the SMG category by quite some margin.
Paired with its rather obtrusive iron sights, the Uzi has a reputation of being tough to handle that serves to make it an unpopular choice.
Aim time is quick, however – like the other SMGs, aiming down your sights will take 200 milliseconds.
Reloads are fairly average in duration, taking 2.4 seconds to complete – although the favourable magazine size means reloading is less frequent overall than with some of the weapons in the Uzi’s class.
The Uzi, then, is a weapon with a whole host of negative traits – but, some of the attachments on offer can help remedy its performance issues.
The iron sights on the Uzi are arguably the most obstructive of any weapon, and as such will hamper your efforts to quickly acquire a target, and can make the sizable recoil difficult to control.
The optical attachments can help, then – and the Red Dot Sight is a useful addition to the weapon.
As with the Galil, it’s also thematically fitting, modeled after the Israeli Elbit Falcon sight.
The Reflex Sight is identical in functionality – and, like the red dot sight will help you to acquire targets more quickly, and will assist in compensating for the recoil more effectively when firing.
If you insist on aiming with the Uzi, then these two close-range sights are a very worthwhile addition.
The ACOG sight isn’t particularly effective on any SMG – and as you can imagine, the Uzi certainly isn’t any different.
While the crosshair does allow for precision placement of your first shot, recoil is increased and your aim time slowed – massively decreasing your close-range potential performance with the weapon.
I strongly recommend you avoid it.
The Grip, on the other hand, tackles the Uzi’s heavy recoil, increasing CenterSpeed and generally making the weapon more controllable.
If you can tolerate the obtrusive iron sights, the Grip – which manifests itself as a stock for the weapon – can help extend the Uzi’s effective reach.
One potential option is to pair an optic with the grip attachment, but this comes at the expense of some particularly useful perks in the second tier.
Rapid Fire will increase the Uzi’s rate of fire from its usual 937.5 to 1250 rounds per minute – a 33% increase in output.
This works well when paired with the Uzi’s generous magazine size, as long as you aren’t too concerned about your accuracy.
You will see an increase in recoil, but the ability to put more shots downrange will compensate for this, especially if you burst fire the weapon.
The Suppressor will prevent you from appearing on the mini-map while firing, and will be most effective when using the weapon in a stealth role.
The loss in range isn’t a major detriment, as the damage drop isn’t too severe and the Uzi isn’t particularly effective at longer distances, anyway – so if you don’t like showing on radar the suppressor isn’t a bad option.
The final attachment, Extended Mags, will increase your capacity from its default 32 to 48 instead.
This grants the Uzi the largest potential magazine size of the SMG category – only the MPL shares the 32-round default, and the MPL lacks extended mags.
Large magazines suit the Uzi’s spray and pray style – and for that reason it’s my recommended attachment for use with the weapon.
Forgo accuracy for liberal use of your trigger for maximum use of the Uzi’s strongest trait.
A strong alternative would be Rapid Fire – this will enhance your close-range performance, but you’ll need to be more careful in your ammunition use, as you will need to reload often.
For our perk selection, we’ll be building a class designed for getting close to the enemy – and one that’s able to tackle multiple enemies at once, making good use of the Uzi’s generous capacity.
Our first perk – Ghost – will help you move unseen on the radar, allowing you to get into a better position to flank your opponent without being intercepted.
Hitting an unprepared group of enemies from the sides or rear will enhance your odds of tackling them in a firefight, and will mean more fights occur on your own terms.
The Uzi doesn’t fare well outside of close range encounters, and even up close it’s wise to not give the enemy a fair fight.
Our second perk choice will help improve your close-quarter performance, by improving your hipfire accuracy.
Steady Aim will effectively double your performance when firing from the hip, which is useful given the Uzi’s recoil and terrible iron sights – rather than attempting to aim, you can simply spray down your foe – with a surprising degree of effectiveness.
Our third perk works in tandem with Ghost to help muffle your movements – Ninja will decrease your footstep sound, and the pro variant will silence you completely, eliminating callouts when reloading that may otherwise reveal your position.
You’ll also have the benefit of louder enemy footsteps – tracking enemy movement will assist in ambushing them at the most opportune moment.
For your lethal grenades, the Tomahawk will enhance the Uzi’s poor reach with a silent one-hit kill with a well placed throw.
For your tactical grenades, flash grenades are very useful when tackling multiple opponents – use them liberally in high-traffic areas where you suspect the enemy may be, and pick off those caught in the flash at your leisure.
C4 can be very useful in your equipment slot – ideal for laying traps near objectives, or in lieu of an explosive lethal grenade for enemies beyond your line of sight.
Finally, A pistol rounds out our class as your secondary weapon – a weapon such as the Python is quick to switch to, and a godsend when you’re caught with an empty magazine.
With 48 rounds between reloads, the Uzi has some of the best sustained fire capability in the SMG category.
High capacity and a high rate of fire means that this firepower is effective from the hip, and you’ll have the capacity to tackle multiple enemies at once.
Getting close to your enemy is essential, but it’s important to avoid head-on firefights with larger groups of enemies – 2 or 3 alert foes with a FAMAS in-hand will prove tough to beat in a straightforward firefight.
Flanking your opponent becomes essential to make good use of the Uzi, then – break away from your team-mates and take the long route to strike unseen instead.
The Uzi is a weapon that’s tough to master – but one that leads its class in capacity.
Paired with a generous fire rate and effective hipfire performance, 48 rounds will go a long way in a close-range firefight, reducing the odds that you’ll be left high and dry, with a need to reload.
The spectacular level of recoil puts many off however, doubly so when paired with perhaps the worst iron sights in-game.
Those extra few rounds seem like a scant benefit when compared to these downsides, when there are alternatives that handle much better with equivalent damage output.
However, in practical terms these downsides are exaggerated – whilst fearsome at first, the Uzi’s recoil isn’t a factor within your effective range, and can be tamed to a degree with careful use of the trigger.
This weapon can be challenging to use – but become acquainted with its quirks, and performing well – will be Uzi.
I cover some of the comments left on my recent KSG 12 video in this week’s instalment of my MW3 Bonus footage.
Prevailing topics were BF3, as ever – some grumbling over the shorter length of the video (the KSG doesn’t have an extensive history to cover!), and folk picking holes in my prop selection for the title sequence.
This week it’s time for another instalment of the Weapons of Modern Warfare – with our first shotgun, and newcomer to the series, the KSG12.
It can be a devastatingly effective one-shot kill weapon when the wind is in your favour – particularly when paired with damage – but, like most of the shotguns, can be inconsistent.
No matter. Still had plenty of fun with this one – and I finally unlocked the ‘All Pro’ title with it, which was nice.
Transcript
Hello, this is XboxAhoy – and these are the Weapons of Modern Warfare.
In this episode, we’re taking a look at the KSG-12.
The Kel-Tec KSG is a pump-action shotgun that makes its debut appearance in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3.
It’s an American shotgun, manufactured in Florida by Kel-Tec CNC Industries Incorporated.
The weapon is intended to fulfil a variety of roles – with two separate magazine tubes giving it enhanced flexibility and capacity for police and security work, and the compact bullpup configuration rendering it ideal for home defense.
It superficially resembles the South African Neostead 2000 shotgun, sharing the twin tube mags and bullpup layout.
The KSG is a very modern shotgun, having only just entered production recently after being announced in 2011.
As such, they’ve only recently hit the commercial market – and as a result have yet to see any large-scale adoption.
The KSG is a 12-gauge shotgun – firing either 3-inch or 2 and three-quarter inch shotgun shells.
It has two separate tube magazines, with a manual selector allowing two different types of ammunition to be stored.
Capacity is very generous, given that most conventional shotguns only have a single magazine – the KSG holds up to 14 shells total in its twin tubes.
Switching between each of the tubes must be performed manually, however – and the KSG’s action is similarly manual, with the weapon cycling with a simple pump action.
Overall weight is slightly higher than average for a conventional shotgun, given the twin magazines and large shell count – the KSG weighs in at 3.13kg unloaded, and closer to 4kg when fully populated.
Overall length is relatively compact, especially considering the KSG sports an 18 and a half inch barrel – the weapon is about 26 inches nose-to-tail – some 40% shorter than a conventional design.
It’s hard to say how successful the KSG design might be at this stage – it’s early days, although initial demand seems healthy enough.
No doubt there’s a place for a high-capacity shotgun with a short overall length, so this futuristic twin-tube 12 gauge may yet find a market: Kel-Tec by name, and high-tech by nature.
Thanks for watching, this has been XboxAhoy.
Join me for the next instalment of The Weapons of Modern Warfare, when I’ll be covering an East Asian weapon with Israeli roots.
20 minutes of leftover footage from the recent Time To Kill: Recoil video – with a correspondingly long Q&A session on top, in which I respond to some of the comments left on the main video.
This week’s Behind The Scenes to follow tomorrow or Friday. Scratch that – too darn busy. Will resume BTS next week.
New TTK is done – this time on the oft-misunderstood topic of recoil.
This has probably been the toughest TTK to put together to date – with some of the vagaries of the mechanic, piecing together a full understanding is hard, to say the least. No doubt I’ll be lambasted for some minor error, but this video comprises pretty much my sum of knowledge on the subject.
Transcript
Hello, this is XboxAhoy – and this is Time To Kill.
Not all guns suit spray and pray tactics – some weapons kick like a mule, and others stay rock steady.
In this episode, we’re covering recoil.
Outside of damage, recoil is one of the key differentiating factors in weapon balance – guns with higher damage, magazine capacity, or rapid handling characteristics are more likely to have a greater degree of kick, in an effort to preserve performance parity across the weapon selection.
Recoil manifests itself as a disturbance in your aim when firing your weapon – every shot fired will temporarily alter your point of aim, which may mean successive shots will land away from your intended mark.
The amount of recoil a weapon has dictates the overall accuracy of automatic fire – some weapons are able to put an entire magazine in a single target, whereas others might struggle to hit the broad side of a barn at any sort of distance.
The recoil mechanics in Call of Duty are relatively complex, with quite a few different statistics governing the amount of weapon kick – and while you can simplify a weapon’s performance to a simple statement such as ‘low recoil’, or ‘high recoil’ – to truly get an idea of a weapon’s characteristics you need to break down the recoil into its component parts.
First of all, your shots will always land at precisely the indicated point of your sights – there’s no random spread while aiming, nor does any recoil effect alter this.
What recoil will do is move the location of your sights when firing – and thus alter the position of any successive shot fired.
There are two key elements to this movement – one called ViewKick, and another factor called GunKick.
The former has usually been the principal element of recoil’s kick in Call of Duty – it’s only in MW3 where GunKick has become more of a factor.
ViewKick affects your aim by simply moving your viewport – it’s a temporary modifier to the direction in which your character is looking.
This movement of the camera moves your aim along with it, and the rapid movement of the screen serves to present a feel of the gun recoiling while firing.
The ViewKick statistic comprises 4 values – Minimum Pitch, Maximum Pitch, Minimum Yaw and Maximum Yaw.
Essentially, these 4 figures describe an area within which your view will jump to when firing your weapon.
Pitch refers to the vertical element of recoil, and Yaw to the horizontal.
For every shot fired, a random point between each of the minimum and maximum Pitch and Yaw figures will be selected, and this vector will be applied to your current view on screen.
For the most part, the effect is subtle – but ViewKick is cumulative, so successive shots may draw you further and further off target.
The ViewKick figures determine the direction of recoil – when the maximum and minimum figures share the same absolute value, the view has an equal chance of kicking left of right, in the case of Yaw – or up and down, in the case of Pitch.
However, when one figure is greater than its counterpart, the weapon will tend to kick in one direction over another – most weapons tend to have an upward bias, and some will always kick in one direction – such as the Barrett .50 Cal, which will consistently kick up and to the right.
GunKick, the other main component of recoil, behaves in a similar way – but instead of moving your view, GunKick will move your weapon relative to the screen instead.
This means your point of aim, normally fixed to the centre of the screen, may shift off your target.
Note that hitmarkers do not follow your weapon – they will remain dead centre – it’s your sights that will dictate the point of impact, which with GunKick applied may be some distance away from the centre of the screen.
The GunKick mechanic has 4 separate figures, much like ViewKick – as before, a maximum and minimum pitch and yaw figure will determine both the magnitude and potential direction of the effect.
GunKick affects certain weapons more than others – LMGs, for instance, tend to have a high degree of GunKick. Weapons such as the L86 have a considerable degree of movement in the sights while firing.
The statistic is present across other categories, too – some of the SMGs, such as the PP90M1 and PM-9 also have a noticeable degree of GunKick.
One interesting point of note is that it is possible to entirely remove GunKick’s effect from a weapon – with the addition of the Thermal Scope.
As the Thermal Scope removes the weapon model while aiming, GunKick cannot be applied – so the difference in recoil on those weapons with high GunKick is noticeable.
The L86 benefits greatly, having only moderate ViewKick and zero GunKick when paired with the Thermal scope.
Note that the effects of both ViewKick and GunKick is only temporary – after a brief delay, your point of aim will return to its original position.
The speed of this recovery is governed by yet more statistics, and this rate of recovery can have a substantial effect on a weapon’s performance.
In the case of ViewKick, this statistic is called CenterSpeed – and the higher this figure, the more quickly your gun will move towards your initial point of aim.
Note that GunKick also has similar, separate statistics that govern the rate of its recovery.
Another factor in recoil performance is a weapon’s rate of fire – the more quickly your weapon fires, the less time your aim will have to recover before another shot is fired.
Those weapons with a very fast rate of fire will need a high RecenterSpeed to stay on target under sustained fire.
This rate of recovery, paired with the varying types and degrees of kick, will determine a weapon’s overall recoil characteristics.
The M60, for instance, has a similar degree of kick to the PM-9: the PM-9 even has a faster recenter speed. However, in practice the M60 will prove more controllable with automatic fire – as the M60 fires 600 rounds per minute while the PM-9 fires much more quickly, at 1090 rounds per minute.
It is entirely possible to adjust your aim while firing, compensating for the recoil – the slow-fire rate and large magazines of the LMGs make them ideally suited for wresting onto target whilst keeping the trigger held down.
Some weapons might have a high degree of kick, but a very fast CenterSpeed – such a weapon would be suited to firing in short bursts, allowing the kick to settle quickly before firing again.
One such weapon is the G36C – with its moderate upwards pull, automatic fire can drift off target quickly – but, as it has the fastest RecenterSpeed in the assault rifle category, burst firing is devastatingly effective in its potential accuracy.
Conversely, a gun with low kick but slow recenter speed would suit automatic fire – but under sustained shooting would likely drift off target.
One such example would be the SCAR-L – which has very moderate kick, but also has the slowest recenter speed in its class.
There are many other secondary factors that will have an impact on your weapon’s recoil – some may reduce its effects, and other factors may magnify it.
In the case of the Sniper Rifles and LMGs, one thing you can do to improve your weapon’s handling is to alter your stance.
Such weapons benefit from a substantial reduction in the degree of both ViewKick and GunKick while prone, and have a similar reduced benefit while crouching.
Laying prone in a defensive position will allow you to lay down impressively accurate fire with some weapons – most of the LMGs become quite controllable full-auto when employed this way.
Similarly beneficial to your weapons performance is the Kick proficiency – this will reduce both the amount of ViewKick and GunKick your weapon has by 20%.
This will improve your accuracy when firing full-auto, and ultimately will lead to you landing more shots on target at a longer range.
Some of the attachments will have a similarly positive effect on your accuracy.
The grip, for instance, will improve your weapon’s centrespeed – improving recoil recovery times and overall accuracy when firing full-auto.
This faster recovery will also enhance effectiveness of your weapon when firing in short bursts, moreso than kick which only affects the magnitude of your weapon’s recoil.
Some attachments will have a negative effect on your weapon’s performance, although such additions normally offer a benefit to balance their downside.
The addition of Rapid Fire will speed the rate of fire of your weapon, which will antagonise your weapon’s base CenterSpeed – and increase effective recoil as a result.
Rapid Fire is best suited for close-range use, then – as your accuracy at longer ranges will otherwise quickly diminish.
Some of the optical attachments will have a negative effect, too – the ACOG Scope, for instance, decreases centerspeed, impacting the speed of your recoil recovery.
The effect is relatively mild, but an ACOG scope will require greater fire control to be accurate at longer ranges – but with the scope attached you do gain the benefit of greater magnification.
The Thermal Scope will also decrease your centerspeed – although, with the complete removal of GunKick the net result is an overall improvement in handling on certain weapons.
The LMGs generally fare well with the attachment, for instance – and even the PP90M1 is surprisingly controllable with a thermal scope attached.
Note, than contrary to popular belief – attaching a silencer to your weapon will not affect recoil in any way.
The silencer will, however, hide the muzzle flash when firing your weapon – which will reduce the flash’s obstruction when firing, which may help your aim a little – and lends to the illusion that the weapon has lower recoil.
Managing recoil is an important skill to master in Call of Duty – doing so is really just a matter of developing a sense of the degree of fire control you’ll need to exert to remain accurate.
No matter your weapon, the distance from your target is the most important factor to consider – if your enemy is in the same room as you, you simply don’t have to consider recoil: it’s more important to get as much lead as possible in the general direction of said foe.
Firing in short bursts will help ensure accuracy at a longer range – as recoil effects are temporary, and allowing the kick to settle will place a second burst in the same place as the first.
Fully automatic fire is only really suited for close-to-mid ranged gunfights, depending on the weapon you’re using – some of the higher recoil weapons suit a moderated fire rate in almost all circumstances.
For the Type 95 and M16A4, this recoil control is enforced for you – and so these weapons can be effective at a longer range if fired accurately.
The semi automatic weapons, such as the sniper rifles and Mk14, require a trigger pull for each shot fired – so you can moderate your fire rate to fit the range at which you’re engaging your target.
Moderate your cadence to a sufficient level, and with the semi-autos you’ll generally put two bullets into a single hole.
Learn to manage recoil, and you’ll find more of your shots meet their target – and more shots on target will mean quicker kills, and will let you walk away from more gunfights.
Should your weapon kick like a mule, learn to keep it under control – and you’ll make it perform like a stallion.
Thanks for watching, this has been XboxAhoy.
Join me for the next Time To Kill, when I’ll be covering the mechanics behind aiming in detail.
