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Video Game Sidearms
13 years ago
General
This is a random topic, but something I've been reflecting on lately- I love video game pistols. There are games where I'll stow my rifle and carry the sidearm through town or out in the world just because I think it looks way cooler. If the question of offensive effectiveness was removed, I'd probably use nothing but pistols and magnums across all games. I've spent this morning playing # Shadow of Chernobyl and it's gotten me thinking about some of the best and worst sidearms in video games.
The Fallout series has a great set of handguns, though I always liked the 10mm the best. It was the only pistol in Fallout 3, if I remember correctly, but New Vegas added the 9mm and 12.7mm. The prior was a pea-shooter and the ammo was better spent in an SMG, and the latter was a lot harder to find and maintain. The 10mm was right in the middle, and you could add a laser sight and a silencer, both which were awesome.
Halo is another series with good pistols, though only in ODST and Reach (I haven't played 4 yet, so I can't talk about it specifically). Any weapon with a scope in Halo is capable of getting a headshot, which is a one-hit kill, which is awesome. They made the magnum viable, and even preferable- a pistol was a much better choice than an assault rifle when playing the campaign on Legendary difficulty, where you'd need to expend an entire clip of AR ammo to take out even the weakest enemies as opposed to one well-aimed magnum shot. In ODST especially this was important, since ammo for good main weapons like the shotgun was a lot harder to find.
Though the one I always hold as my favorite is the 10mm pistol from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I remember picking up that gun for the first time on the first mission and swapping to it only because my assault rifle had no ammo left, and then never wanting to use another weapon. It was light and didn't take up much inventory space, but could take out anyone with a well-aimed headshot, even armored enemies. The bonus was that you could aim and see behind you even in cover, so you could calmly line up a shot, pop up, take out someone, and then pop back down. It also had a laser sight and silencer upgrade, along with damage and magazine mods that I poured into it. Because of the way HR paced things, a lot of enemies stopped carrying the 10mm later into the game, so I had to ration it for emergencies. It really bugged me, since every other gun in that game was functional but just not as much fun.
Though there are bad pistols too- most of the sidearms in the Gears of War series were mediocre at best, saver the Boltok revolver. The pistols in Left 4 Dead were meh as well- using two at once is nice, though only good for support fire at best, especially when tier two guns come into play. The magnum could one-shot common infected, but the pace of that game rarely permits careful aiming, so precision weapons are out the window. The fact that the pistol exists in Assassin's Creed is neat, but I never liked using it since stabbing guys is way more fun. Even S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has some pretty underwhelming pistols, since the bullet spread on them is massive and rifles not only do more damage but are far more accurate.
All in all, I think sidearms are rad. If they're kept accurate and are capable of headshots, then I have way more fun using them than assault rifles or whatever else there is. I'd go on with more, since I know I'm forgetting some neat ones, but this random sidebar is enough for now. I need to go contemplate trying an all-pistol run of Human Revolution, even though my first one basically already was.
The Fallout series has a great set of handguns, though I always liked the 10mm the best. It was the only pistol in Fallout 3, if I remember correctly, but New Vegas added the 9mm and 12.7mm. The prior was a pea-shooter and the ammo was better spent in an SMG, and the latter was a lot harder to find and maintain. The 10mm was right in the middle, and you could add a laser sight and a silencer, both which were awesome.
Halo is another series with good pistols, though only in ODST and Reach (I haven't played 4 yet, so I can't talk about it specifically). Any weapon with a scope in Halo is capable of getting a headshot, which is a one-hit kill, which is awesome. They made the magnum viable, and even preferable- a pistol was a much better choice than an assault rifle when playing the campaign on Legendary difficulty, where you'd need to expend an entire clip of AR ammo to take out even the weakest enemies as opposed to one well-aimed magnum shot. In ODST especially this was important, since ammo for good main weapons like the shotgun was a lot harder to find.
Though the one I always hold as my favorite is the 10mm pistol from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I remember picking up that gun for the first time on the first mission and swapping to it only because my assault rifle had no ammo left, and then never wanting to use another weapon. It was light and didn't take up much inventory space, but could take out anyone with a well-aimed headshot, even armored enemies. The bonus was that you could aim and see behind you even in cover, so you could calmly line up a shot, pop up, take out someone, and then pop back down. It also had a laser sight and silencer upgrade, along with damage and magazine mods that I poured into it. Because of the way HR paced things, a lot of enemies stopped carrying the 10mm later into the game, so I had to ration it for emergencies. It really bugged me, since every other gun in that game was functional but just not as much fun.
Though there are bad pistols too- most of the sidearms in the Gears of War series were mediocre at best, saver the Boltok revolver. The pistols in Left 4 Dead were meh as well- using two at once is nice, though only good for support fire at best, especially when tier two guns come into play. The magnum could one-shot common infected, but the pace of that game rarely permits careful aiming, so precision weapons are out the window. The fact that the pistol exists in Assassin's Creed is neat, but I never liked using it since stabbing guys is way more fun. Even S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has some pretty underwhelming pistols, since the bullet spread on them is massive and rifles not only do more damage but are far more accurate.
All in all, I think sidearms are rad. If they're kept accurate and are capable of headshots, then I have way more fun using them than assault rifles or whatever else there is. I'd go on with more, since I know I'm forgetting some neat ones, but this random sidebar is enough for now. I need to go contemplate trying an all-pistol run of Human Revolution, even though my first one basically already was.
However I usually end up beating the game only using the handgun because I rarely end up in bad situations like that. Heck I am so conservative that whenever I can kill something with a melee weapon then I'd do it to not even waste the handgun ammo's. XD
~Omega
Boltok was cool too, but I didn't really start using it til the third installment.
Nothing can beat the power of the magnum in the original Halo though. That weapon is so friggin' cheap.
Haven't played the original Halo, either. I have a disk around here but my laptop's never been able to run it. Really would like to give it a shot sometime.
As for the guns in New Vegas. I like that they took more time to make guns look unique compared to how they did in Fallout 3. If I remember there was a unique pistol that was modeled after Dekard's gun in Bladerunner.