The 50 Most Awesome Guns in Video Game History

#30-21

The ASMD Shock Rifle from the Unreal series had to make an appearance. It is another triple functionality gun from this industry leading series. The primary fire is a very fast energy bolt with pretty good knockback, so not only is it damaging but you can push enemies around with it. The secondary fire is a slower moving larger energy orb which, while damaging in its own, has massive kinetic energy and real knockback. The hidden third functionality is simply shooting the large secondary orb with the primary fire, causing an explosion referred to as a Shock Combo.

In Unreal, the very first game in the series which is single player focused, this can be chained together with the Dispersion Pistol as the video above shows. There seems to be a damage multiplier when using them together. And of course, this weapon is compatible with the Damage Amplifier in the series to make it extremely lethal.

The Translocator from the Unreal Tournament series is one of two guns featured in this article that are not primarily meant to be fired at live targets. It is a teleportation device, firing a harmless module. Pressing secondary fire lets you teleport to its position. In Unreal Tournament 2003 and above, you can also use it as a camera, viewing the surroundings from a camera mounted on the projectile, leaving you a sitting duck in the process. So this weapon is best in the later games, though the model is definitely the coolest in the first Unreal Tournament.

Players are also able to kill with it, because two objects cannot occupy the same space. So by shooting the projectile into an enemy player and then quickly teleporting into them, you cause instant death for the enemy as they explode into pieces. This is too easy to do in the first Unreal Tournament, making the game very overpowered in that game. It became exponentially harder in the later games, to the point where using it in combat is a poor tactical choice and killing with it is only used for showing off.

Another excellent weapon from F.E.A.R., the 10mm HV Penetrator is a militarized nail gun. The nail projectiles are so powerful that enemies are impaled onto the walls behind them, as shown in the video above.

The MP-50 Repeating Cannon is a 20mm magazine fed grenade launcher featured in F.E.A.R. This is the fourth and highest ranked gun from the game on this list.

It is a straightforward destructive weapon, firing 20mm grenades in a rapid automatic firing mode. What makes it special are the physics, particles, gore, and sound of F.E.A.R. See the video above for reference.

#26

On display at 0:35, 1:40, 14:06, and 16:07.

You thought the Razor Wind from Turok 2: Seeds of Evil was cool? How about the Razorjack, a Skaarj weapon from Unreal which shoots ricocheting razor sharp blades, with far more reliable and realistic ricocheting physics than the Razor Wind? This weapon is a blast to use, and it’s also terrifying since you’ll be on the wrong end of them as well.

Primary fire shoots semi automatic razor sharp circular blades that ricochet for a long time before the projectile loses velocity and gets stuck in an object. Secondary fire holds the weapon at a different angle and engages a homing fully automatic firing mode which follows your crosshair for maximum carnage. This secondary fire mode however has reduced muzzle velocity thus reduced ricocheting, but this also makes it safer to use. Primary fire is more effective for decapitations.

In Unreal Tournament, this weapon is called the Ripper and has a different model, but the same sound and functionality. It doesn’t sit in the center of your screen in Unreal Tournament like it does in Unreal.

We had to include the most awesome variant of a common rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher on this list. We considered several, such as the Quad Rocket Launcher from Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the Scorpion Missile Launcher from Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, the Yari Type-24 rocket launcher from Shadow Warrior 2013, but we ended up choosing the Eightball Gun from Unreal (1998) and by extension the Rocket Launcher from Unreal Tournament, which is the exact same gun in function and sound, but with a different model. Once again, the model in Unreal Tournament isn’t in the center, and it looks more like a high tech rocket launcher with an ammo counter. Personally I prefer Unreal Tournament’s model.

Indeed, it is the very first Unreal and Unreal Tournament games with the coolest rocket launcher, which also doubles as a grenade launcher! It has the following functionalities:

• Multiple barrels, thus multiple rockets.
• Can fire as many barrels as you want at a time, up to its maximum of six.
• Can shoot multiple rockets in either a standard wide pattern, or a compact hexagonal pattern.
• Secondary fire mode shoots grenades instead, with limited range, time detonation as well as detonate on impact. Can fire as many grenades at a time as you want up to its maximum of six. Multiple grenades always fire in the tight hexagonal pattern however.
• Not disposable.
• Has both fire and forget and homing firing modes (keep aiming at a target for it to enable homing for a single shot only).