There have been some unbelievable weapons within the historical past of PC gaming, and whereas not unique to the style, there isn’t any doubting that almost all of them have come out of FPS video games. From Painkiller’s Stake Gun, by way of to Quake’s Railgun, and onto Unreal Tournament’s Flak Cannon, amongst many others, there are various iconic weapons in first-person shooters.
But what’s the most satisfying weapon in gaming historical past? That’s an attention-grabbing query, and one which when requested by Apogee Entertainment’s X account, was answered by none aside from the grandfather of FPS video games, John Romero, he of Doom fame.
Romero’s response was the objectively correct one in my opinion, too, with Romero voting for the ‘Super Shotgun’, as introduced to gaming originally in Doom 2. Many other gamers agreed with the FPS legend, with comments replying with sentiments such as, ‘Agreed! Double barrel in Doom 2’, as well as ‘it’s a scientific fact’ and ‘it’s the Super Shotgun for me too’. One reply simply states, ‘I strongly agree, Mr Romero’. How polite.
Naturally, there are plenty of other suggestions for most satisfying weapon in gaming, too, ranging from Doom’s Plasma Rifle, through Halo’s Needler, FEAR.’s 10mm HV Penetrator, and onto Rise of the Triad’s Drunk Missile bazooka. Even Daikatana’s Shotcycler-6 gets a mention.
Guns. Lots of guns
What appears at first glance to be a quite straightforward question, though, is actually quite a complex one, I think. Key to this is that Apogee asks for the ‘most satisfying’ weapon to use, which feels a lot more up to interpretation than simply the best or most lethal. I think this translates to FPS weapons that feel good to use, with their sound, animation, aesthetic, and death-dealing outcome combining to create that emotional response.
For example, just because Doom’s BFG9000 supergun has the ability to wipe out an entire screen’s worth of enemies doesn’t mean it is the most satisfying to use (for the record, I think it is pretty satisfying, though), and especially not when compared to weaker damage dealers that have a better overall feel. And the Super Shotgun is the ultimate example of this. That weapon is so iconic because of its brutal appearance, cracking discharge sound, memorable clap clep clop reload sound, and the lethal outcome of a direct hit with it. Even its time-to-reload adds to its satisfaction, I think, adding a greater element of risk and reward to its use over the standard single-barrel shotgun. In every aspect by which video game weapons are judged, the Super Shotgun scores highly.
In fact, the more I think about my personal favorite weapons in gaming, the more I’m convinced that the sound they make, in primary and secondary discharge, as well as reload or wind-up or wind-down, is super important to generating this good feeling of use. Take Unreal Tournament’s Flak Cannon, for example. The loud, punchy crack noise when primary fired sounds powerful and deadly, while its secondary grenade launching discharge has a pleasing thwop sound on launch.
In terms of some more honorable mentions in the satisfying FPS weapons category, I’d defo also slide Soldier of Fortune’s Silver Talon .44 magnum in there, as well as Unreal Tournament’s Shock Rifle, Half-Life 2’s SPAS-12 shotgun, and Duke Nukem’s Ripper Chaingun. Visually arresting, great discharge sound, interesting secondary fire (for the Shock Rifle), and of course, big, effective damage if enemies are struck. As for the least satisfying weapon to use in all of video games? My vote would be Goldeneye’s Klobb. So, so bad.