Top 10 Rampant Weapons in Video Gaming History

Gamers love their weapons.  No matter if the game is a shooter, an RPG, or even a racing game for every player (and every character) there’s a favorite weapon.  From shotguns and chainsaws to turtle shells and Light Sabers, the weapons we use in games have become almost as iconic as the games themselves.  Let us take a look at some of the best and baddest weapons around in this top ten round up.

Number Ten:  The Line Gun (Dead Space)
 

In a game where the whole point is to take your enemies apart piece by piece, there’s no other weapon that works quite as well as the modified IM-822 Ore Cutter.  This upgradable machine was designed to cut chunks of ore into smaller chunks for ease of handling but with a little tweaking and a little malevolence the tool works just as well against the hideously mutated freaks that took over the Ishimura.  Not only is the line gun one of the most deadly weapons in gaming, it’s also on e of the coolest looking and its deadly beam can be rotated both vertically and horizontally.

Number Nine:  Blades of Chaos (God of War)
 

Kratos is one bad mother@#*!1 so it would have been a little self-defeating to limiting the God of War to swinging a sword or axe.  It’s a good thing Sony decided to give the man his kusarigama (chain ball sickle) inspired implements of death.  These whirling blades sweep through the air rhythmically and slice flesh like those Ginsu knives they sell on TV infomercials.  They’re the perfect thing for taking on an entire Greek Pantheon to get your revenge.

Number Eight:  The Crowbar (Half Life)
 

I may be biased (half Life is my all-time favorite video game ever) but Gordon Freeman’s crowbar definitely deserves to be on any top ten weapons list.  Why?  When other characters were using knives and baseball bats for melee weapons, Gordon thought outside the box and picked up his trademark red crowbar.  There wasn’t anything as efficient at dispatching crotchety head-crabs as that three-foot chunk of hardened steel and it worked well against the other alien freaks as well.

Number Seven:  The Whip (Castlevania)
 

Ever since seeing Indiana Jones we’ve all wanted to have a hand at crackin’ the whip like a pro and Castlevania gave us that opportunity.  What was so special about Castlevainia’s whip?  Sure other games (both prior to and after) have given us similar weapons to play with but they’ve all felt like unnecessary add-ons whereas in Castelvania the whip was actually a useful extension of Simon Belmont’s arm.  It may seem an odd choice to go vampire hunting with a length of rawhide but Indie did pretty good plumbing the depths of ancient tombs with his so why not?

Number Six:  The Eclipse Scythe (Ninja Gaiden 2)
 

Once pried from the cold not-so-dead hands of the demigod Volf, the Eclipse Scythe is easily a ninja’s best friend.  Not only is the weapon completely upgradable, it’s also as deadly and swift as any other in the game.  If you were feeling so inclined, you could also charge the weapon and drop massive crowds of screaming demons with an insanely powerful attack.  The weapon was so great that Visceral Games decided to completely rip it off for their rather lame version of Dante’s Inferno.  Nothing says celebrity like poorly constructed knock-offs (I mean imitations.)

Number Five:  Dual Sabers (Star Wars:  Jedi Academy)
 

Sure Kyle Katarn gave us the first taste of what it felt like to wield a Lightsaber in Lucas Arts Jedi Knight:  Dark Forces II but the weapon never truly achieved that status of “art from.”  When Jedi Academy hit shelves it not only gave players that ability to create their own avatar but to create their own saber(s) as well.  Double-bladed, dual wield, or traditional whichever style you used it felt natural, organic, and certainly a heck of a lot more flashy than Kyle’s stilted hack and slash maneuvers.  It was like stepping out of Mark Hamill’s battle with Vader on the second Death Star right into Ewan McGregor’s battle with Ray Park in Episode One.

Number Four:  The Pistol (Halo Combat Evolved)
 

Everyone knows that the pistol is always either the most useless or the most useful weapon in any game.  Half Life’s pistol came to be known as the poor man’s sniper rifle because of its range and accuracy but Bungie took that concept to another level with the sidearm they deigned to give the Master Chief.  This piece of machinery often replaced many other armaments in the Master Chief’s arsenal because of its accuracy and stopping power.  Head shots worked wonders on enemy Covenant and Flood and the abundant amounts of ammunition (read infinite) made this weapon's the one to carry.  In fact, I played through most of Halo with the side arm and shotgun and found both to be just about all I needed.

Number Three:  The Fatman (Fallout 3)
 

What’s more badass than having your own personal tactical battlefield nuke strapped to your back when you’re travelling through a hostile wasteland inhabited by giant mutated freaks?  How about have a rifle-sized launcher readily available?  This weapon was easily capable of taking out huge numbers of enemies with its large splash damage radius and direct hits could easily drop all but the toughest of the tough with one shot.  It doesn’t hurt that the explosive animation was one of the coolest ever devised. 

Number Two:  The Gravity Gun (Half Life 2)
 

You should expect game changing antics from a franchise whose main character relies heavily upon a crowbar for defense and Half Life delivers with the Gravity Gun.  Really this gun perverts the physics of the insanely powerful Havok engine and turns an innocuous “tool” into one of the most deadly weapons in the game.  Relying on the bits and pieces of debris, NPCs, and furniture for ammunition, the Gravity Gun never runs dry.  It also easily changes from a weapon back to a tool and can be used to create artificial platforms, manipulate switches, and create roadblocks and barricades for a penultimate level of strategizing within Half Life’s quirky environment.  If you’re planning on taking on an oppressive pseudo-government I would highly recommend getting your hands on one of these puppies.

Number One:  The BFG 9000 (Doom)
 

You knew it had to be on here.  The Doom franchise is easily identifiable as the great granddaddy of shooting games and there’s nothing cooler than this bad boy.  It takes the top spot because there isn’t a weapon out there that can even come close to touching it.  This behemoth could easily clear an entire room with a single giant energy projectile.  Sure, it looked like a toaster on steroids, had the reload time of a herd of turtles, and the name has a naughty word in it but Doom took one-shot-one-kill to a whole other level with the BFG 9000.  Since then, other games have tried to recreate the excitement (Quake’s BFG10K for instance) but the original is still the best.