Games where pistols aren't useless

System Shock 2 and Bioshock, both more than usable throughout the entire game.

Doominator2 said:

I hated the pistol from red faction, you had to be at least a meter away for it to hit anything.

It was certainly more useful on the PS2, as something of an oversight with that version's 'fine aim' mode (activated by pressing Up on the d-pad, to make up for the lack of mouse) ignored all weapon accuracy offsets where applicable and made the pistol laser-precise.

That aside, it was the only firearm which could be stealthy.

Maes said:

Postal 2.

The Desert Eagle, at least, is anything but useless: it can kill most enemies with one head shot or a couple of body shots, and is ridiculously accurate even at long distances. If it wasn't for the fog effect in some maps, there would be no point to using the sniper rifle.

Now, the basic pistol is another matter...

And, due to a glitch where if you fire your shotgun/pistol instantly upon firing it, it fires two shots at once, it can instakill almost anybody.

The pistol in HacX may not be very useful, but it's definitely not as useless as the one in Doom.

Weapons of Saturn allows your pistols to command respectable lethality against everything below a Revenant, especially after you acquire the M1911.

Half-Life 2's pistol, in an early version that had the bug; you used to be able to hold alt-fire and fire to "build up" shots, and then release them at once with the release of alt-fire.

SWAT 4 Pistol,while other heavy weapons have low accuracy ....

Turok 2: Seeds of evil had a decent pistol, due to the new hit detection at the time of release. It can be upgraded to fire 3 rounds at a time.

My vote goes for HL2's magnum revolver, still very satisfying to use with a lovely kick back, and takes skill to execute with it in harder parts of the game.

Honourable mention to Far Cry 3 too.

Right,only 1 or 2 shots for the head and you're done >_< it's slightly different in Half-Life 2 (Even more powerful) you don't even need to aim for the head :D

I'm going to be the black sheep here and say that I actually hate UT's pistol. That thing absolutely sucks I'm usually rather upset to get stuck with it during a match because I generally spend a moment or two just looking for a better weapon instead.

The FN Five-seveN from the Splinter Cell games was pretty useful. Even when they introduced the rifle, I typically stuck with the pistol.

Rise of the Triad.

So basically here's the list of games i know where Pistols aren't useless ... :

* Half-Life 1,The magnum is a much more powerful handgun than the pistol, capable of killing zombies, vortigaunts, or marines with a single well-placed shot to the head. Because it delivers damage in one solid hit, it is useful in situations where you must duck out of cover, fire a shot, then duck back into cover. The magnum is one of the most accurate long-range weapons, along with the pistol, and is effective against distant targets, like Xen Masters, as well as close range targets. In deathmatch mode, the magnum sports a lasersight which enables you to zoom in with the alternate fire key.

* Half-Life 2,The Magnum is even more powerful with ability to kill instantly in 2 or 3 shots but only if you're close to the enemy,don't bother using it in other situations .

* DOOM, Pistol isn't really useless in DOOM as people are thinking,it's very useful as a last resort when you're out of ammo or when you want to takedown easy enemies like zombies or IMPs

* Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory,in a stealth game Pistol is very required to takedown far enemies or used as last resort

* SWAT 4,High Accuracy and since this game is very realistic enemy will die with 1 or 2 shots just as real-life :P

* Metal Slug 1-5 >_< the first weapon you spawn with is pistol.

* Max Payne 1.2 mostly i used Pistol as a main weapon cause it had fast shooting .... 3 is very useless

* Metal Gear Solid V,another stealth game but not so realistic however Pistol is very useful here to Threat enemies from their backs

* Team Fortress "Spy",Revolver

* Counter-Strike Series,Almost every Pistol in the game but "Desert deagle" is most powerful and fast to reload ...

Oh, since TF2 was brought up, I'd also say the Scout's pistol is pretty handy for picking off low-health enemies from a distance. It's a more specialized/situational dependent weapon, but in those situations, it's actually pretty useful.

geekmarine said:

Oh, since TF2 was brought up, I'd also say the Scout's pistol is pretty handy for picking off low-health enemies from a distance. It's a more specialized/situational dependent weapon, but in those situations, it's actually pretty useful.

I'd say the Engineer gets more use out of it. Due to carrying an insane amount of ammo. Scout carries 36 rounds total, Engineer carries 200. This really comes into play when using Mini-Sentry Gun and playing offensively. Combine both the Mini-Sentry and pistol and you can mow down most classes pretty quick without having to worry about running out of ammo anytime soon.

Quast said:

Perfect dark does as well.

Doomkid said:

The various pistols in Goldeneye are all quite effective.

Technically, the unsilenced ones (barring the silver/gold cheat ones) are inferior to the rifles, but the gameplay is balanced enough that they never feel useless like the Doom pistol does.

The silenced ones were incredibly useful. It always bugged me how stealth stops being a thing entirely in the second half of GoldenEye. I get why they did it, armor just works as a second life bar for guards and PP7 headshots stop being one-hit kills in those levels, but it still bugs me. Perfect Dark tried to keep the silenced Falcon relevant a little longer, at least. But with how much more lethal Perfect Dark's combat feels, I'm using the cheaty lock-on SMG whenever I can, not the pistol I have to actually aim.

Actually, the silenced PP7 would be useless if the silenced D5K was available in the same missions as it.

Satyr000 said:

I'd say the Engineer gets more use out of it. Due to carrying an insane amount of ammo. Scout carries 36 rounds total, Engineer carries 200. This really comes into play when using Mini-Sentry Gun and playing offensively. Combine both the Mini-Sentry and pistol and you can mow down most classes pretty quick without having to worry about running out of ammo anytime soon.

Yeah, I should've mentioned the Engie, but I didn't because I hardly ever play Engie, so I have less personal experience there.

DMGUYDZ64 said:
So basically here's the list of games i know where Pistols aren't useless ... :

* DOOM, Pistol isn't really useless in DOOM as people are thinking,it's very useful as a last resort when you're out of ammo or when you want to takedown easy enemies like zombies or IMPs

You use the Chaingun in those situations. Chaingun Zombies drop them and thus the pistol's useless.

The Dual Pistols from ROTT '95. ROTT '13 doesn't have the greatness that ROTT '95 had.

Pure Hellspawn said:

You use the Chaingun in those situations. Chaingun Zombies drop them and thus the pistol's useless.

What if you had no chaingun ?

Am i the only one who thinks the Sin Magnum isn't useless?
Cuz' that gun has sniper-like accuracy and it's easy to do headshots with it.

The first Halo had an overly powerful pistol (I've heard that it was accidentally coded that way).

It was ranked #96 http://www.ign.com/top/video-game-weapons/96

Pure Hellspawn said:

You use the Chaingun in those situations. Chaingun Zombies drop them and thus the pistol's useless.

What if you have an odd number of bullets? Can't waste that one bullet....also necessary for maps focused on stingy ammo management.

The Colt Python in GTA Vice City is one of the most effective weapons in the game - one-hit kill and a crazy reload rate makes it pretty devastating even with 6-star heat coming at you.

In Natural Selection 2 the pistol is very much a backup weapon since you basically have to place every shot perfectly to kill something with it, but it's still saved me from dying on numerous occasions and it's a far better option than melee in a pinch.

DMGUYDZ64 said:

* Half-Life 2,The Magnum is even more powerful with ability to kill instantly in 2 or 3 shots but only if you're close to the enemy,don't bother using it in other situations .

The magnum is extremely accurate and works great at long ranges. You just have to be a good shot.

The one in Duke Nukem Forever isn't too bad at all. It does fairly decent damage, is accurate and is good for headshots.

FireFish said:

metal gear solid (m9 tranq gun)

OMG YES! I would go as far as saying this is one of the most useful pistols in any game ever.

This game also had a really good pistol:

Khorus said:

System Shock 2 and Bioshock, both more than usable throughout the entire game.

Anybody who's ever gotten the assault rifle in system shock 2 has found that it outclasses the pistol in every way. On top of allowing you to switch to a fully automatic mode (very helpful against rumblers and the occasional swarm of hybrids) it also has an enormous magazine (72 rounds after modifications) and a 25% default damage boost over the pistol.

Not that I'm saying the pistol is a bad weapon, because in general it is certainly extremely versatile.

Still, I think the fact that the assault rifle can be loaded with anti-personnel and armor piercing rounds makes it probably the best weapon in the entire game, since you can adapt it to almost every situation imaginable. Only at the very end of the game when you have to fight shodan and her cyborg assassins in cyberspace does something like the EMP rifle become really useful to have.