Best/worst video game flamethrower?

[Artman2004]

What do you think is the best video game flamethrower? And what's the worst flamethrower? (Lamethrowers, if you will)

[Chow Yun Thin]

inb4 plasma rifle

 

I liked the Flamethrower from the first Killing Floor because it fired an arcing stream much like an actual flamethrower. It was also as dangerous to its operator as the specimens unless you had the Firebug perk. I wasn't as enamored with the Flamethrowers in the second game, though I did like spraying the ground to create literal firewalls. I also liked the Flamethrower from Wolfenstein Enemy Territory; something about that felt so right for some reason. I'm guessing if I ever play RTCW I'll like its incarnation as well.

 

I hated the Spray Can from Blood. Realistically pitiful range and required quite a lot to light someone on fire, especially those goddamn spiders. At least the secondary fire sucked less. I also hated the Pyro's flamethrower from Team Fortress Classic. Slow fire rate, ugly tiny fireball sprite and not very damaging with direct fire.

 

I never cared for the Firebat from Starcraft.

[[McD] James]

I usually find myself using the default flamethrower for the Pyro, but the Degreaser is the most popular pick in competitive games. As with many others, I kind of dislike the Phlog because of how it discourages teamplay. I still use it myself every now and then though. 

[mrthejoshmon]

Call of Duty Black Ops has a weapon mounted flamethrower that can be overpowered by harsh language, literally used exclusively to artificially handicap yourself or to troll.

 

Fallout New Vegas has quite possibly my favourite flamethrower of all time though, in the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC there is a flamethrower called Cleansing Flame, it fires long range hot gas that tears through targets and has the added bonus of causing an explosion if you kill someone by crippling the chest, absolutely glorious weapon.

 

EDIT: Turns out Cleansing Flame is not hot gas but is actually bugged, it is actually a deep blue flame that renders 100% transparent for some reason. When fixed it looks even better.

[FractalBeast]

This abomination, this flaming horror straight from hell.

 

The Devil's Tongue Subterranean Flame Tank... if you've played C&C Tiberian Sun, you know the sheer PAIN and FEAR this thing generates.

 

 

[Endless]

Same as @FractalBeast. Command and Conquer flame tanks are living nightmares. C&C 3 NOD flametank and any of their flame units are downright broken. OP as heck.

[Spie812]

I think Team Fortress 2's flamethrowers easily take the cake here, but there's a few others I like. Halo PC had a pretty nice flamethrower as long as you weren't outgunned, Blood's spray can always comes in handy for the butchers and the like, Postal 2's spray can is amusing as hell and can clear an entire map with a well placed burst, and Serious Sam TSE's flamethrower is of course endlessly useful.

[damned]

First really nice flamethrower I've seen in FPS was probably in Kingpin...

[Shepardus]

3 hours ago, Chow Yun Thin said:

I liked the Flamethrower from the first Killing Floor because it fired an arcing stream much like an actual flamethrower. It was also as dangerous to its operator as the specimens unless you had the Firebug perk. I wasn't as enamored with the Flamethrowers in the second game, though I did like spraying the ground to create literal firewalls. I also liked the Flamethrower from Wolfenstein Enemy Territory; something about that felt so right for some reason. I'm guessing if I ever play RTCW I'll like its incarnation as well.

Enemy Territory/RTCW was my first thought for the same reason, it feels more like a fluid than a cone of damage with a two-foot range.

[D4NUK1]

Killing Floor 2 Flametrower, with the corrects perks that it's a friking firewall. Also the Killing Floor 1, but after level up firebug to lvl 6 that range it's like my piss on the morning.

Lametrower, should be the Black Ops 3 one, it's a really low time to kill for how the game plays, and it's a Specialist weapon so it's can't be used anytime.

[Cherno]

Kingpin has the best looking one, especially for it's time. It's effectiveness is marred by the fact that while it does set things on fire pretty quickly, the damage while burning is fairly low so it takes quite some time until an enemy burns to death. However, burning enemies can be killed by a single hit from another weapon, making the flamethrower something of a novelty weapon.

[Sir Hattington]

TFC's flamethrower sucks more balls than James Charles. I can't kill anything with it.

[jupiter_ex]

love the subject. Flamethrowers used to be the poorest implemented weapons back in the 90s. Worst? right now comes to mind the one from Exhumed/Powerslave.
Surprisingly not that bad? The one from Unreal 2 comes to mind.

[lazygecko]

The OG Command & Conquer flamethrower infantry are simultaneously the best and the worst, because they will always somehow all blow eachother up in huge chunks from friendly fire (both from the flame cone itself and the aoe explosion when they die) and it will never not be hilarious.

[Maximum Matt]

The Turok one.

[Eric Claus]

Rising Storm 1 and 2 have nasty flame throwers.  Will kill a banzai charge or clear you out in seconds.

[MFG38]

5 hours ago, Maximum Matt said:

The Turok one.

 

But which is it? Best or worst?

[Captain Toenail]

The Timesplitters2 one when applied to the Snowman character.

[StalkerBlade]

[Vile]

I've seen a few mentions for RTCW in regards to good flamethrowers, which was my first thought as well.  The worst one that comes to mind is from the original Contra - granted I'd only ever use the spread gun if I can help it, I'd still rather have the machinegun over the flames that spin in a circle for some reason.

[45th Parrallel]

The flamethrower in Strife is pretty pitiful in most circumstances, owing to its abysmal range and using ammo better used in the mauler.

[Maximum Matt]

4 hours ago, MFG38 said:

 

But which is it? Best or worst?

From Turok.

:-)

[TenenteZashu]

Worst: Far Cry 3

Best: Far Cry 5

 

And not, I'm not kidding, the flamethrower in FC3 would literally set you on fire if you use at mid-range and at mid-range it's shit anyways, in FC5 it's way better and it's actually usable, so much that has become my second most used weapon together with the revolver.

 

Oh and I'm not talking about the damage but about their range, the damage is similar is not the same but maybe they made it a bit stronger in FC5 idk

[[McD] James]

Blood Dragon's flamethrower is tits. 

[Devalaous]

On 9/23/2020 at 10:09 AM, Endless said:

Same as @FractalBeast. Command and Conquer flame tanks are living nightmares. C&C 3 NOD flametank and any of their flame units are downright broken. OP as heck.

 

Made worse in Kane's Wrath with the Black Hand's purifying flame upgrade. Just get a group of Purifiers, and move into an enemy base, not attacking. The flames wash over all, and destroy all. Its beautiful.

 

Spoiler

As a bonus, the mission the Purifier is introduced in, lets you blow up Australia~

 

[HQDefault]

Far Cry 2

It mainly wins because this game's dynamic fire system is friggin insanely good.

 

It's really kind of a novelty weapon that's as likely to kill yourself as you are an enemy... but I don't care, it feels exactly like what a flamethrower should.

[Dr. Toboggan]

On 9/22/2020 at 5:30 PM, mrthejoshmon said:

Call of Duty Black Ops has a weapon mounted flamethrower that can be overpowered by harsh language, literally used exclusively to artificially handicap yourself or to troll.

I would only whip this out when our team was dominating and I just wanted to mess with the other team with some weird ass handicapped combination like an FAL + flamethrower lol.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. This is not debatable.

Can kill Charlies up to a stunning 30 metters, flames are not slow, leaves burning damage that causes area denial. You know, like how a real flamethrower should be. When you are playing on the VC side and you see that geyser of flames coming out  of the bushes scorching your teammates, it really intimidates you. Not to mention, flames are beautiful and leaves a lot of smoke.

The Worst Flamethrowers: 99% of every videogame flamethrowers ever made (just like videogame shotguns). There are some weird videogame conventions that says that for some reason, flamethrowers should have short range, slow flames, and deal minimal damage. Finding good flamethrowers is much harder than finding bad ones, since every videogame flamethrower is expected to be useless.
But special mentions of absolutely horrible flamethrowers goes to Strife, Aliens Trilogy, Doom Eternal, Halo, every Battlefield/Call of Duty games, Fallout, and GTA games (and specially Vice City).

Edited September 25, 2020 by Sergeant_Mark_IV

[Maximum Matt]

Halloween goddamn Harry.

[Chip]

How has nobody mentioned the flamethrower from SNES WOLF3D?! That is pretty cool!