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hardcore_gamer

Games where pistols aren't useless

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No one brought up the Max Payne series? Dual-wielding pistols + bullet time + decent aim = an entire room clearly pretty damn quickly. Oh sure, there are times when you might want a little extra firepower when you're really overwhelmed, but you can hold your own pretty well in the Max Payne games with nothing but a couple of pistols. Which reminds me, I need to get back to Max Payne 3 at some point.

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In Perfect Dark, the Falcon and Magsec pistols are pretty effecient, but only gets better with the Magnums DSLRS (The silver one) and the DSLXR Golden Magnum really start packing in the heat.
Then the alien tech ones the Mauler and Phoenix, both with amazing secondaries.
Just about every single hand weapon can be dual wield too. So you ge 2 DSXLR Goldens.. And nothing lives if you're a quickshot.

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The Half-Life magnum is one of the first that comes to mind, followed by the pistols you can use in Counter-Strike which all have their own uses.

To be honest I would also qualify Blood for the flare gun, which is technically a pistol and is very useful, even much further in the game.

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The M1911 in DNF, i find it useful, i can kill enemies with a couple shots and i find it to be very accurate and effective.
Also the Usp.45 in Counter-Stike is cleary the best weapon to use in the 1st round aka pistol round, that even after that level its still useful, althrough i would swap it for a DEagle which is also accurate and powerful too.

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Dead Space's plasma cutter, basically your improvised pistol and is very helpful for precision shots throughout the three games.

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Half-Life ,The 9mm pistol, a Glock 17, isn't very powerful, but it is useful for taking out weaker enemies, like houndeyes or headcrabs, from a distance. Primary fire shoots slowly but accurately, while secondary fire shoots faster but sacrifices accuracy. In addition, the pistol is one of only two ranged weapons in the game that works underwater,it is also used as an Alternative weapon with "Last Used Weapon" Key so that you don't have to waste time in reloading your current weapon .

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Kirby said:

The Half-Life magnum is one of the first that comes to mind, followed by the pistols you can use in Counter-Strike which all have their own uses.

To be honest I would also qualify Blood for the flare gun, which is technically a pistol and is very useful, even much further in the game.


Speaking of magnums, I prefer high caliber revolvers in games with multiple pistols. I like having the higher damage in a pinch. I like the MP412 REX and .44 Magnum from the more recent Battlefield games.

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Counter-Strike series: I never really saw many people use the 228 Compact, 5-7 or Dual Elites in 1.6 or Source. I haven't played GO yet, so I'm glad that all of the pistols in that game are actually worth using instead of everyone going to the Desert Eagle.

Killing Floor: Yep, all of the pistols are damn useful. Berettas for clearing away trash specimens, MK23s and Handcannons for shit-hits-the-fan situations. I do feel kinda bad for the .44 Magnum because although it is a good pistol, it doesn't do much more damage than the MK23 and is just outclassed by the HC. Personally, I'd increase its weight to 3 blocks each, the price by 200, and have the .44 Mag spawn in the map instead of the HC.

Oh, and the Flare Revolvers. Who'd have thought a Firebug weapon was damn good at killing the higher-tier specimens?

Action Quake 2: Oh man, the MK23. It may be the default (and only) pistol in that game, but landing a headshot with that gun was a certain kill 80% of the time. Even better was landing that headshot on your killer just before you bled out.

Goldeneye/Perfect Dark: All the pistols in that game sounded pleasingly vicious. But I wasn't enamored with any of the revolvers because of that double-action trigger throwing off my aim.

Just bringing up UT's Enforcer makes me wanna install it again. But I've heard UT doesn't play nice with Win7 and multi-core CPUs.

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Unreal's Dispersion Pistol and Automag (beta UT Enforcer, essentially) are still pretty handy once you obtain stronger firepower. For one, DP never runs out of ammo, so it's great for taking out the weaklings like RazorFlies, Tentacles, and Mantas. The Automag is still good for its accuracy in Primary Fire if you're low on ASMD ammo.

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BaronOfStuff said:

Red Faction

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

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Glaice said:

Dead Space's plasma cutter, basically your improvised pistol and is very helpful for precision shots throughout the three games.


Plasma cutter isn't a pistol.

You know Double Dragon 1's machine gun was pretty effective. Instant death to anyone it shoots.

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PRIMEVAL said:

Unreal's Dispersion Pistol and Automag (beta UT Enforcer, essentially) are still pretty handy once you obtain stronger firepower. For one, DP never runs out of ammo, so it's great for taking out the weaklings like RazorFlies, Tentacles, and Mantas. The Automag is still good for its accuracy in Primary Fire if you're low on ASMD ammo.

unfortunately, the Dispersion pistol ends up using waaay too much ammo once you get it upgraded. why does the primary fire use 3x the ammo from ONE upgrade, for like, i dunno, the chance to kill an enemy with 3 less shots? the Automag is still useful, though, especially against the dodging Skaarj.

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The Pistols in Max Payne 1 and 2 are also rather effective for long periods of time, at least when dual wielding. The Dual Deagles in MP2 can last a long time in terms of usefulness, although ammo can be scarce. The Berettas are always godly, though. Even against tougher enemies they are useful guns to fall back on if you're caught in a bind.

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The pistol from Hideous Destructor is pretty great. The damage is pretty much an analogue to vanilla Doom's, but with much better accuracy and a pretty fast fire rate for a semi-automatic weapon. Of course, the mod makes everything else incredibly tough, so it's application is more limited against stronger monsters (who not only have more hit points, but a thicker hide that provides better defense against 9mm) when you don't have enough ammo and/or good enough cover to do the job.

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There's also Half-Life's Colt Python .357 magnum which 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.

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Duke Nukem 3D is an obvious pick. It helps when the weakest weapon has its own ammo. Often you'll go out of your way to use the weaker weapon just so you can save the better weapons for later.

Goldeneye has useful pistols throughout, even though they get upgraded. Same thing with Resident Evil 4.

Now that I think about it, it seems like iD games are the exception rather than the norm when it comes to useless pistols.

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RAGE and Wolfenstein: The New Order...I hope Doom 4 continues the trend, just because it's a pistol doesn't mean it has to be dead weight.

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If we are not restricted to FPS...I'd say the Metal Slug series. All of the games of the series are balanced so that you can just barely pull through boss battles, traps, etc. using only your pistols with their infinite ammo.

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Time Splitters 1-3 - gotta love the different handguns. What's awesome is having a deathmatch or capture the bag with 5 pistols from different eras.
Resistance Fall of Man 2 - gotta love that alternate fire mode, downright explosive and has a wicked reload animation.

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Man ! ,i forgot about Splinter cell : Chaos Theory ,A Stealth game where you only get a Pistol and a SC-20K,you can takedown enemies by hands silently or by Pistol if they're Far from you.

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Jimi said:

The 10mm Pistol in Deus Ex. The basic one.

Oh yeah, I've had glorious play throughs where I put any weapon upgrade I could get my mitts on into it. Did the exact same thing in Human Revolution as well. Stealth kill headshots a plenty.

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Nightmare creatures 1 for ps1. Those single use pistols packed a punch taking down werewolves and vampires. I dont know if sequel had those pistols. There was demo of the first game on one of the ps1 demo discs.

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pistol / handgun ;

Max Payne
resident evil
devil may cry
metal gear solid (m9 tranq gun)
half life 2

Edit ;
thread title ; Games where pistols aren't useless.
opening post ; mentions hate for useless pistols in fps games.

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