25 Games, 25 Guns: The Weapons that Defined First-Person Shooters

Shotgun - Doom: The standard in Doom ass-kicking, the shotgun became a primary weapon early on, and blowing people away with it never got old.

Rocket Launcher - Quake: Credit Quake as the first FPS ever to introduce the use of a now-coveted death dealer: the rocket launcher.

Drill - Bioshock 2: In Epic’s sequel, you assumed the role of a big daddy, complete with a super sized right hand drill.

Gravity Gun - Half Life 2: Keeping in tradition with Valve’s known reputation to push creative boundaries, the gravity gun allowed you to pick up virtually anything and launch it at your enemies. Thankfully, there were an abnormal amount of saw blades just lying around...

Bow & Arrow - Thief: One of the original death dealers that kept you quiet and allowed you to stealthily kill from the shadows, the bow and arrow has been mercin’ the baddies since the dawn of human kind.

Sniper Rifle - Team Fortress: Man, this brings us back. The sniper rifle from the original Team Fortress was a precision tool of death, allowing you to charge your shot to inflict more damage. In fact, if you landed a fully charged shot on an enemy, anywhere on their body, they simply exploded.

Machine Gun - Wolfenstein 3D: We figured the standard, middle-of-the-road machine gun in Wolfenstein was an MP40, but we can’t be sure. Point is, this trusty guy stayed in your inventory throughout the game and became an accredited Nazi slayer.

Shock Rifle - Unreal Tournament: The shock rifle was a blast (ha!) when it made its debut in the original Unreal Tournament, allowing you two modes of fire including a charge shot. Much like the sniper rifle in Team Fortress Classic, if the shot was fully charged, only pieces remain.

Plasma Leash - Bulletstorm: The plasma leash is just awesome; do what you will once you latch on to an enemy. Throw them on a giant cactus! Off a cliff! Or swing them towards you and kick them into a wall of spikes. Yipee!

Bloodwing - Borderlands: If you chose the path of Mordecai the hunter, the bloodwing becomes something extremely deadly. If you spend time upgrading it, the hawk eventually becomes a lookout that can be deployed to find opponents and damage them.

Bow & Arrow - Prey: The bow and arrow in Prey was important for more than its lethality—when the protagonist went into the spiritual realm, it was the only weapon he could take with him.

Shrink Ray - Duke Nukem 3D: Arguably one of the coolest guns in the gallery, the original shrink ray allowed you to shrink a foe to a couple of inches of height, then stomp on them like bugs.

Bullet Cam - MDK: The massively underrated MDK featured one of the first guns with bullet tracking; when you fired the sniper rifle, the camera would follow the bullet and allow you to steer your shots. Few know this innovation took place so long ago.

The AWP – CounterStrike: Maybe no weapon has ever inspired as much QQing as the AWP, the legendary CounterStrike sniper rifle so powerful that you could shoot a man in his big toe and watch him keel over on the spot.

Crowbar – Half-Life: Now as much of an icon as Gordon Freeman himself, hacking crates (and enemies) apart with the crowbar was oddly satisfying.

Dragon’s Tooth – Deus Ex: Deus Ex is a classic shooter, but gun design wasn’t one of its strong points. Fortunately, midway through the game JC Denton can acquire the Dragon’s Tooth, a.k.a. a freakin’ lightsaber. Not only was it bad-ass, it was crazy-powerful, meaning most players found room to keep it in their inventory.

Railway Rifle – Fallout 3: One of the best examples of crafted weapons in Fallout 3, the Railway Rifle is both fun to use (it shoots railroad spikes, for goodness’ sake) and powerful.

Flashlight – Doom 3: What’s that, you say? A flashlight is not a gun? No, no it’s not. But apparently duct-tape doesn’t exist in the future of Doom 3, and neither does sensible interior lighting, which makes the Flashlight the most useful thing in the game.

Butt of Any Gun – Left 4 Dead: Who needs ammunition when you can swing any gun around like John Henry on speed?

Medigun – Team Fortress 2: Nothing promotes teamwork like Team Fortress 2’s medigun, which can heal your teammates, or promote a nearby Heavy into an invincible, chokepoint-smashing battering ram.

Portal Gun – Portal: What would Portal be without the portal gun? Not very fun, that’s what.

Redeemer – Unreal Tournament: Back in the day every arena shooter needed to have its own version of the BFG—a gun that was, well, really effin’ big. The Redeemer was Unreal Tournament’s biggest, baddest gun, and it was a thrill to use.

Satchel Charge – Battlefield 1942: The satchel charge could be used by engineers in Battlefield to sabotage enemy planes and defenses, or (more hilariously) to transform a run-of-the-mill jeep into a deadly explosive projectile.

Spinfusor – Tribes: The weapon that formed the basis for most Tribes players’ arsenals, the Spinfusor launched deadly exploding blue Frisbees.

Mortar – Tribes 2: Only available to players in slow-moving heavy armor, the Mortar was strong at medium range and devastating at long range with spotter support.