The Vault: Top 10 Weapons That Defined Their Games

There have been a lot of games over the past God knows how many years that have had some amazing weapons in them, some of them have been futuristic, some of them historical, the only thing linking all of them together is that they’ve all been awesome.

Imagine an Assassin’s Creed game without the ability to use the magnificent hidden wrist blade, or even worse, imagine a Gears of War title without the lancer. They just couldn’t be done, at least not now that the weapons that make those game have, themselves, become a part of video game history.

This list brings together 10 of what I think are the best of the best, the weapons that without them, the game they’re in wouldn’t be the same. That being said this is a personal opinion and while this is my top 10, it may not be yours. What weapons do you think I should have included, and why? There’s a comments box at the bottom of this article for a reason people.

10: The Hidden Blade (Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft, 2007)

When it comes down to weapons that define the game in which they’re found you could do much worse than the hidden wrist blade from Assassin’s Creed and the rest of the games in the franchise. The elegant way that it enables the user to dispatch of their targets makes it the perfect weapon to go with the creed that all assassin’s adhere to. Added to the the devastating accuracy with which it can be used either on an offensive attack or a defensive one, means that even if there were no other weapons on hand, a good assassin would always be able to come out the winner; no matter what the odds.

On a personal level there’s nothing more satisfying in any of the Assassin’s Creed games than making my way silently through the game world with the hidden wrist blade at the ready, stalking my way up to my intended target and performing the most silent, most perfect, assassination I could do. There’s always something very appealing about managing to do it without drawing too much attention to my character, it’s the reason why it’s on this list at all, so elegant, so breathtaking in its mechanic yet so efficient, it would be hard not to be scared if weapons such as this were found to have existed, or even still be used to this day.

9: Soul Reaver (Legacy of Kain, Crystal Dynamics, 2004)

When the name of the game is the name of one of the weapons found in that game, as a game developer, you’ve got to make sure that it’s one of the best weapons that you can possibly think of. That was the task given to Crystal Dynamics when they decided to name the Soul Reaver games, and they did a damn fine job at it too. There aren’t many swords out there that can rightfully claim to have had a soul but the Soul Reaver was certainly one of them. Body and soul were ripped apart when the blade was shattered on Raziel’s arm, the spirit portion of the famed blade binding itself with its new host enabling him to dismiss and call it at a moments call. But that’s only the beginning of the multitude of things it’s capable of.

The Legacy of Kain series of games are some of the best games in existence, if anyone ever asked me what my favourite game series of all time are, the top of that list would be Legacy of Kain. As such the Soul Reaver, in all of its incarnations, is one of my favourite weapons. It always amazes me how versatile a single weapon can be using it in the Spectral Realm and Material Realm serves a different purpose, as does imbuing it with different elements before it’s used. Now all I have to hope for is there are more games in the franchise on the horizon so I can get my fix of the parasitic spirit blade once more.

8: Portal Gun (Portal, Valve, 2007)

How can a weapon that creates portals on command, allowing the user to practically get anywhere they want, not make the list? When Portal first came out people were understandably unsure, essentially it was a tech demo that was bundled together with Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2: Episode 2, but it quickly became the main attraction on the Orange Box; and with very good reason. The Portal Gun itself is the main star of the game, which would have been absolutely nothing without it, starting its own fanbase well before Cave Johnson was even anywhere near the scene.

When I finally got around to purchasing the Orange Box I’d heard a lot about Portal, but not much about what it really was, only that it was the most amazing thing on the face of the earth; at that point in time anyway. After finishing the first puzzle I was hooked, my PC at that time could only just struggle along with playing it but I didn’t mind the drastically low frame rates because I’d become so quickly addicted to thinking with portals that it didn’t matter in the slightest. Sure I failed the puzzle a lot more than other people did but I was having more fun than I’d had in a long time while doing it. The Portal Gun had no small part in that, figuring out how to do the puzzles in the quickest time possible, and in the least amount of moves possible became a new meta game and I, its new master.

7: Gravity Gun (Half-Life 2, Valve, 2004)

Just like when Portal came out and everyone gravitated towards the Portal Gun as one of the greatest weapons in video games, when Half Life 2 came out the same was often said of the gravity gun. Having the ability to pull items off of the walls of buildings and throw them at people on the other side of the room with a simple click of the mouse was vastly more appealing than firing bullets. What other game, at that time at least, enabled the player to throw whole toilet bowls at the oncoming horde of enemies. What kept the gravity gun apart from the rest of the pack however, was the ability to use it not just in an offensive manor, but as a means to solve certain puzzles within the world. This opened up all of gaming to a new style of puzzle, one which hadn’t really been seen before; and it was all down to the gravity gun.

The first time you get a hold of the gravity gun within Half Life 2 it’s difficult to know what to do with it, sure you can grab things and throw them at enemies but that soon gets tiresome. Where most people will find the uses of the gravity gun is when they’re using it as a defensive weapon, pulling health and ammo from the other side of the room just as you’re about to run out, pulling items from other floors as you turn quickly from side to side and realise there’s seemingly no way out. The gravity gun is almost guaranteed to get you out of a sticky situation because in a game that’s as driven by its physics engine as Half Life 2 is there’s always a can on the floor to throw at that three story tall boss character. That’ll work right? No? Then run!

6: Lancer (Gears of War, Epic Games, 2008)

Few weapons in the history of video games have been as brutal, or as iconic, as the lancer from Gears of War. When you first sit down and actually think about it, it sounds like something a 12 year old would dream up after getting slightly overexcited about something, a massive automatic rifle with a chainsaw attached to it? Yeah, ok, what are you going to think of next? In reality though the lancer, with its crazy design, helps to make all of the Gears of War games a little bit more exciting than they would be normally. Caught by surprise turning that corning because you weren’t paying attention? No problem, how about a light chainsawing to the sternum; that fixes all of life’s little problems, at least in the world of Gears of War.

When I first came across the lancer I thought it was unnecessarily brutal. Gears of War was already filled with enough blood and gore for most games, I was initially filled with the idea that the use of the lancer was a little bit overboard. How wrong I was. I spent the next 12–15 hours attempting, and often failing, to get as close to may enemy as I possibly could without killing them (and without dying myself) just in order to use the chainsaw on their unperforated bodies. Sitting back with a look of satisfaction crossing my face, my eyes would dart across the battlefield looking for my next victim, this went on and on until the credits were rolling; and they say video game players are violent, whatever next!

5: Dagger of Time (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Ubisoft, 2004)

There are very few weapons throughout the history of video games that are as powerful as the Dagger of Time from Prince of Persia. Sure, it’s not the deadliest weapon on this list and it’s not the most subtle either, but when it comes to sheer power then there’s very few that come second to the weapon that can sculpt and shape the flow of time around it. Assuming that everyone has already forgotten that the Jake Gyllenhall film even happened – which everyone should do as soon as possible – then it’s very easy to make the argument for the Dagger of Time. The way that the designers of the Sands of Time managed to make the weapon massively powerful while also giving it severe limitations meant that something which could have been used as a huge crutch throughout the game was suddenly something that could only be used in the most extreme circumstances; just as it should be.

The first time I pressed the button to rewind time in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time I was shocked, not only in the sense that I just managed to rewind time but also from the technical standpoint that I was watching the Prince retrace my exact steps, only backwards. It was such an amazing game mechanic that has been used multiple times since that time but, especially in my opinion, it hasn’t been used as inventively as it was in that first Prince of Persia game. The dagger itself, from the power it possessed as well as the back story of the blade, meant that it was as much of a character within the game as the Prince of Persia was, and that’s something very special indeed.

4: Blades of Chaos (God of War, Sony, 2005)

Just seeing the Blades of Chaos in a screenshot will immediately tell you just how powerful they are. Given to Kratos as a symbol of the price he paid to serve the God of War Ares and bound by chains to his flesh, just as his contract is, Kratos is able to swing and toss the blades with deadly accuracy. Taking down his enemies with flourishes and flair that has become as much a part of the God of War games as Kratos himself. There are many weapons throughout all of the games, some of them are more powerful and some of them, while a little sluggish to use, look amazing when used, but none of them are as beautiful to wield on a long term basis as the Blades of Chaos.

I’d never played any of the God of War games until recently, I’d never owned a PlayStation 2, but I was always aware of Kratos and his famous Blades of Chaos. I’d seen pictures, watched video clips of them in action and I even almost bought a PS2 just so that I could get the chance to wield them myself. When the God of War Collection game out for the PlayStation 3 I was there straight away, playing through the games like there was no tomorrow. Flinging, swinging and smashing my way through the torrents of enemies. I was the master of the Blades of Chaos, and nothing could stop me.

3: Crowbar (Half-Life, Valve, 1998)

When you first start most videogames, you’re given a weapon and told to head of into the wild blue yonder and do whatever you’re supposed to be doing. In Half-Life you were told that too, except without the whole “given a weapon” thing. Most people would see a weapon as something that’s required to start with in a first person shooter, but that was where Valve was different, they knew you needed a weapon but they also knew that they wanted you to think outside of the box in order to get it. What’s that? “In case of emergency break glass”? Well, I don’t have a weapon, I think that constitutes an “emergency” within the confines of a First Person Shooter, *smash*. From that moment on, history is made.

In all seriousness though Half-Life redefined gaming, in my eyes at least, not by giving the player a weapon to start the game with, instead they had to think within the same mindset as Gordon Freeman himself. Players would know they needed a weapon because things weren’t quite right and most people would grab the first thing they see in order to defend themselves; in this case the ever famous crowbar. Players could then work their way up using the crowbar to get a gun, the gun to get a bigger gun, etc, and this helped to give the player a greater sense of immersion within the game world, making them feel a part of the story and helping them stay emotionally attached to the character of Gordon Freeman.

2: Soul Edge (Soul Edge, Namco, 1996)

Very few weapons have “set the stage of destiny”, at least according the the announcer at the start of every fight, but the twin blades of Soul Edge and Soul Calibur have. People have fought and died, loved and lost, just for the chance to wield one or both of the swords. Sometimes for good and sometimes for downright evil. Over the course of the four games that have been released we’ve seen multiple people fight with both of the swords. It never gets old seeing the “Soul Edge’d” versions of some of the franchises classic characters and, as long as they keep making them, I’m going to guess that it never will.

When I played the first Soul Calibur game (or Soul Edge as I played, I’d imported an American version of the game) I couldn’t have known just how long the franchise would last and where it would be taken through the course of its life. As far as I was concerned Cervantes de Leon was the one and only wielder of the Cursed Blade; how wrong was I? When it came to the other games in the series, while the whole games are generally good, I only cared about who was the current owner of the Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, I wanted to know how they got it and what they intended to do with it. It’s the back story, and the potential for more stories, that accompany these two weapons that make them as important to any of the Soul Calibur games as any of the characters (although having Spawn in the Xbox version of Soul Calibur 2 was AWESOME!).

1: Metal Gear REX (Metal Gear Solid, Konami, 2000)

Metal Gear REX. The words themselves conjure up images within people of the first time they encountered the nuclear armed monstrosity. Thankfully, due to the fact that Metal Gear Solid is simply an amazing game, most people’s first interactions with any of the Metal Gear machines will have been a good one. The sheer scale of the thing was something to behold in itself, add to that the fact that it’s a walking, near invulnerable tank, capable of launching nuclear missiles and you’ve got a weapon worthy of a James Bond film. There have been a few Metal Gears now but nothing, at least in my eyes, compares to Metal Gear REX.

Walking into that hangar near the end of the game and seeing Metal Gear REX in “the flesh” for the first time is one of my greatest memories through my whole life of playing video games. It was the first time that I had experienced a game come anywhere close to the grandeur of a blockbuster movie, but here I was, stood in front of a massive mechanical goliath that I, somehow, was supposed to destroy; better get started then. Metal Gear REX is still one of the most terrifying weapons in video games, not only because of the fact that it’s huge but because the technology doesn’t seem so far off that it’s unbelievable. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would love to get their hands on it, I just hope we’ve got our very own, real world, Solid Snake to deal with it.

Honourable Mentions:

This is the section of my list that holds all the games that I thought deserved mentioning but wouldn’t fit into the Top 10 list. If I was allowed to have a Top 13 list all these weapons would be in there but I can’t so here they are:

1: Sam Fisher’s Goggles (Splinter Cell, Ubisoft, 2002)

While not technically a weapon, I figured that seeing as they do help Sam get out of some very tricky situations while also being absolutely iconic and defining the games that they’re in makes them at least a contender for the ‘Honourable Mention’ section. Can anyone imagine a Splinter Cell game without the satisfying noise that Sam’s goggles make as you’re turning them on? No? Didn’t think so.

2: Master Chief (Halo: Combat Evolved, Bungie, 2002)

Just like Sam Fisher’s Goggles, Master Chief isn’t a weapon per se, he’s a cybernetically enhanced entity capable of dispatching just about anything he sets his mind to, but in the sense that he kills enemies with deadly efficiency while also being a huge part of the Halo franchise then, in my opinion, he deserves a place on this list.

3: Line Gun (Dead Space, EA, 2008)

Out of all of the honourable mentions that I’ve put in this section the Line Gun from Dead Space and its successor is probably the only one that really could have fit into the main section of the article. While it does serve the purpose of defining the game that it’s in, Dead Space simply wouldn’t have been the same without it – it simply lacks the “ooomph” for it to be in the top 10. Every time I used it it was out of necessity, not because it was the best weapon in the game. Nothing wrong with severing a few limbs however, hence the honourable mention.

The Vault is a monthly feature and will return on the second Friday of every month. Next Friday is Hall of Fame time!