Boring but Practical/Video Games/First-Person Shooter


 * Medics in FPS games that have them: More Dakka might be more fun, but you try getting anywhere in a mission without a medic in your group.
 * Ammo limitations often make normal guns more useful than sniper rifles or the Big Freaking Gun, or other restrictions on those weapons may render them impractical.
 * In Team Fortress 2, you can unlock a great many side-grades for the primary/secondary/melee weapons of each class. These often serve to change up the core gameplay style of that class, tweak their effective sphere of operations, or just look flashy. Thing is (and much to the game's credit), when most professional and competitive players need to pick a loadout? They use the "vanilla" starter weapons all the way. Not as flashy, not as neat or novel - but always solid, dependable, and quietly the most powerful choice.
 * (The exception would be the melee slot, where vanilla weapons often lag behind unlocks, but this is overlooked because melee is rarely useful - unless you're a Spy (or to a lesser degree, Pyro or Scout.)
 * It could be argued that prior to the class update, the Engineer class of Team Fortress 2 had three rather plain weapons: a shotgun, a pistol, and his wrench. However, in spite of their plainness, they weren't any less effective at dispatching foes. His shotgun is a reliable standby that can deal a respectable amount of damage up close and is used by a default secondary by three of the main combat classes besides. The Engineer's pistol is just like the Scout's, but literally has more ammo available than any other weapon in the game (The minigun and flamethrower both carry 200 rounds according to their ammo indicators. The pistol? 212.) and was still half decent at damaging targets from farther off than the shotgun. Finally, the wrench is a humble tool, but it can construct, repair, and upgrade the Engineer's buildings, including health and ammo Dispensers, Teleporters to move teammates, and powerful Sentries. It is also handy for cracking heads open, because damage delivered from those same Sentries raise the wrench's already high crit rate, and only the two toughest classes in the game can avoid being beaten to death with one critical swing. Even before the update, Engineers were ubiquitous even if they were not as showy as some their fellow classes.
 * Ironically the only true downfall of any Engie is boredom. Two Engineers can completely lock down the 2fort map and prevent most means of speedy Intel recovery, but most defenses are broken because one of the two engineers feels bored because no one ever makes it far enough to him.
 * Part of being a Medic involves using your Ubercharge to mount an invincible (or Critical Hit-laden) assault on enemies. The other part is what you do to get your Ubercharge gauge up: healing allies. Not the most exciting job in the world, but the presence of a Medic can prevent teammates from having to wait upwards of 20 seconds to respawn.
 * The Soldier can be seen as this, especially among the much more niche-specific classes available. His weapons are literally nothing new. Rocket launchers, shotguns, and melee weapons have been around since Doom, and everyone's seen what they can do before. However, the Soldier is quite tough, surprisingly mobile, and well rounded enough that a good team usually has at least two on hand. Soldier tactics are fairly predictable, but frighteningly effective at turning large numbers of enemies into Ludicrous Gibs. It doesn't hurt that his lines are also extremely entertaining thanks to Comedic Sociopathy.
 * In Doom you will probably use the shotgun a lot more than flashier weapons like the rocket launcher, plasma rifle, or BFG 9000 due to the fact that shotgun ammo is very plentiful and a single blast at close range is enough to kill weaker enemies (sometimes you can even kill two or three weak enemies with a single shot if they're clustered together).
 * In Doom II, this trend is averted with the Awesome Yet Practical Super Shotgun. The single-barrel shotgun remains for dealing with medium to long-range monsters, while the double-barrel shotgun fills the role of short-range-stopping-power awesomely. Ammo remains available enough for the weapon, and for a lot of cases, it can be used as the standard gun. A very handy feature of this weapon is that few monsters can withstand all of the buckshot from the weapon without being stunned in pain.
 * As Doom III went for a more horror themed approach many of the fights you get into are short range ambushes, once again the humble shotgun is weapon of choice for wandering through the corridors.
 * Prey has an impressive amount of very original weapons of creepily biological construction, like an acid-spraying shotgun, explosive crabs used as grenades, a gun that launches those same crabs (no, really) and a bow made of spiritual energy that can kill the soul of enemies. And yet, the weapon you'll be using most of the time is the humble energy rifle with sniper attachment you begin with, because of its good mix of damage, fire rate and precision.
 * The fact that it regenerates a small amount of ammo if the reserves are low doesn't hurt either
 * System Shock 2, with its RPG Elements, had one or two, especially if you were playing the OSA. Cryokinesis is one of the starting powers and though you get amazing, highly destructive spells abilities at higher tiers, this is still the most-used due to its low Psi-point cost, robot-damaging ability, and scaling of its damage with your PSI stat. The wrench you pick up at the very beginning? Still useful right up to the endgame for whittling down immobilized enemies before you deliver the coup de grace. With Adrenaline Overproduction and the right OS upgrade, it becomes a killer.
 * The wrench is also the only weapon not to suffer from wear and so requires no maintenance, in addition to needing no ammunition. It's also a silent killer that won't attract enemies in nearby rooms. Did we mention it requires no skill training whatsoever, unlike the resonating crystal mace that requires SIX points in exotic weapons for equivalent performance?
 * In BioShock (series), you collect a stunning array of weapons, special ammo, and plasmids—but nothing is ever so useful as Electrobolt + wrench.
 * In terms of efficiency, though, telekinesis is king, as it has the lowest resource cost of any attack in the game save the wrench—no ammo, and the smallest mana Adam EVE cost of any plasmid, and can act as a shield and protect you from grenades to boot. And it still does good damage, of course.
 * In terms of play-speed, the revolver (with damage upgrade and anti-personnel rounds later on) can kill all splicers in 1 headshot. While other weapons have better overall damage (crossbow) or better rates of fire (machine gun), the revolver has just the right balance so you don't have to stop moving to fight every single enemy you meet.
 * Hell, you can make the wrench so powerful on its own that using Electro Bolt beforehand is actually a waste of time. With maxed research, both Wrench Jockey tonics, and Bloodlust (also Wrench Lurker if you're a sneaky bastard), you can just bum-rush everything and only need to take out a gun or a plasmid your shotgun when going up against a Big Daddy or . Note that most of the people that do this are the same ones who complain about how repetitive the game is.
 * Halo 3. Rocket launchers, energy swords, shotguns, gravity hammer. The most efficient weapon to quickly kill most enemies? Battle Rifle or Covenant Carbine, provided the player can consistently hit the head.
 * And don't forget that in the original Halo the simple pistol was practically a Game Breaker.
 * Hell, I think at least over half of any given players kills will be either A: Gunning down an enemy with the Assault Rifle (default starting weapon), B: Hitting someone with a melee, or C: Running at someone firing an Assault rifle, then hitting them with a melee when their shield goes down.
 * And just for completeness, the Battle Rifle in Halo 2 is the do-all workhorse of both multi-player and single-player. Even more so in multi-player when Bungie toned up the accuracy a little.
 * From the equipment in Halo: Reach, the Sprint upgrade, it lets you get behind cover or dodge enemy fire much quicker than normal.
 * It's also useful for rushing up to an opponent to assassinate them, as well as an effective defense against someone else trying to do the same.
 * In Half-Life, you gain access to a wide range of high-powered military hardware and a few alien/experimental weapons. But, even in Xen, your mainstay will be the trusty MP-5 submachine gun you picked up early on. Ammunition is plentiful, reloading fast, firepower decent, rate of fire high, and the underbarrel grenade launcher adds more punch when needed.
 * Don't forget the crowbar.
 * Half-Life 2 doesn't have much leeway in terms of awesome weapons. Even so, the somewhat meek MP7 (or SMG1) is probably the weapon you'll use the most for the same reasons as the MP5 above, plus it's quite a bit more accurate. Until you get the Awesome Yet Practical shotgun, that is.
 * The M82 from Killzone 2. I'm sorry, you mean you don't want an assault rifle that's essentially as accurate as a sniper rifle? But it has a rate of fire to match any other gun. And a high damage per shot rating. And an ammo capacity. And can be fired effectively on the move. And you can beat people with it. And it's your basic weapon. The only real problem with it is that if you run out, you can't salvage ammo for it from enemies.
 * And the recoil forces successful shots UP. If you're hitting the chest, that means headshots. In multiplayer, the M82 is the common weapon found, giving you anywhere from 4 to 180 rounds per corpse.
 * In a game that manages to shove a machine gun, sniper rifle and rocket launcher (among other things) into a single weapon, one gun in Classified: The Sentinel Crisis combines incredible accuracy, stealth and the power to kill most Mooks with a single bullet. That gun... is the silenced semi-automatic pistol.
 * Deus Ex has many powerful and complicated weapons, and most are actually quite effective. However, the stealthy player will find most of his kills coming from the silenced pistol, since headshots are one-hit-kills against almost everything, and the gun can be easily modified into a baby sniper rifle.
 * It's not a flashy way to play; but the number of areas that can be cleared by hiding in the air ducts and shooting people with tranquilizer darts is amazing.
 * Throughout the game you'll get access to rocket launchers, plasma rifles and nanotech swords. But when you're stuck in a situation where you have to fight your way out, the Sawed-Off Shotgun is one of the best weapons in the game, able to dish out a ton of damage at close range while not limiting your mobility like heavy weapons tend to do (and it doesn't take up a whole lot of space in your inventory.)
 * Same thing applies to the prequel Deus Ex Human Revolution. Miniguns, laser rifles, rocket launchers... and not only the weapon you'll be using the most is the silenced pistol, but the entire game can be completed using nothing but that - when it's completely maxed out, a series of fast headshots can bring down even bosses.
 * Similar is the stun gun, which is even the same size. It's low-key looking even compared to the other non-lethal weapons like the PEPS or tranquilizer rifle, but incredibly useful besides. It's a silent short-range weapon that can rend unconscious any human but a boss with a single body shot, stuns bosses and robots, and will even temporarily disable a camera without setting off an alarm. It can't be upgraded at all, but never needs to be because it's just as effective on the 8-foot armored cyborgs with miniguns as it was on the unarmored guy with a pistol.
 * The Power Beam from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. (and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption to a certain extent) Unlimited ammo, crazy fast rate of fire, yet somewhat weak, you will be using it throughout the entire game. The charge shot sucks in any missile or health pickups that may be lying around too. Oh, sure, you can fire miniature suns, black holes or radioactive acid-goop, but those take lots of ammo (and in the case of the Phazon, health).
 * The Super Missile combo also falls under this. It uses five missiles per shot, but spamming it in a tough opponent's face will bring him down quickly.
 * The UMP in Modern Warfare 2. It's a submachine gun class weapon (which gives it high mobility) with stats that rival most of the assault rifles. It's definitely one of the most popular guns in the game, and thus one of the most commonly used as well.
 * In the F.E.A.R. first generation games, there are guns of all kinds, including laser carbines, miniguns, grenade launchers, repeating cannons... In short, a ton of weapons to choose from. However, if you don't carry an assault rifle and a shotgun on 2 of the 3 slots you have, you're screwed, as these are the only weapons you don't have to worry about saving ammo for. In fact, the most practical combo available is pistols/rifle/shotgun, all of which you get early on.
 * Star Wars first person games such as the Dark Forces Saga games or Republic Commando offer a variety of extremely interesting weapons. However, even with that variety, several recurring weapons patterns turn up.
 * Dark Forces offers very fun, splashy guns like the concussion rifle, the plasma cannon, and the fusion cutter, just to mix things up. However, the most commonly used weapons are often the first three picked up: the blaster pistol, the blaster rifle, and thermal detonators. The first two are a Sniper Pistol and the classic Stormtrooper rifle, respectively, and the third are grenades in all but name. Most of the enemies faced are Imperial troops carrying ammunition for blasters anyway.
 * Later games, part of the Jedi Knight series, obviously allow the lightsaber to predominate, but even in the face of acrobatic slashing, Force powers, and so forth, the utility of the blaster pistol or blaster rifle is rarely diminished, thanks to their accuracy at range and speed, respectively (and again, the ubiquity of their ammo).
 * Finally, Republic Commando offers a number of interesting attachments for the Swiss Army Weapon given to the commandos, as well several fun secondary guns plucked from enemies or supply caches. The starting pistol and SMG-equivalent loadout still dominates use during gameplay, however.
 * In Crysis 2, there are many different ways to kill C.E.L.L. operatives, whether by using a gauss rifle, a rapid-fire taser, and throwing them skyhigh. But the most effective way to kill them? Attach a silencer to your starting pistol and use stealth mode. Aim for the head and you can take out groups of enemies without being detected. The best part? Each shot only uses ten energy, and combined with Nano Regeneration and Stealth Entrance, you can go an entire level undetected. This is less effective on Ceph, however.
 * The Descent games have always had many kinds of awesome, flashy and hyperdestructive weaponry, but due to huge energy consumption and rarity of pickups, you'll probably kill most enemies using the laser - the weapon you start with (albeit suitably upgraded).
 * Tron 2.0 has many weapons, all of which drain from one pool of energy...except the vanilla Disc Primitive, which drains no energy, can deflect other discs with the right timing (and an upgrade allows it to harm enemies that catch the deflected disc) and can make use of the weapon upgrades (which add a drain that is a percentage of the weapon's drain) with no drain whatsoever. Sure, you could derez programs with some awesome weapon, but in the end, you'll go back to the humble Disc Primitive
 * While bizarrely absent in the original game, most S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods will add Mosin-Nagant rifles as cheap early game weapons. These tend to be massive steps up from the low capacity hunting shotguns and pistols before them with great range (and potentially even scope mounting ability), relatively high capacity, fairly common ammo, good stopping power, and (like the real life rifle) amazing durability.