Revolvers Are Just Better: Difference between revisions

They do have a few downsides. Most people know of more difficult reloading - versus loading a single box into a semi-auto, one has to either load six single bullets, or load six bullets into six holes at the same time; this can be quite difficult at times and is very hard to do one-handed. They're also very watch-like mechanically and many owners never open up a revolver because of the incredibly complex internal mechanisms. On a tightly-fitted revolver, carbon buildup on the cylinder face can cause the action to lock up, and poor ammunition can allow bullets to slip forward in the chambers, jamming the revolver completely. The advent of inexpensive semi-automatics like the Glock also means they can be more expensive unless one seeks out a used model. And there is the traditional problem - lacking capacity, though many designs have more than the normal five or six, some .357s packing eight rounds.

 

 

 

 

Another reason is cultural, at least in the US. Revolvers are associated with cowboys and cops: [[Good Old Ways|heroic archetypes with ties to older traditions]] and the subtle implication that someone who uses a "six-shooter" is old-fashioned or at least conservative in outlook, if not necessarily politics. This is true even today, despite the fact that most police departments traded in their revolvers for semiauto pistols in the 1980s (although in some, like the NYPD, long-serving cops can retain their revolvers.) Then, too, especially in the 21st Century, someone who by preference uses a weapon holding only six rounds may be perceived as being confident in his skills ("Beware the man with one gun"), when more modern designs holding several times that much ammunition are readily available.

For some reason, top-break revolvers seem particularly affected by this trope, which is odd because they can't fire most high-pressure rounds, like .357 Magnum, and are for the most part rather rare.

 

 

* In ''[[Grenadier]]'', Rushuna defeats hundreds of people that are armed with various automatic weapons and exotic weaponry with just a six-shooter. Her schtick involves {{spoiler|popping bullets out of her boobs and into her gun in a single motion}}.

** In the manga, the Major questions why he uses a revolver, when he should be afraid of it jamming, even if he carries a semi-automatic as backup. On the Major's request, he uses the semi-automatic throughout the manga. For some added irony, a semi-automatic of the same model jams in a later issue... In addition, Togusa is presented as someone with an odd gun choice, using an AS-11 shotgun in addition to his two handguns.

*** In a different episode, Togusa is able to quickly load a bullet containing an electronic tracer into his revolver and fire it into the bumper of a fleeing vehicle. He uses a similar trick in the first movie, with another character pointing out that, had he been using the standard issue semi, he could have planted ''two'' trackers on the car in the same time.

*** Only assuming that the semi-auto had trackers already in the clip, as manually loading bullets into a clip, or into a semi-auto takes longer than loading bullets into a Revolver, as the Revolver has more access.

** Some episodes have shown him have an appreciation of older stuff in general, and while the gun he has is probably not as old, its style certainly is. The company that makes his gun went out of business in 2005. Unless it's a reproduction, that gun is at least 25 years old by the time Stand Alone Complex starts. It's almost as old as he is.

**** Furthermore when Togusa is {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide]]}} he initially reaches for his automatic, then takes out his revolver instead which he's apparently still carrying as a backup gun.

** The Revolver Knuckles of Subaru and Ginga's devices (Mach Caliber and Blitz Caliber respectively) load cartridges via a revolver cylinder, hence the name.

** Runessa Magnus, Teana's partner in the Sound Stage X of Strikers, wields a revolver with projectile ammunition.

* ''[[Patlabor|Mobile Police Patlabor]]'' - the AV-98 Ingrams use "Revolver Cannons," which are actually giant versions of standard police revolvers. Apparently the rounds are so expensive that speedloaders aren't issued, the operators instead being required to get out of their Labor and load the gun by hand.

* Hades from ''[[Appleseed]]'' uses an implausibly large six-shooter as his sidearm... even when in the middle of a military formation where everybody else has assault rifles.

* Mukuru, vicious pirate from ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'', uses a single-action revolver. However, although he is certainly an "accomplished" pirate and killer, all the killing we see him do is not so much [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] as it is him simply plugging samurai who only have swords.

* Sumire in ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]'' has a revolver in the manga. In the anime she only has a cheap, dime-a-dozen semi-automatic for a weapon, however the [[Elegant Gothic Lolita]] Lucia (who gets all the awesome gear in the series) sports a revolver.

* Ein from ''[[Phantom of Inferno]]'' wields a revolver.

** Also used during {{spoiler|Takada's abduction}}; one of her bodyguards points a revolver at {{spoiler|Mello}} in the manga. In the anime he instead points a semi-automatic pistol at him.

** Japan is one of the few countries in the world, including Hong Kong, where its police departments (singular in the case of HK) still issue revolvers for patrolmen.

* Dutch from ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' has one (though he's also used a shotgun as well). Chaka (the asshole from the Yakuza arc) also uses one. Revy derides Chaka for being a poser for using one for show more than effectiveness.

* "Cowboy Andy" from ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' uses a revolver as opposed to the usual semi-automatics everyone else uses. Of course, this fits with his intended theme.

** The missile launchers on Faye's ship ''Redtail'' are a [[Rule of Cool]] mashup of revolvers and pump action shotguns.

 

* Sam, of ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'', uses a gigantic revolver. His partner Max favors a [[Rare Guns|Luger]].

* [[Jack Kirby]] creation Serifan, a young member of the ''Forever People'', has a pair of six-shooters with self-styled "[[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells|Cosmic Cartridges]]" with the most unusual and unexpected functions.

'''Single Action:''' Reckon ah jest thought it was plumb cool... anachronistic, but cool... }}

* John Hartigan uses a revolver in ''[[Sin City]]'' and seems to be the only character to do so. Then again, he is based partially on [[Dirty Harry]].

* After [[Jonah Hex]] is transported to the future in ''Hex'', he acquires a pair of Ruger Blackhawk .357 Magnums. He choses these because they are single action revolvers like he was used to in the [[Wild West]], but he still manages to outshoot everybody armed with more more modern weaponry.

 

** In ''[[Magnum Force]]'', the "rookies" carry revolvers which stand out (.357 Magnum loads), and Dirty Harry explains some technical details of his gun such as the specific load he uses (probably an effort of the writers to justify his use of a powerful handgun like a water pistol).

* In Tim Burton's ''[[Batman]]'', Joker brings down the Batwing using a revolver with a ''really'' [[Freud Was Right|Freudian]] barrel.

* ''[[V for Vendetta]]''. Mr Creedy uses a revolver in his final confrontation with V himself. {{spoiler|However, it is ineffective, because V is wearing a breastplate.}} Also, {{spoiler|ideas are bullet-proof}}

* For [[Indiana Jones]], the revolver was as much a part of Indy's image as the whip or the bag, but not the hat. [[Indy Hat Roll|Nothing beats the hat]].

* In ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]'', the Sky Captain keeps a revolver tucked into his boot, where he can easily grab it if seated in a cockpit or hoisted into the air by a [[Killer Robot]]. For some reason though in the uranium mine scene he's changed to a Colt .45 automatic.

* Six-Shooter of the ''[[Puppet Master]]'' movies carries tiny revolvers that carry a big punch. Because he's, you know, a cowboy. A cowboy puppet. With six arms.

* Inverted in ''The Great Silence'', in which the western gunslinger packs a hyper-modern Mauser C96 semi-auto pistol.

* Subverted in ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'', in which Owen Wilson's gunslinger character grabs the villain's cool top-breaking revolvers, but can't seem to figure them out. When Jackie Chan's character asks what's wrong, Wilson protests, "These guns are really weird!"

** It even carries over to his final gunfight with Van Cleef at the climax. He's wildly inaccurate with them, while Van Cleef, carrying Wilson's gate-loading Peacemakers, is spot-on in his shots.

* In ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', the [[Big Bad]], Benedict, uses this trope to maximum effect in one scene in the "real world". Benedict fires at Slater with his revolver until the hammer falls on a empty chamber. When Slater comes out of cover and [[Lampshade Hanging|points out that]] [[Bottomless Magazines|guns need to be reloaded in the real world]], Benedict replies that he merely left one chamber empty and then shoots Slater with the bullet still left in his revolver.

* In ''Three Kings'', PFC Conrad Vig has a Thunder 5 pistol, even though using a short-barrelled .410 revolver in the desert makes no sense at all.

* ''[[Boyz N the Hood]]'': Tre's father, Furious Styles, uses a .357 when trying to kill an intruder in his house. Later in the movie, Tre uses his father's revolver to engage in a revenge plan with Doughboy after his friend Ricky was murdered, but was stopped by his father before doing so.

* Subverted in ''[[Back to The Future Part III]]''. Marty is given a Colt Peacemaker for his shoot-out with Mad Dog Tannen, and is thrilled about having a real revolver, which he is shown to be incredibly accurate with (thanks to hours of practice on arcade games). Along the way he gets a reality check, doesn't use it in the duel, and gives it away completely unused.

* ''[[Point Break]]'': Bohdi uses a Freedom Arms Model 83 revolver when robbing the bank and uses it on an off-duty cop by shooting him point blank in the heart.

 

* In ''[[The Dark Tower]]'', Roland's revolvers are significantly more [[Badass]] than the automatic handgun Jake brings from Earth. They're also cooler than the blunderbusses and semiautos that show up on occasion. Given that the metal of the revolvers was obtained from {{spoiler|a melted-down Excalibur}}, one can hardly expect them to be otherwise. After using an automatic, Roland describes it as little more than a toy, and making him feel "dirty".

* The use of a revolver in Stephen King's ''Cell''. The revolver is the only gun to ever actually kill anything.

** He originally carried a Saturday Night Special (a .38 revolver, basically very small caliber and power), but upgraded to the .44 when his first gun was destroyed and he got seriously scared after some supernatural run-ins. He also doesn't have a concealed carry license for it...

*** Seeing as Illinois is the only state in the nation that doesn't offer a concealed carry license, that should come as no surprise.

** [[Action Girl|Lieutenant Murphy]] often berates Harry for his choice of gun, noting that her SIG semi-automatic carries 20 rounds to Harry's 6, and Harry has no speed-loaders, only loose rounds in his pocket. When he remarks that he uses a revolver because of the [[Walking Techbane]] issue, she suggests that he get an older semi-automatic, like her own M1911. Harry goes on to note that he likes his revolver just fine; it makes him feel like [[Indiana Jones]].

** Every other character in the books subverts this, as Harry is the only person with a revolver. Marcone uses an Assault Rifle and a Shotgun, Hendrix uses an assault rifle [[BFG|the size of a motorcycle]], Murphy has her semi-autos and a P90, Sanya has his Kalashnikov, Thomas uses shotguns and a Desert Eagle, and Kincaid uses whatever he feels is the best gun for the job.

* In the ''[[Master and Commander|Aubrey-Maturin]]'' series, Stephen Maturin has one of the earliest "revolving pistols", in around 1812. Note that these were flintlock rather than percussion cap, required you to spin the drum by hand, and had a tendency to jam.

** Matthew Hervey also gets one a few years later in Alan Mallinson's books.

* Any British action-adventure children's book from the 1930s or 40s can be relied upon to use the word "revolvers", almost invariably carried by the villains (whereas if the good guys use guns, they're typically rifles or shotguns) - for example, several books by [[Enid Blyton]] and Arthur Ransome.

* In [[David Gemmell]]'s ''Wolf in Shadow'' and its sequels, Jon Shannow, a.k.a. the Jerusalem Man, carries a pair of percussion cap revolvers. These represent the cutting edge of firearms technology in the post-apocolyptic world in which he lives and make him far deadlier than most his opponents who are armed with single shot flintlocks.

* In ''Vampire$'' by John Steakley, [[Badass]] [[The Gunslinger|gunslinger]] Felix wields one of these, later upgraded with silver bullets for extra vampire-slaying awesomeness.

* In the novel that inspired ''[[Logan's Run]]'', the sandman guns are six cylinder revolvers, each cylinder loaded with its own special cartridge. The homer would follow and kill the runner. The tangler was a webbing bomb, the ripper would go through armor, the nitro was self-explanatory, the vapor was a gas bomb, and the needler, which function was not explicitly stated, could be conjectured to be a needle slug filled with an anesthetic.

* Inverted in ''[[The Shadow]]''. The titular vigilante uses a pair of .45 semiautomatics, whereas most of the crooks are described as using revolvers.

* The UnGun in ''[[Un Lun Dun]]'' is a revolver that takes [[Abnormal Ammo|anything as ammo]] {{spoiler|and magnifies or replicates it. Even when it's empty, it still will unfire and produce a vacuum}}

 

* In ''[[Firefly]]'', Jayne Cobb's sidearm of choice (though not his [[I Call It Vera|very favorite gun]]) is a revolver, and Wash uses a few of them over the course of the series. On the other hand, Mal's pistol is a semi-automatic, and sees a lot more use.

** It's worth noting however that the real-world prop for Mal's pistol is based on the five shot Taurus 38 revolver.

'''Slim Charles:''' "Nah, the game the same. It just got more fierce." }}

* A major arc in the second season of ''[[Supernatural]]'' involved the brothers hunting down The Colt, a magic demon-slaying revolver made by Samuel Colt himself, one of the most powerful weapons in the series.

** There's also Bones herself, who at one point carried a very very large revolver, and actually used it near the end.

*** That's the same episode, Bones had gone with the "bigger is better" idea after being attacked in a previous episode. Unfortunately, she can barely ''lift'' the gun, let alone fire it, so Booth has to take the piece.

* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' gives us the [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Particle_magnum Particle Magnum], and its distinctive look.

* Gene Hunt of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' prefers a [[Hand Cannon|revolver]] to the standard police-issue semi-automatic handguns. Then again, he is a [[Cowboy Cop]]...

* A couple times in ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]''. In the Jesse James Vs. Al Capone episode, {{spoiler|the Colt Revolver is tested against the [[More Dakka|Tommy Gun]], and the Colt gets the edge for better accuracy and the [[Quick Draw]].}} In the Back For Blood special, {{spoiler|the IRA's Webley revolver is matched up against the Spetsnaz' Makarov pistol and the Makarov gets the edge due to it's higer rate of fire and faster reload.}}

* Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes from AMC's ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' carries a large stainless steel revolver, despite the fact that most other modern American law enforcement officers have switched to semi-autos like the Glock. But then again, he is Rick Grimes, a seriously [[Badass Normal]].

* In the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode 'Revelations', an unsub plays Russian Roulette with a kidnapped and tortured Reid using a revolver. SA Reid later gets the revolver away from him and shoots him with it. Some time later, it becomes apparent that Reid has started using a revolver as his service weapon.

* Played with on ''[[Blue Bloods]]''. Frank Reagan still uses a .38 Special revolver despite [[Subverted Trope|his father Henry telling him he'd have more firepower with a department-issue Glock semiautomatic]]. Frank's reasoning is simple:

** Which gets even more heartwarming when we learn that said .38 belonged to Henry's father as well. Notably, [[Double Subverted|Henry is once seen not to follow his own advice]]; he carries a .357 Magnum.

 

 

* [[Exalted|In the Age of Sorrows]], revolvers are the most advanced gun-type weapon available. ([[Rule of Cool|And they can shoot firebolts or holy bullets!]])

* The most powerful handgun in ''[[GURPS]]: High-Tech'' is the Ruger Super Redhawk, a revolver.

* ''[[Pathfinder]]'''s rules for advanced guns make the revolver a nasty weapon indeed - sure, it only does 1d8 damage, but it chews through armor of all kinds when fired within 100 feet, and can be fired six times before it needs reloading, leaving the wielder's other hand free - a hand which will probably be holding [[Guns Akimbo|a revolver]].

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has all sorts of very powerful handguns, even the smallest of which can kill when backed by the kind of skill that most 'Runners possess. The standard issue revolver (Ruger Super Warhawk) does very slightly more damage than the standard issue [[Hand Cannon]] (Ares Predator). In theory, this is balanced by the smaller ammo capacity.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** With the Masher, a revolver that shoots shotgun shells, it's a case of [[Shotguns Are Just Better|Revolvers that shoot shotgun shells are just better]].

* The Anaconda Black in the FPS ''[[Combat Arms]]''. While it has a low-rate of fire and low ammo capacity, it can take down any enemy in one to two shots, making some players label it as a [[Game Breaker]].

** "This way of reloading is a [[Just for Pun|revolution]]!"

** "There's nothing like the feeling of slamming a long silver bullet into a well-greased chamber."

*** To go with the katana thing, when Ocelot blasts the Russian mook in the Tanker chapter of 2, the camera angles and Ocelot's pose as he holsters his revolver are ''extremely'' similar to the 'sheathe your katana after a [[Clean Cut]]' shots used in every anime with swords ever. Right down to holstering it across-hip instead of same-hip.

* ''[[Half Life]]'' One and Two: Gordon Freeman gets two handguns in each game. His starter gun is a 9mm handgun, and later he will find a Magnum Revolver ([[Hand Cannon|.357 Colt Python]]). On a whole, it's downplayed for balance purposes. The revolver is incredibly powerful and accurate, essentially a [[Sniper Pistol]]; humanoid enemies will always go down in one shot until very late in the game. On the downside, it has ridiculously low ammo (36 and 24 bullets total in the first and second games, compared to 168 for the 9mm gun), very scarce supplies of ammo for it, and a very low fire rate thanks to high recoil. Finally, the reload speed is sluggish. Thus the revolver excels at picking off targets at medium range, but in close quarters with multiple foes it's a better idea to use the lighter handgun to snap off several quick headshots. The fact that ammo is so restricted that you'll have an overbearing urge to save it for emergencies make this gun [[Too Awesome to Use|too awesome to use.]]

* The revolver is the most powerful and rare handgun in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]''. It also has the slowest rate of fire.

* Several ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games, mostly by virtue of the fact that they are nearly always the coveted Magnum, a much higher caliber than the default pistol.

*** Equally as strange, Barry's .45 magnum ([[Video Game Cruelty Potential|obtained if you let Barry die]]) is so powerful it can "kill" the Tyrant's first form in one hit. It holds six bullets but, like the .365, has no ammo lying around the building. It shouldn't matter, though, because [[No Kill Like Overkill|why are you using it on crows in the first place?]]

** ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'' has the Colt Single Action Army, which isn't any more powerful than the normal handgun, and only holds six rounds. But it can fire those six rounds faster than anything short of the submachine gun, meaning it can take down individual zombies ''very'' quickly, but is useless for anything bigger.

** ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' gives you a choice of a few Magnums, but the potentially most powerful one you can get during the game is, of course, the revolver. Coolness is balanced out by the shortage of ammo for it, however; when you get the first one-either by buying it or [[Guide Dang It|getting it for free at a certain point of the game]]-the ammo is amazingly hard to come by, making it not very usable.

** ''[[Resident Evil]] 5'' has two revolvers, both with barrel lengths approaching the size of the revolver in this article's picture. Both do the more damage than any other weapons per hit in the game.

** Barry "My gun is my partner and my bullets are my backup" Burton wields a Colt Anaconda. The longest model of that gun is 13 inches(!) which judging by the fact that it is bigger than his head in most cutscenes is probably the model he owns.

* Nero from ''[[Devil May Cry|Devil May Cry 4]]'' uses a six-shooter revolver for his gunslinging, as opposed to Dante's [[Guns Akimbo]] style. Said weapon, Blue Rose, features a truly insane two-barrel over / under configuration the logistics of which are best ignored. It's actually the [[Hand Cannon]] from Resident Evil 4, except with a second barrel.

* In ''[[Battlefield 2142]]'' the strongest handgun is the revolver, balanced out by the fact it has less ammunition and truly awesome muzzle climb.

** Not to mention it had easily the best reload animation in the game, along with a loud boom that was just a terrifying to hear if you were on the PAC as hearing the Shuko Light Machinegun was to an EU player.

** ''Bad Company 2'' has the MP-412 revolver that kills in 3 bullets, 4 at maximum range, than the other pistols that kill in 4 at the closest range at best. It has quite the kick and a small magazine of 6, however.

* Following the wargames theme, the last pistol you unlock in online play in ''[[Call of Duty]]: World at War'' is a revolver.

** You can also [[Guns Akimbo|dual-wield]] it!

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars]] [[Original Generation]]'', The Giant Revolver does more damage than the M95 Machine Gun for the same amount of upgrades. This is balanced by the fact that it only has 6 ammo, nearly half that of the machine gun. There is also the Revolver Stake weapon on the Alt Eisen. While not a typical revolver by a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|long shot]], it definitely uses the imagery of one for [[Rule of Cool|coolness value]]

** Also in the [[Gaiden Game]] OG Saga, one of Haken's weapons is the Longtomb Special, a revolver with an incredibly long barrel, [[Wave Motion Gun|with one extra feature.]]

* ''Undying'' had a revolver whose hammer could be "fanned" for rapid fire, [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells|silver bullets optional]].

** Ditto ''[[XIII]]'', although this was kind of a waste given the fact that revolver bullets were rare, and the primary reason to use the weapon was the ability to score headshots from a long ways off.

* Squall Leonhart of ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' uses a gunblade with a revolver handle.

** Not really an example of this trope, though: the Shear Edge, which is the next step up Squall's weapon progression, is clearly an automatic, and the Lion Heart, his best weapon, actually uses a custom assault rifle handle.

** It also sounds like a cannon when fired!

** In its [[Spiritual Sequel]] ''[[Perfect Dark]]'', the game comes with the [[DY 357]], a revolver similar to the Cougar Magnum. There's also the [[Bling Bling Bang|DY357-LX]], a hideously blinged-out gold-plated version with a tigerskin grip that acts as a replacement for the previous game's Golden Gun.

* ''[[Fallout|Fallout 2]]'' has a .44 Magnum Revolver that is available at The Den. This revolver can fire faster than the pistols you can find at the beginning of the game, and has more damage than the Desert Eagle as well. You can use it until up to New Reno, where there's the .233 Pistol, which has more damage. However, with the Fast Shot trait, you can shoot faster for one AP less. This means that you can fire the revolver three times with 9 AP. You can also upgrade the revolver to use a Speed Loader, which makes it reload for 1 AP. Cue The Chosen One shooting a revolver three times, then reloading it. All in one turn, if you maxed Agility to gain 10 AP. Now, if you get the perk Bonus Rate of Fire, you can fire it for 2 AP, which means that you can UNLOAD your chamber into a enemy (if you maxed Agility and took two levels of Action Boy/Girl to get 12 AP), then reload it and shoot it five times in the next turn. This makes the gun so powerful you can use it until you find a Gauss Pistol near the end of the game, which has the same rate of fire as the Magnum while doing massive damage and carrying twelve rounds for two turns of uninterrupted death. Revolvers really are Just Better.

** It should be noted that the ".223 Pistol" is based on [[Blade Runner|Deckard's gun]], which, coincidentally, was a revolver.

* ''[[Fallout|Fallout 3]]'' goes to town with this trope. In the stock game, the only semiauto pistols are the completely useless chinese pistol and the 10mm automatic, which is useful early on but soon discarded for something - almost anything - else. The .32 revolver is so weak it's not even worth talking about, but the [[Sniper Pistol|scoped .44 Magnum]] is a far more powerful weapon, and the Blackhawk (special scoped magnum) is one of the most powerful small guns you can use and the best handgun in the entire game. It also makes a [[Bang Bang BANG|very cool noise]]. It's incredibly visceral getting headshots on Enclave soldiers in power armor. Then there's the official expansion, which adds a revolver that's even better than the Blackhawk, and another that somehow uses .44 ammo but fires pellets like a shotgun.

*** Plus, there's the Mysterious Stranger's .44 Magnum. You can't get it yourself without cheating, but when he uses it, or if you use the console to give it to yourself, it will kill anything in the game(that can be killed at all) in a single hit. Also, in New Vegas, it will play the Mysterious Stranger's theme song whenever you draw it, which is just badass.

** In New Vegas, once again, the most powerful pistol is the Ranger Sequoia, a massive revolver. However, the semi-auto pistols remain useful throughout the game, with the 10mm pistol getting a hefty power boost.

* Despite using firearms, ''[[Fable]] 2'' actually doesn't use revolvers. Instead, we get flintlock pistols (which, despite the historical version, can actually have the highest rate of fire in the game), clockwork pistols (which are basically semi-automatics), and turret pistols (which are ''semi-automatic Gatling pistols''). The most powerful version? The turret pistol, of course!

** That's wrong. The turret pistol is pretty much a revolver. The Master Turret pistol has six shots and your character reloads them one at a time. Their rifle varient seems to be more like a Winchester Repeater, complete with a small magazine for fast firing. The clockwork guns, however, are exactly like a semi-automatic pistol and rifle, while the flintlocks operate more like bolt-action rifles.

** Flintlocks are actually capable of killing faster if you can get the timing down, though.

** Crushing difficulty does downgrade the revolver: one shot to the chest or head still kills, but any other body part will require two shots. The [[Hand Cannon|Desert-5]], however, remains the most powerful gun.

* For the Gunslinger/ Gunsmith in ''[[Arcanum]]'', the Fine Revolver is the best all around weapon until mid-game. Best rate of fire, best damage per shot, best damage per action point. After that you'll need to rely on the Handcannon (sawed off shotgun), then the Elephant Gun (heavy rifle) before you reach your endgame uberweapon: Droch's Warbringer, a fast-firing and extremely heavy revolver.

* The aforementioned .44 Magnum appears in both iterations of the ''Rainbow Six: Vegas'' series.

* In ''[[Sam and Max]]'', Sam's weapon of choice is a very large revolver, while Max prefers a Luger.

* Lara gets one in ''[[Tomb Raider]]: The Last Revelation''.

** You can also switch to alternate fire and "fan" a room pretty easily, as long as you don't mind stopping to reload every two seconds.

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', you know you're ''screwed'' if friggin [[Grim Reaper]] himself is [[Guns Akimbo|dual wielding]] Colt Buntlines! [[Skippable Boss|The sound of chains ringing through the hallways are always a good cue for you to run]], [[That One Boss|no matter what level you are.]]

** Takaya, leader of Strega, also carries one. {{spoiler|He kills Shinjiro with it, and Junpei only survives a round through the chest when Chidori burns her life out with her [[Healing Hands]].}}

* Russian anime-inspired game ''Oniblade''/''X-Blades'' has protagonist Ayumi using a pair of...things. Each one is a double-barrelled, double-drummed revolver with each emerging on the side of a long blade. Essentially, a pistol grip with a sword in the middle and two guns melded on the side. And she has two of them, one for each hand. And just for extra cool factor, her "gun-blades" can be imbued with fire, lightning or even LIGHT, casing them to both hit and shoot significantly harder. Skills are available to make her shoot significantly faster or cause her bullets to ricochet off enemies, and her light and dark modes can further double her rate of fire AND her speed of melee attacks. The English variant X-Blades also adds gun-blade upgrades into wider blades and bigger guns. [[Rule of Cool|Who cares about realism or practicality?]]

* ''[[The Suffering]]'' has revolvers as the second and third (if you count getting a second gun for dual wielding them) weapons. They are not that powerful though, compared to your [[More Dakka|.45 Thompson.]]

* The first two ''[[Serious Sam]]'' games had him using revolvers with .45 Schofield ammo. ''Infinite'' .45 ammo, in fact; the guns were also accurate out to ridiculous ranges, and extremely useful for plinking at distant enemies who weren't aware of Sam or weak ones who were.

* In Case 3 of ''[[Apollo Justice]]: [[Ace Attorney]]'', the victim bleeds to death after being shot ''through the shoulder'' with a [[Hand Cannon|45-calibre revolver]].

** In 1.13, this is played straight. The best handgun you can get is the .357 Satan, which has a low AP cost and takes the heavily damaging AET round. You can also purchase a Raging Bull or a Freedom Arms revolver, both of which fire the .454 Casull round.

* In [[Modern Warfare]] 2, General Shepherd's weapon of choice is a revolver (a .44 Magnum, to be specific). {{spoiler|He uses it to kill Roach & Ghost, and nearly kills Soap with it before Price tackles Shepherd at the last split-second before/as he fires}}.

** Which may be a reference to the ''[[Saints Row]]'' series and its revolver, the .44 Shepherd. Also an example of this trope.

** {{spoiler|However, he ends up using it on his old friend Tychus}}

* Revolvers are the ''only'' handguns in ''[[Alan Wake]]''. Considering there isn't a gunsmith in Bright Falls, however, it makes sense to own a gun that's relatively easy to maintain.

* ''[[Survival Crisis Z]]'' has the revolver as the starting weapon of the Doctor class, and a purchasable weapon for everyone else. Interestingly, the main benefits of this weapon aren't it's power (which is only slightly above average), but rather it's plentiful ammo and it's decent firing rate (which can be boosted to [[More Dakka|machinegun levels]] with a certain skill).

* In Star Wars Galaxies, the DE-10 blaster pistol looked like a silver-plated revolver. [[Rule of Cool]] is in effect here, since blasters really wouldn't functionally need a rotating chamber.

* The HE .44 Magnum from the ''[[Resistance]]'' series. Not only do the bullets pack a punch, but you can explode them remotely after hitting your target. This allows the player to kill several enemies with one shot.

 

* Harry Eastwood of ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' uses a .44 revolver, but had it modified to hold seven bullets rather than the usual six.

** Though in an early comic magic managed to make a revolver jam, despite its owner's insistence that they never do.

 

== Web Original ==

* Like [[Katanas Are Just Better]], ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' subverts this. While some characters are given revolvers and do use them, there are far more automatics than revolvers, and the revolvers aren't shown to be that much better than the automatics except for the ones that really do have more stopping power. Even then, though, the smaller magazine capacity is a disadvantage in gunfights. David Jackson trades his highly powerful Smith and Wesson .357 revolver for a slightly weaker Walther P99 for precisely that reason.

 

* The revolver is pretty much seen in various classic cartoons ([[Looney Tunes]], Disney, MGM, etc.).

 

== Real Life ==

* Ed McGivern set several records on standard Smith & Wesson revolvers. His most famous is to fire five shots into a playing card-sized group in two-fifths of a second. He also shot marbles midair, fired targets that live helpers hung onto, shot targets from vehicles moving at over thirty miles per hour, fired without having a line of vision, shot from the hip and basically got crowds to see him because of his skill. And, to top it off he set several records ''dual wielding'', commonly considered to be one of the least effective tactics in a gunfight. He basically chose the revolver out of preference, but it shows what they can do.

* The revolver in the picture is chambered for .600 Nitro Express. Elephant gun bullets.

** Sort of the case with the Sou'African Striker, where its ''magazine'' revolves.

*** The [http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/02/09/taurus-rossi-circuit-judge/ Circuit Judge], a carbine (long barrel, stock installed) version. [[Awesome Yet Practical]] ahoy.

* There are hunting models available: just add a scope. Given that pistol rounds are less powerful than their rifle cousins, revolver hunting tends to be much more close-ranged and larger-caliber.

* Colt's business motto sums it up nicely: "God made men, Colt made them equal"

* Subverted in long guns. Although the revolver mechanism was fine for handguns, it posed a problem for long guns: without special sealing details, the cylinder produces a gas discharge close to the face (Ouch!) when the weapon is fired from the shoulder, as all long guns are traditionally fired.

** The Colt Model 1855 Revolving Rifle was a weapon that was shelved almost as soon as it was adopted. What made it a disastrous failure of a weapon was that there was a chance that discharging a round would ignite the gunpowder in all six chambers, ''blowing off the left hand'' of anyone who held it like a normal rifle. Soldiers would get around this problem either by holding the loading lever near the trigger (so that it would be out of the way of any accidental discharge) or by having only one loaded chamber at a time. The latter solution rendered the advantage of having a revolving rifle moot.

** Revolver cannons do have more issues with overheating and barrel wear, though.

* The earliest revolvers were designed after certain army officers (Paterson, Walker) asked a gun designer named Colt to give them a repeating pistol that could be fired from the saddle, and was capable of taking out horses as well as men. Colt delivered with the Colt Paterson and the Walker Colt, both of which were capable of taking out horses. Also, firing these two hundred year old guns today still provides a fairly decent spread on a target from up to 60 feet away. Revolvers were built to fire accurately, reliably, and powerfully (Horses!)

** "Reliably" might be an issue, especially with the Walker. These were fairly well-known in the day for burst cylinders (they featured overlength chambers for the front-loaded black powder charge, and apparently, "fill the whole thing up" was not the recommended operation). In addition, they were well-known for jamming if the loading lever wasn't secured to the barrel (often done with a piece of rawhide). The Colt Dragoon later solved the issues with the walker.

* The Victoria Police Force, of Victoria, Australia, currently issues Smith and Wesson Model 10 revolvers, in .38 Special, and, as of April 2010, is only now slowly being phased it out by the Smith and Wesson M&P auto-loader, in .40 S&W.

** The Model 10 was known as the Military and Police revolver, so it's almost appropriate that it be replaced by the Military and Police semi-automatic.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:The Power of Index]]