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Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Difference between revisions
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* The flamethrower from ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'', humorously named the TOZT (Toaster, later used in Halo 3 as 7057), is one of the best weapons for burning up crowds, and in fact can overheat and destroy most mechanical enemies, however its range is ridiculously low, and if you're up against a shotgunner in multiplayer you only stand a slight chance if you strike first. On the plus side, people who are burned make the most over the top and hilarious scream, and the aliens sound like chickens being kicked.
* The flamethrower in ''[[Killing Floor]]'' is custom-tailored for effortlessly chewing through [[Night of the Living Mooks|the hordes of weak specimens]] in the early stages, with its damage over time burning up masses of Clots, Gorefasts, Stalkers and Crawlers before they can even reach you. After the first few stages, though, the enemy waves start to have much more sturdy and intimidating freaks mingling amongst them who laugh off anything short of being force-fed a full tank of fuel - pray that one of your [[Boom! Headshot!|marksman-class]] teammates is nearby and has great aim, or get used to being eaten. Plus, unless you're a firebug-class, the flamethrower is expensive, very prone to damaging yourself, and you won't be able to afford it until you're most likely better off using something else - and, to add insult to injury, the "Husk" enemies are almost immune to the weapon. (If you are a high level firebug, you can spawn with it in the first round, it becomes somewhat more viable, and gives you the opportunity to use it in the first rounds.) Because there are weapons that excel at taking out hordes of enemies *or* priority targets, it's a definite case of [[Tier-Induced Scrappy]].
* In the first ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]'' the flamethrower requires some sustained fire before enemies catch alight and are disabled, however, as there's almost no spread and ammo is rare using a direct damage weapon is far more efficient outside of the sadism value (the secondary is pretty powerful, but you may as well take a grenade launcher).
* In ''[[Team Fortress Classic]]'' the Pyro flamethrower (and their other fire weapons for that matter) does pathetic damage and is only useful for its view-obscuring effect, making them by far the worst class and a gimmick at best (although their flame-launcher can be okay at times).
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*** Notable exception: best weapon in the entire game against the '''incredibly''' annoying facehuggers. Hunting facehuggers with a pulserifle is an exercise in frustration. The smartgun removes some of the fear of not knowing where the damn things are, but still remains woefully inadequate to the task. The flamer merely requires a short burst on the ground to render any facehuggers caught in the (large) blast harmless and, eventually, very dead.
** And in ''Alien Trilogy'', the Flamethrower is the weakest of the advanced weapons, being only better than the starting Pistol and consuming ammo extremely fast.
* ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'' has the Flame Visit and the Burning Visit. On paper, they're fairly strong Ranger weapons of one of the most useful class. However, they lack the trait that makes that class useful (hitting multiple enemies) but retain most of its weaknesses (slow as death firing animation) making them essentially worthless. The upgraded Burning Visit does have a few very, very specific uses, but they're both essentially worthless.
* In ''[[Wolfenstein (2009 video game)|Wolfenstein]]'' 2009 the flamethrower can be quite deadly, however, it has barely any ammo at all, such that you are mostly forced to buy ammo if you use it, so you tend to be better off using an equally deadly weapon (most of them) that doesn't require you to waste money on ammo.
** Although if you [[Preorder Bonus|pre-ordered]] it from [[Best Buy]], you can get it at [[Disk One Nuke|the beginning of the game]], making this the only "heavy" weapon you have until you get the [[Wave Motion Gun|Particle Cannon]].
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** The Flamethrower, though, is one of two weapons that is unaffected by the Beam Shields that the Elite and Omega Pirates use (the only other weapon that works are normal Missiles). Because of this, the Flamethrower is ''frighteningly'' effective at destroying the Omega Pirate's Phazon armor plates.
* The flamethrower in ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' is the one weapon considered to be completely useless (and that's in normal gameplay; that it realistically doesn't work in a vacuum makes it even more of a joke).
** Oddly, the flamethrower in ''Dead Space'' is actually one of the few chemical designs that '''could''' work in a vacuum, as [[All There in the Manual|described in supplemental material]]. It is intended as a tool for melting ice in the absence of an atmosphere, which might justify its relative weakness as a weapon. That the game does not allow it to function in vacuum is [[The Coconut Effect|something of a gaffe]].
*** Fixed in [[Dead Space 2|the sequel]], although its worth as a weapon is still somewhat debatable.
* Partially averted in ''[[Starcraft]]'', where the flamethrower-wielding Firebats are extremely useful, and the Terran's only melee unit: they do as much damage as a Zealot but are less expensive, do line damage, and can use stimpacks, which raises their attack rate to stupidly high. They stop being quite so useful against larger units, since they deal concussive damage--except against Protoss shields, which normalize damage types. Base-rushing with firebats can thus be somewhat effective.
** ''[[Starcraft II]]'' is similar with Hellions (and Firebats in the campaign), which completely destroy certain early units and are very fast but tend to not hold up to stronger stuff.
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** [[Fallout: New Vegas]] made the flamethrower more powerful but less durable. While it can hold its own at short range against even higher level enemies, it's an eminently [[Breakable Weapon]] that will require you to lug around either replacements or Weapon Repair Kits if you plan to use it for an entire dungeon.
* The ''[[Battalion Wars]]'' Flame Vets, while scorching infantry into ashes in mere seconds, can only hope for [[Scratch Damage]] at best to any vehicles except an ''immobile'' [[Fragile Speedster|Recon]]. They're not going to even touch air or sea units, of course.
* ''[[R-Type]] Final's'' "Principalities" and "Dominions" fighters utilize flamethrowers as both their primary weapons and [[Wave Motion Gun]]; they're not particularly good ships, being outclassed by others in every conceivable department. They generally reach across the screen, and function in space, but not underwater. Erm...
* ''[[Haze]]'' has an absolutely ''terrible'' flamethrower; the range is woeful, it's hideous to look at, the fire effect is comically 2D, ammo is fairly rare, and all told you might as well just pack a shotgun.
* The ''Heli Attack'' series ties a flamethrower's damage inversely to the distance from whatever it's targeting. If the enemy's at a reasonable distance, it does the worst damage of any weapon in the game. If you're really close, it can kill someone in less than a second, but by then they've probably shot you at least once, and it's a series where avoiding bullets is a ''really good idea''.
* Flamethrowers in the ''[[Naval Ops]]'' series suffer from very short range and very low damage. While they can set enemy ships on fire more easily than other weapons, it's better to go for the outright kill.
** It can actually bestow negative effects on the ship, and things become very if your ship catches on fire (damage over time and destruction of ALL ammo reserves)
* In the original ''[[Command
** Flamethrowers return in ''Red Alert'' with fireballs, and are remarkably more effective at their jobs, if still heavy on the friendly-fire. However, the cheaper and faster Grenadiers serve much the same purpose, and Flamethrowers inexplicably cannot be built until you've constructed a Tech Center and rendered the poor fellow completely obsolete.
* Even with the perk that makes flame-based weapons do more damage, the ''[[Crimsonland]]'' flamethrower (and its joke counterpart the [[Joke Item|blowtorch]]) is pretty awful.
* In ''[[Cyborg Justice]]'', the Flamethrower hand is by the far the most useless robot part. It has a very long startup, has pathetic ranges, stun for a ridiculously short time and does next to no damage especially compared to the two other projectile weapons, both of which are one hit kill.
* The Flamethrower in ''[[Jet Force Gemini]]'' is a classic example of this trope. It performs more like a very large blowtorch. It has a ridiculously short range, ammo for it is rare, it runs out of ammo incredibly quickly, and enemies who run around wildly while aflame can damage you. The only upside is that it actually deals quite a bit of damage.
* The ion blaze rifle in ''[[Gun Bros]]'' smokes enough to conceal incoming enemy fire, which means you get blasted more because you can't see it and therefore won't dodge it. It's also hard to aim and quite inaccurate.
* Zigzags in the ''[[Time Splitters]]'' series, where catching on fire does serious DOT, can be caused by the smallest spark (including another burning player) and is very hard to extinguish (although this makes it less useful in story mode, where being set on fire is likely to be a death sentence). The flamethrower is tremendously deadly, but has a ridiculously tiny range. So tiny in fact, that it's a miracle if anyone you set on fire doesn't run into you, spreading the flame and almost certainly killing you too.
** In Arcade Mode in ''Future Perfect'', and possibly the previous games as well, the flamethrower seems to render bots helpless, as they will run around screaming until they die. Player characters have full control while ablaze and can still attack. In the story mode, the Mansion of Madness level gives you a flamethrower from the start, but it only works when it is necessary--which is to say there are three times where the enemies are only weak against fire, and none of them are the zombies you are fighting the rest of the level. The flamethrower CAN kill the zombies, but it seems to take several minutes. There is a flamethrower in a later level, but it is completely worthless compared to the other weapons given to you.
* ''[[Diablo]] 2'' has the Inferno spell which is a flamethrower, complete with short range at low spell levels, low area coverage at all spell levels, no persistent damage, slow-moving flames and it takes a long time to cast ''and'' roots you to the spot while you channel and stops when you get hit. Between its weak damage and the danger factor of planting yourself in front of the onrushing enemies that will proceed to stunlock you, this is the worst sorceress spell in the game. The expansion provided the new druid class with an ''Ice'' thrower which was useful for no other reason than the very long chill length, providing some much-needed crowd control until players figured out that there's a passive area effect chill spell in the druid's arsenal and most enemies you want to chill are immune to it anyway.
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* Averted in ''[[Dead Space: Extraction|Dead Space Extraction]]'': the flamethrower, indisputably the worst weapon in the first game, is one of the best in Extraction. It deals high damage no matter where it hits, making dismemberment a non-issue. It has slower ammo consumption, longer range and a larger ammo capacity than in the first game. Best of all, every single damage tick stops a Necromorph in its tracks, allowing you to either stunlock most of the enemies in the game to death or hold entire groups at bay.
* In the 2008 ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'' reboot, the flamethrower has considerable ammo, is almost an insta-kill against some enemies and has the awesome addition of a grenade launcher that can kill all but the largest enemies with one hit. Yes please!
* Similarly, ''[[Tales of Hearts]]'' gives its characters a system where TP regenerates effectively forever, ([[It Makes Sense in Context|it makes sense in practice]]), which means that the Flame Gun spell can effectively be spammed. Okay, it gets outclassed by other spells in its element eventually, but they're all of the [[Death From Above]] variety.
** ''Hearts'' focus on comboing means two things for the mid-range-reaching Flame Gun: First, it's a good way to put a few free hits on a large slice of the field, and second, it's ''really'' annoying if an enemy gets you in it while you're trying to close in, because each hit knocks you back slightly.
* Averted in ''[[Army Men]]''. Plastic soldiers and fire don't mix, so the flamethrower is even more effective than in real life.
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* In ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'', flamers for Imperial Guardsmen and Tactical Marines do less damage and have a shorter range than the baseline weapons they replace, but they hit in an area of effect and do a ''even more'' damage against units within cover or buildings, giving them a clear niche against opponents who you feel may be using larger squads. The burnas for the Slugga Boyz are the only weapon upgrade available to them, and are an obvious good choice with their area of effect attack, increased ranged damage over the pitiful pistols the Slugga Boyz normally use, and count as power weapons to do more damage against heavier infantry.
* In ''[[Deus Ex]]'', one touch of its flame can turn most enemies into screaming balls of terror and pain, who continue to take damage while they burn. Of course, it doesn't have that much ammo, and it's heavy, and takes up 8 slots in the inventory, but it's a can of whoop-ass.
** However, even though you can kick ass with the flamethrower, so can your enemies. Catching on fire will [[Incredibly Lame Pun|burn away your health]] until it wears off, or when you find a extinguisher, or a source of water. [[Crazy Prepared|Some players carry around a fire extinguisher at all times just for this reason]].
* In ''[[Fallout]] 3's'' DLC ''Broken Steel'' (and also in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas|New Vegas]]''), unlike the regular, short-ranged Flamer, the Heavy Incinerator is basically a napalm launcher, fulfilling the trope almost faithfully with the difference that the Heavy Incinerator fires globs of napalm instead of a continuous stream. Not only it is fully-automatic and lethal, it has a long range and can effectively be used as a bombardment implement. Across a river.
** Best thing? It's semi-regular due to Enclave Hellfire Troopers spawning from when ''Broken Steel'' is installed. However, you do have to kill one to get it, and they are one of the [[Demonic Spiders]] of the game. Also, due to their specialized Power Armor (which you can also loot, and it ''is'' very strong), they are resistant to fire, and hence, their own weapon. [[But Wait! There's More!]]! It is also affected by both Pyromaniac perk and the bugged Ghoul Ecology perk, which adds +5 unblockable damage to any enemy, every projectile fired. Watch your DAM skyrocket indeed.
*** Also, it explodes underwater. You don't need to worry about them pesky Mirelurks swimming with relative safety anymore you ain't!
** ''Broken Steel'' also introduces the Slo-Burn Flamer, which has all the drawbacks of the regular Flamer, but the addition of continuous burning damage for a ''very'' long time. Light an enemy on fire, and then run until they die (or you have to relight them; you won't need to do it a third time unless they have fire resistance).
** ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' doesn't have as many flamers, nor the high-powered variants that ''Fallout 3'' did, but it does however have the perfect place to use such a weapon-type: {{spoiler|Vault 22. An entire vault}} full of dangerous (but very flammable) plants. Conveniently a flamer is provided there, and it doesn't seem half so sucky any more.
** The ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' DLC for ''New Vegas'' also introduces the unique flamer, Cleansing flame. The weapon is heavier than the base model and doesn't inflict a [[Critical Hit]] as often, but trades off those downsides for superior damage over time, a generously sized fuel reserve, greater durability, and perhaps most welcome of all, an extended range compared to the standard flamer. It also fires a very pretty stream of blue flames.
* ''[[Gunstar Heroes]]'' also goes both ways. The normal Flame weapon is very short-ranged (but powerful). Double Flame has only about twice the range, but when you let the fire button go, the flames fly off across the screen. Flame + Chaser is a fireball that is controlled by the player.
** Flame plus Lightning gives you a fully-functional ''lightsaber''.
* In ''[[Serious Sam]] - The Second Encounter'', the flamethrower is a very powerful weapon. Although it has a short range, the flames do as much initial damage as the minigun or laser, deal further damage over time to those on fire. Flames also go through enemies allowing it to ignite several at once. To top it all off, you get the flamethrower very early in every chapter and the ammo burns out fairly slowly; in addition, there's ammo more or less everywhere.
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*** In the first [[Contra]], the flamethrower was a useless corkscrew attack. In Super C, it was a chargeable blastthat exploded and spread on contact. In Contra 3, it was a constant-damage stream, and invaluable in many levels.
* ''[[Alien Swarm]]'': Now that the [[Lightning Gun|Tesla Cannon]] is no longer the undisputed [[Infinity+1 Sword|King of Weapons]], the Flamethrower has mostly taken its place. Why? A single puff of fire ignites an enemy (only prolonged fire ignites teammates, thankfully... but when it does, it isn't pretty), making it highly ammo efficient. Each puff is weak, but the burn damage is high; a single flamer sweep can turn a horde of drones into a staggering, flaming mess: no squad members injured. Only an idiot goes into a nest of [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|Parasites]] without one. Oh, and its alt fire ''extinguishes'' fire... how's ''that'' for handy?
** This is also something of a reaction to the flame thrower in the [[Older Than They Think|original Alien Swarm mod]]. The flamethrower there was quite useful as an ammo-efficient way of sweeping for enemies, slowed down whatever it set alight while the flame ran its course, and did a great deal of damage to anything it hit. However the danger of setting teammates on fire was high if used in a crowded area by a jumpy player, which lead to players who choose to use it being rather unpopular with their teammates.
* ''[[Command
** The NOD flamethrowers in ''C&C3'' both resemble real world flamethrowers in action and are ''insanely awesome'' against most targets; the flame tank is considered the go-to vehicle for most NOD players, and its infantry equivalent also has its uses (being near immune to anti vehicle weapons helps). In addition to nearly instant killing infantry units, they also burn down structures in mere seconds. Flame tanks can even be cloaked with the right support power, hidden until they suddenly pop up in the middle of the enemy base, reducing it to ashes with unparalleled speed. Then there's the expansion, which added the Black Hand sub-faction, which [[It Got Worse|specializes in flame weapons]]. They lack access to the stealth trick, but their flame weapons can instead be upgraded to do even more damage, to a point they become dangerous against even armored targets, and can take down a structure in the time it takes to blink. They also get Nod's standard top-tier [[Humongous Mecha|walker]] with the otherwise impractical flamethrower upgrade right out of the box, in addition to the increased damage upgrade. Then there's the flamethrower upgrade for their even bigger walker...
** In the campaign for the FPS offshoot ''Renegade'', the flamethrower is one of the single most useful weapons against enemy troops. It has a surprisingly long range, deals good damage to pretty much any infantry unit, inflicts damage over time, and best of all, it stunlocks ''everything in the game'' except flamethrower troopers; even a passing wash of flame will stop the toughest infantry in their tracks and make them flail about while on fire. The only thing it isn't really effective against is the aforementioned flamethrower soldiers. The flamethrower will be your go-to close-range weapon for the first half of the campaign until laser weapons become available, and even then it will remain very useful for the rest of the game.
* In ''Duke Nukem II'' the flame thrower proves to be more effective than the rocket launcher, which is advertised as the best weapon. Not only does it deal a fair amount of damage, but if pointed at the ground it jumps you up in the air, making it very useful.
* ''[[Survival Crisis Z]]'' has a great flamethrower. It instantly kills every non-boss enemy, has good range, burns through ammo slower than most other weapons, and has relatively inexpensive ammo compared to other high damage guns. Its only flaw is that you must purchase its ammunition, and cannot be found in briefcases, backpacks, or corpses like you can with other weapons. If you have a ''partner'' with a flamethrower, however, the ammo for it becomes even cheaper, and you ''can'' resupply it by looting.
* The classic shooter ''[[Rise of the Triad]]'' features both aspects of this trope. The user weapon Flamewall is easily one of the best in the game, sending out an expanding wall of moving fire that [[One-Hit Kill|instantly kills]] any enemy in its path leaving behind a charred skeleton that crumbles into dust. On the other hand the flame throwers that [[Malevolent Architecture|adorn the levels]] are of the gas variety and take away health only while you are directly being seared by them.
** The weapon has one other niche which guarantees it's frequently found: one of the many weird bonuses you can get upon completing a level (and the Bonus Bonus, which requires getting that one) requires you to have used a projectile weapon to hit ''yourself'' (and have survived, of course). With the ''projectile'', not the explosion. This is the only weapon which can be reliably used to do that.
* While ''[[Killzone]] 2'' had rather effective flamethrowers that were considered useless because the two-weapon inventory system made arming yourself with anything situational a very bad idea, ''Killzone 3'' had a ''three''-weapon inventory system with the third slot made specifically for weapons like this which makes having a flamethrower a good idea whenever you can actually get it. You can ever only find the flamethrower in trench and jungle areas where you'll find them to be very effective, and you won't need to find chokepoints to try to funnel enemies into for maximum efficiency anymore.
* Flamethrowers in ''[[Star Wars Battlefront|Battlefront 2]]'' have got the same range problems as most videogame flamethrowers, but everyone who can use one has a way to mitigate the short range (Bothans turn invisible, Boba and Jango have jet packs), and they actually do a horrific amount of damage (one complete burn from ambush is likely to kill whoever you're shooting at as a Bothan, the Fetts do a bit less damage but can hit multiple people and leave them burning).
* The Mechanic class in ''[[Maple Story]]'' averts this. The flamethrower has decent damage and covers up a wide range that can quickly roast large mobs of monsters at the same time. Sure, it is then overshadowed by more advanced and deadly skills available in further levels, but considering this is one of the first skills that the Mechanic gets, its a practical, reliable and awesome tool to use against your enemies.
* ''[[Red Faction]]'''s flamethrower, though typically short range and hazardous to wield, had the beneficial effect of instantly making all targets stop shooting at you [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|because they're too busy running in circles and screaming in agony]]. An additional plus was the [[Secondary Fire|ability to chuck the tank (even if it's almost empty) to produce a huge explosion that sets everything on fire]].
* ''[[Steel Panthers World At War]]'' has a flamethrower that's relatively short range (1 hex/50 meters), but devastatingly effective against whatever's in that hex. It will set whatever terrain's in that hex on fire, which is useful for screening (smoke blocks line-of-sight) and area denial (it's hard to convince infantry to move through flaming forests, and even tanks will think twice).
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