Video game weapons can be really cool. When the greatest video game characters take their weapons into battle—with you controlling them—it can make you feel the power they wield right in your fingertips.
It's that feeling that can elevate a good game into a great game, and when it's done well, there's nothing else quite like it. Then again, when it's lacking, it can make an otherwise promising game fall flat.
Here are my picks for the coolest weapons throughout video game history and why still stand out as memorable and iconic.
7. Rocket Launcher (Grand Theft Auto 3)
Through the years, there have been plenty of weapons presented by the Grand Theft Auto series to make players feel near-invincible. Bigger doesn't always mean better with these weapons.
That said, when you finally acquire the rocket launcher in Grand Theft Auto 3? Well, that's a wonderful feeling that can't be described on paper. You finally had a weapon of mass destruction in your hands.
The rocket launcher wasn't an easy weapon to use, and it had little—if any—finesse about it. However, the sight of blowing up a car or police vehicle with a well-timed shot was staggeringly addictive.
For those of us who sank hours into Grand Theft Auto 3, it's an experience that will never be forgotten, and that's why it's a great weapon.
6. The Hammer of Dawn (Gears of War)
For those of us who came to love the first Gears of War game, there was one moment that really sucked us in: the first time we got to witness the game trailer with Gary Jules's "Mad World" playing over it.
And when we finally got to play the game, we all wanted to get our hands on the best weapon available. Enter, the Hammer of Dawn.
The feeling of bringing down a Corpser with the Hammer was something else. It was as though you commanded a weapon that split the clouds and delivered death from heaven itself.
Even now, looking back at when we held the Hammer for the first time, the way it made us feel was simply incredible.
5. The Portal Gun (Portal)
Technically, the possibilities while playing Portal weren't unlimited—but it certainly felt like they were. The portal gun was just so cool.
The ability to create two interlinked portals that instantly teleported you from one place to another? It paved the way for so many potentially creative solutions, and you could overcome any obstacle with it.
The Portal games remain ingenious with their use of the portal gun, which urged us to really examine the layouts around us and stretch our minds to fill in whatever gaps existed in the puzzly levels.
And that's what we remember most about Portal: the inventive nature of this weapon, which remains one of gaming's most iconic guns.
4. The Golden Gun (GoldenEye 007)
GoldenEye 007 is widely considered the first game to perfect the first-person shooter formula on consoles. It revolutionized the genre and the industry, with so many of today's games owing a debt to it.
In a game full of iconic weapons, there was one most iconic weapon: the Golden Gun—from the Bond movie The Man With the Golden Gun—which was an instant one-shot kill weapon.
It was best used in multiplayer mode, allowing you to hunt down and destroy friends with impunity. But if you were the one who took down a Golden Gun-wielding opponent? That made you the king.
3. The Hidden Blade (Assassin's Creed)
When we got our hands on the very first Assassin's Creed game, there was one weapon that stood out: the hidden blade.
Everything about the hidden blade was cool. It was retractable, quiet, and when you took a life with it, it felt meaningful. The blade represented a way of life—it was the means by which an assassin could kill a target without risk of being caught.
Though the hidden blade would become less important as the series went on, the feeling it gave in the original game was unmatched by any other game at the time.
2. Metal Gear Rex (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots)
All throughout the Metal Gear Solid series, the idea of piloting a Metal Gear was a pipe dream. We barely even saw the iconic weapon in action—it was only mentioned in cutscenes and dialogues.
However, that all changed in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Not only did we get to return to Shadow Moses—the entire location of the original game—but we got to finally use a Metal Gear.
Metal Gear Rex could be booted up and launched into battle against the Liquid-piloted Metal Gear Rey, which was the cherry atop the cake in a game that's widely considered perfect by fans of the series.
1. The Blades of Chaos (God of War)
Using the Blades of Chaos in God of War is unlike anything else. Making your way through the original games with these blades by your side? It was something that made you confident of victory in Kratos's battles.
You truly felt like the God of War while spinning the two blades. And on top of that, when the series was brought back on the PlayStation 4, the game forced us to wait before we could wield them again.
Picking them back up was a seminal moment, one that meant so much to us who had made our way through the original series.
But what makes these blades the best is that they play such a crucial role in the journey to becoming a god, which we ourselves get to experience.
