I mean the physical design of the gun, not the projectile or effect.
phasers
I particularly like the original phaser from the pilot episode The Cage but my favorite is the phaser rifle from Where No Man Has Gone Before.
As much as I didn’t like the game, the MagX guns in Starfield are pretty dope.
The flesh guns in eXistenZe are also pretty rad.
The Zorg gun is cool, but I always liked Judge Dredd’s more. All the same multivariety of fire modes, but in a compact handheld design.
Yes, the Lawgiver instantly came to mind!
The pod gun from Fifth Element is one of the most interesting from both a design and an effects perspective IMO.
Ah, the Zorg ZF-1, nice one!
Four full crates, delivered right on time! What about you, my dear Aknot, did you bring me what I asked you for?
I don’t know if anime counts, but the Psycho-Pass “Dominator” is a really cool science fiction concept in itself.
You can’t mention the dominator and not add a gif of it moving from non lethal to lethal mode
Hey, power that thing down!
Especially when it changes between the three modes (non-lethal, lethal and destroy-decompose)
Two of my favorites are from books and don’t have pictures: the nanotech weapon given to grunts in “Old Man’s War” and the Soft Weapon from Niven’s short story titled, appropriately enough, “The Soft Weapon”. There was an animated Star Trek episode based on The Soft Weapon, but I can’t remember what I looked like, I just remember the producers weren’t brave enough to animate an alien with two heads and three legs.
Other than those, I really liked the silly guns in Ratchet and Clank, epecially the Vacuum Cannon.
Noisy Cricket
I wouldn’t call it the best, but it’s definitely one of the most iconic.
Lots of great choices, but for me it’s gotta go to Outbreak Perfected from Destiny 2.
I have way too little knowledge about the genre in general but there was something oddly satisfying about the Service Weapon a.k.a. Director’s Gun from the Federal Bureau od Control…
But I am guessing the part of using it as a game mechanic makes a big difference, there were plenty cool looking things in movies or series — but this one just jumped first to my mind.
The Service Weapon was awesome. It’s got an intense sort of gravity around it. Hell, the first interaction with it is fighting a battle of wills in order to not shoot yourself in the head with it. The gun itself doesn’t look all that impressive but I do think it’s neat enough, and if you look at it from the perspective of the Service Weapon being a character in the story of Control, it’s really, really cool.
I can see that, though I have allways thought it was a bit too chonky
This guy has Trump hands
Why insult me?
Look at a screenshot of it, it is a chonky gun:
https://control.fandom.com/wiki/Service_Weapon?file=Service_Weapon_Trench_Form.png
6 different guns in a such compact form factor for a price of not dying while being chosen to actually use it, with a tiny little perk on the side of automagically becoming the Director of the Bureau with the side hustle of talking with Paranatural Entities/The Board — how’s that too chonky?
We are just talking about the visual design, not the functionallity, and from the perspective, it looks very chonky, I like the game, and the gun is cool, but it is a chonky gun
That’s what I meant — it has six different designs depending on the mode you are in — for me that’s the definition of a functional design in action…
Sidenote, this was the first game, while playing, I felt like they actually figured out a solid idea for fixing the regular overkill artillery in so many games. I remember you, Max Payne with 10 guns in pockets, grenade launcher plus nades and molotovs…
Came here to say this. Somehow looks brutalist in a hard sci-fi way, while also giving Eldritch vibes.
The entire game just oozes style
I mean the physical design of the gun, not the projectile or effect.
I’m a simple man. Same answer for decades.
Zat’nik’tel from Stargate SG:1.
First shot stuns. Second shot kills. Third shot disintegrates.
I am going to have to agree with Michael Shanks from the orher comment here, it looks like a penis.
I mean, it raising itself up before it can fire is a cool effect, but the design it self it not a favourite, and I love SG1
Michael Shanks disagrees with calling the penis gun a good weapon.
I love Daniel Jackson but Michael Shanks is such a d-bag in basically every interview (and there are some very questionable “behind the scenes” stories about him…). In that clip he somehow manages to be the most obnoxious Comic Book Guy fan ever… while being on the stage.
The 1-2-3 is REAL stupid, no arguments there. Well, specifically, the “3 shots disintegrates” is. The 1-2 is not. Killing someone with a “less than lethal” weapon is just reality. And you can potentially get some real awesome moments when Teal’c or Ronon show how much of a beast they are by tanking multiple zat shots before succumbing.
But also… the 3 is incredibly useful from a narrative perspective and is the same reason that Starfleet uses phasers. Having one prop that can fulfill multiple roles and act as a “get out of plot hole free” card (as mentioned with hiding the bodies) is incredibly useful narratively.
All that said: I do love that the Tau’ri were very clearly about “more dakka”. Insert meme about Starfleet being afraid to intervene with other cultures and Stargate wanting to get their Nic Cage on.
Stargate wanting to get their Nic Cage on.
Episode 200 of SG1 is calling.
That reminds me of the thing in Destiny where you punch an enemy and they disappear.
I was an eldar player back when I played WH40k, but the tau railguns are such a great bit of visual design. Perhaps amplified by how terrifying they are to be on the receiving end of.
All the Warhammer 40k guns are pretty thick.
Destiny 2 has some great ones. I always liked the design of the Sleeper Simulant.
The Tex Mechanica guns are my favorite. Especially Cayde’s revolver, Ace of Spades. The clockwork sounds and the holster and ready animations where you twirl it… very satisfying.
Destiny has so many amazingly designed weapons. Thorn, Malfeasance, Winterbite, Touch of Malice, all the Ikelos weapons, Conditional Finally, Deathbringer, Eyes of Tomorrow, Gjallarhorn… Weapon artists at Bungie are on another level.
The original gangster will always be the Khvostov 7G-0X and 7G-02; it combines the looks of the modular designs of Eugene Stoner’s Armalite platform as well as incorporate the classic beauty of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s AK platform both into one sci-fi gun to shoot magic infused bullets.
I’m going OG - the Buck Rogers disintegrator gun.
(See: Foo Fighters self titled release)
