GamerSushi Asks: Favorite Video Game Shotgun?

favorite video game shotgun

It’s GamerSushi Asks Friday!

One of the most important aspects of a shooter is the weaponry, but beyond that, having a powerful, satisfying shotgun in your virtual arsenal is key. Sometimes a shotgun can make or break a game, so we’d like to ask you what your favorite video game shotgun is.

Personally, I just can’t think of a better shotgun than the M90 Close Assault Weapon System from Halo: Combat Evolved. The first time you find this beastly firearm, you’ve just encountered the Flood and are hoping for a weapon that will put down the larger combat forms in one hit. The M90 CAWS is the answer to that prayer and for the rest of the game, this scattergun will occupy one of your two precious weapon slots whether you have ammo for it or not.

Runners up would be the Gnasher from Gears of War, which can turn you into a living meatgrinder in multiplayer if you can get the hang of it, or the SPAS-12 from Battlefield 3. I recently discovered that equipping slug rounds on the SPAS-12 turns it into a one-hit kill weapon at medium range, and it requires a bit more skill than the other full-auto weapons availible.

I may be skewing kind of modern here, so I’ll pose the question to you guys one again: what is your favorite video game shotgun?

Written by

mitch@gamersushi.com Twitter: @mi7ch Gamertag: Lubeius PSN ID: Lubeius SteamID: Mister_L Origin/EA:Lube182 Currently Playing: PUBG, Rainbow 6: Siege, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Total War: Warhammer 2

19 thoughts on “GamerSushi Asks: Favorite Video Game Shotgun?”

  1. Gears of War’s Gnasher for sure. Gears 1, if you want to get specific, is the best instance. Back in my day we didn’t have no fancy “slow down when you get shot” mechanic, so when we did battle we brought our boomsticks out, charged forward, and didn’t stop until that barrel was shoved firmly into the guts of our enemies in preparation for the giblet exploding final blow. Yep, those were the good days…

  2. Halo: CE’s shotgun was great. It just feels right when you shoot it. I have never valued ammunition for a gun more than I did for that shotgun.

    Runner-up is the caravan shotgun from Fallout: New Vegas. The ammo for that thing is pretty scarce, but man, I used to fuck shit up with that gun.

  3. @Scott, I believe it was the 1887? That’s what I remember anyways. Hmm, favorite shotgun… I always loved using the M1014 in Counter Strike. Other favorites include, the SPAS-12 in Half-Life as that secondary fire could mean mug any alien or Soldier in no time flat. If it’s Team Fortress 2, can’t go wrong with the Scout’s standard Scattergun, or the Soda Popper for it’s mini crits. Fallout 3 had this special version of the Combat Shotgun that was mean when you went into VATS and had Bloody Mess perk in your list of perks.

  4. Oh, I also remember the Dinner Bell from New Vegas being particularly noteworthy. I’m also a fan of the sawed-off shotgun in Counter-Strike: GO.

  5. I’m gonna go off the board here and say Hitman. The first time you use a shotgun and see a body driven by physics fly away I actually felt a little sick to my stomach. It was the first game I played that had ragdoll physics like that, and it was awesome (actually awe some).

    Also, Soldier of Fortune. One of the first PC games I played, and boy, with the dismemberment in that game, the shotgun was really a disturbing and incredibly powerful weapon.

  6. Half Life 2’s shotgun for me. Didnt have much ammo but once you got your hands on it, Ravenholm didn’t seem so scary anymore

    1. Ugh. We don’t talk about Ravenholm.

      I have to second the Doom shotguns here, and I also have always been a huge fan of Halo’s shotgun. Just feels perfect for me.

  7. The pump-action shotguns from the first Bad Company game. They all had great power, with incredibly satisfying sounds and animations when pumping.

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