I mean the physical design of the gun, not the projectile or effect.
I always loved the Needler from the Halo series. It was a really unique design at the time and probably the most fun I’ve had with any weapon in a first person shooter. Also, the explosions and the ching it does when reloading are just perfect.
I’m partial to the Judges’ guns, particularly from the Urban-led movie, as I’ve not delved much into the comics.
Also, I think this falls more into the fantasy category, but I love the chonkiness of Hellboy’s Samaritan.
Fuck. Too many choices bru.
Halo’s OG AR, the MA5B has that utilitarian look to it, like the rest of that universe. I like that because it feels realistic in a way (think of the utilitarian designs to the armor and vehicles in Aliens, for example.)
The railguns in Eraser, with their oversized x-ray scopes. Nothing special in retrospect, but I thought they were awesome when I saw the movie in theaters.
Weta Workshop has put out some cool-looking stuff. The Chemrail in Elysium for instance. Although, I think I’m more enamored with the in-universe lore of it. From the fandom page:
It is a dual-stage weapon, use chemical propellant first and then electromagnetic rails as the second stage.
Pretty cool actuation! That and the Lightning Gun from Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 are the only two with memorable (lore-wise) firing mechanisms for me. Here’s the Lightning Gun’s:
Once the target has been acquired, the operator depresses the trigger, painting a proton “patch” on the target. Milliseconds later the rifle emits a high voltage arc of electricity, which seeks out the charge differential and annihilates the target.
Design-wise though, I think Weta’s weapons in District 9 were more appealing—more exotic, u noe? E.g., the ARC gun, and the Repeater.
I think the District 9 designs must have influenced the weapon design in the Titanfall franchise too, and I like the weapon designs there as well. The Flatline is maybe my favorite pilot weapon design (not to use though). Charge Rifle is pretty cool too though, with the ‘breathing’ capacitor banks on the sides. Titan-wise, gotta be Tone’s cannon, hands down.
But there’s so many more!
A regular sci-fi gun sommelier.
I want to toss the Type-2 phaser from Star Trek (circa 24th century) as my personal favorite. It has this design which reads as a tool more than a weapon, which I love.
Deckard’s gun in Blade Runner was always my favorite. Somewhat uncanny because it was clearly sci-fi, but retained that hard boiled detective aesthetic, like you misremembered a noir shootout.
