Earlier today I was replaying FC3 weed mission when a thought dawned upon me, you know this flamethrower kinda sucks at killing people. Actually most do when I think about it, why is that? What followed was several hours of time I could’ve spent studying or hanging out with friends wasted on figuring out why video games almost never get flamethrowers right, and I think I figured it out.
The main problem with flamethrowers in video games, is that they are treated as guns with a hard limit on range and a DOT effect, instead of the fire spewing monsters that they are. But how does one design a good, nay, the perfect flamethrower? Well after much consideration here’s what I came up with:
- Range. It mustn’t be a melee weapon, the range shouldn’t be long but it also shouldn’t require that I be in make out distance of the enemy
- Projectile speed. I shouldn’t be required to compestate for projectile speed at such a close distance
- Size and speed. A falmethrower should basically be an mingun-shotgun hybrid, at least in terms of how its bullets work, it should shoot fast making it easier to just wave it around while lighitng everything on fire, and use shotgun pellet type projectiles as they best simulate a large ball of burning napalm capable of hiting multiple enemies at once.
- DOT. It should be permenant unless whoever is burning actively does something to put it out, and it should have a disabling effect, preferably with some loud screams and lot’s of running about and rolling on the floor
- Enviromental fire. fire should stick to burnable surffaces and if possible spread and destroy them.
With all that out of the way, which game do you think does flamthrowers best? My votes going to Enlisted.
Ignis Wraith has been one of the best primaries in Warframe over the years.
Flamethrowers in Mass Effect are fun, and are useful in doom, yeah that’s all I got, I tried to defend them but I can think of more flamer enemies then anything
I want a tractor one for Farming Simulator!
You could use an excisting weeder, but fire seems fun!
Call of Duty: World at War and Bad Company 2 Vietnam both had pretty fun flamethrowers.
well yeah, FC2’s flamethrowers wasn’t intended for people but to start veld fires as we call them in South Africa, in mmo terms, its an sustained fire weapon so in terms of quicker moving humans, naturally its going to be not easy to use
TLOU2 flamethrower is fuckin excellent
Flamethrowers actually aren’t great at killing IRL
They are great at hurting, and terrifying, but killing isn’t so easy
It’s why using one on someone is a war crime
I own a flamethrower and the best I’ve seen is Darktide’s.
The primary fire being just a burst of flame and secondary being a stream is what sets it apart from me besides realistic burn time per canister.
Also has a good range
Flamethrowers are good against everything except firearms, obviously.
Military flamethrowers actually shoot a burning liquid, not just flame. They are very different than a civilian gas torch. Just because Elon Musk sold a butane torch and called it a “flamethrower” doesn’t mean that’s how flamethrowers actually work. It’s more like a very large squirt gun that shoots a stream of flammable fluid.