Basic Trope: Flamethrowers in video games are much less effective than their real-life counterparts.
- Straight: Bob's weapon in a Hero Shooter is a flamethrower. However, it's extremely short-ranged, doesn't obscure the target's vision with smoke, and its damage isn't good enough to compensate.
- Exaggerated: Bob's flamethrower produces a smaller flame than a lighter and deals Scratch Damage to anything it hits.
- Downplayed: Bob's flamethrower is a viable weapon, but still doesn't shoot as far or do as much damage as a flamethrower would in real life.
- Justified:
- Bob looted the flamethrower from a movie set, so it's a prop propane flamethrower that's much less deadly than the real thing.
- All of the other characters have heat-resistant armour, so the flamethrower can't do that much to them.
- It's a weed burner.
- The enemies largely wear flame resistant clothing, justifying the low damage output.
- Bob's flamethrower is something he cobbled together from whatever junk he had lying around, so it's obviously not as good as a factory made weapon.
- Inverted: Bob's flamethrower is a total Game-Breaker, doing much more damage and having a much longer operative range than a real flamethrower. In fact, he can do some illogically badass things with it; Such as using it as a sniper!
- Subverted: The flamethrower is the game's example of Magikarp Power. Upgrading it enough eventually lets it cause as much harm as a real military flamethrower would, and compete at or above the level of the other weapons.
- Double Subverted:
- Every other weapon can be upgraded as well, and the flamethrower is still much weaker than other weapons at the same level.
- The max-power flamethrower is a strong weapon on paper, but so many characters have flame-resistant armor that it's still functionally quite weak.
- Parodied: Bob only ever uses his flamethrower to light cigarettes, and it struggles with even that.
- Zig-Zagged:
- The flamethrower initially seems useless, but becomes much more powerful when upgraded. However, other weapons eventually become even stronger when upgraded themselves... but the flamethrower has a higher maximum level, ultimately letting it outstrip them all. However, the huge amount of resources you'd need to spend to make it usable ultimately makes the flamethrower Awesome, but Impractical.
- Flamethrowers have far better ammo capacity than in real life, but are weaker as well, except for being oddly effective against buildings.
- Averted:
- Bob's flamethrower is as deadly as you'd expect, firing a huge cone of napalm that easily kills anyone caught in it and excels at destroying buildings. It's a balanced weapon, with pros and cons that render it just as viable as other options.
- The game has no flamethrowers.
- Enforced:
- The flamethrower was found to be overpowered while the game was being developed, so it was severely dialed back in power by reducing its damage and range.
- The beta flamethrower's damage routine was found to lag the test rig to hell, so they settled for a less computationally intense routine to keep the game functionally playable.
- The developers wanted a Joke Weapon, and decided to make it a flamethrower.
- Lampshaded: "I signed up to operate a flamethrower 'cause I wanted to burn my enemies alive. But this thing is useless!"
- Invoked: Knowing full well how dangerous a realistic flamethrower would be, the Big Bad decides to have a few of his mooks sabotage Bob's flamethrower.
- Exploited: The Big Bad decides to save Bob for last while fighting him and the other heroes, since his flamethrower is too weak to cause any real harm.
- Defied: Bob decided to upgrade his flamethrower before the events of the game. While the standard ones are quite weak, his is a flame-spewing weapon of mass destruction.
- Discussed: "I had considered joining Bob in operating the flamethrowers, but I decided against it when I saw how weak they were."
- Conversed: "Bob is F-tier because of his terrible range and damage on his primary weapon."
- Played For Drama: At the end of the No-Gear Level, the player obtains a flamethrower right before the boss fight, but it's a very weak weapon. This is acknowledged in-universe by the player character, creating tension as they must fight for their life while at a major disadvantage.
- Played For Horror: In a Survival Horror game, the only ranged weapon available to the player is a flamethrower. However, because it's so weak, it doesn't really trivialize dealing with the enemies, preserving the game's frightening atmosphere.
Video Game Flamethrowers Suck. It's a fact.
