Video Game / Ballistic Weapons

A popular mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, created by RuneStorm. Instead of focusing on game modes, they focused on new guns.

Lots and lots of guns.

Even better, the whole mod can be added to any game type with a single mutator.

The original homepage is here. Though RuneStorm has abandoned the mod, a new development team has picked up the reins, actively updating it well into The New '20s; the latest Complete Collection version can be downloaded from their Discord server here.

Note: Since Ballistic Weapons is a mutator, all non-weapon tropes on the UT2004 page also apply here.

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Ballistic Weapons includes examples of:

• A.K.A.-47: A number of weapons are based on real-world weapons, given alternate names.
  • The M50 and M30 are obviously based on an M16, but lack several features (no forward assist, for one); the M46 Jackal is also similar to an M4 or M4A1, but again is missing several features and has a barrel assembly that looks more like a SCAR-H than an M4 variant and uses wood furniture, not to mention it's in a caliber that simply isn't used with the M4 (.310).
    • The MJ51, however, is a straight-up M4.
    • Yet another variant, the LK05, mashes together bits and pieces of the Magpul Masada and the SCAR-L (mostly the stock).
  • The RS8 is rather obviously a Colt 1911 derivative (Smith & Wesson 1006). Similarly, the GRS9 is a 9mm Glock.
  • The XK2 SMG looks like an MP5, but has a massively different action - it has no cocking handle, instead it has an ambidextrous ejection port that's also used to prime the weapon.
  • The Fifty-9 SMG looks like a heavily-customized and stylized Uzi mashed up with various other SMGs, with a folding stock and an attached blade you can Pistol Whip with. The XRS10, meanwhile, is a barely-modified AB-10.
  • The SRS-900 and its variants are rather blatant Mk 14 Mod 0 EBRs.
  • The Wilson 41-DB is a modernized Le Mat Revolver.
  • The T9CN Hammer is based on the Beretta 92FS Inox (stainless steel finish included).
  • The RS04 has a P99 cocking indicator in the back. Its initial model was another Smith & Wesson 1006.
  • The Puma-77 Repeater is an H&K UMP. Bizarrely enough, rather than bullets, it launches airburst grenades and comes with an energy shield deployer.
  • The FMP-2012 is the MP-40.
    • Similarly, the FSSG-50 and FG50 are the FG-42, rechambered for .50-cal bullets and IN SPACE!.
  • The Mk. 781 is a Benelli M1014.
  • The AT40 STREAK is the M202 FLASH.
  • The AK490 is mashup of various AK derivations.
  • The MARS and MARS-2 are FN F2000s, with later versions giving them mounted EGLMs.
  • The Conqueror is a chopped-up Milkor MGL.
  • It's hard to tell from the sides and front, but the SK-410 is a dressed-up Saiga-12, with a bigger magazine, prettied-up space-age barrel and handguard, and rails. It's more obvious when you hold it.
  • The Redwood is a Marlin lever-action rifle.
• All-or-Nothing Reloads: Averted. Skipping the reload via weapon switch will leave the gun in the state of reloading it was in (i.e. skip pulling the charging handle, you'll have to take time to do so before you can fire the weapon next time you switch to it). This still allows noticeable amounts of time to be shaved off of some weapons' reloads, particularly the D49's.
• All There in the Manual: The flavor text of each gun alludes to some sort of war between what's essentially a cross of the UNSC and the Alliance, against various alien races - namely, the plasma-firing Skrith (who appear to be some sort of cross between the Yautja and the Covenant as a whole); the Cryon, where the info from the flavor text of the Spectre states they're synthetics covered in organic or pseudo-organic material, like the Terminators; and the Krao, who we don't know much about other than the Skrith command them on the basis of We Have Reserves, and battles against them go as expected (the M353 and M925 machine guns were used to slaughter millions of them in a particularly bloody "Wasteland Siege", and one captain apparently managed to hold off six companies' worth of them with the M290 shotgun). Word of God is that zeerust ballistic weapons were fielded because they penetrated Skrith shields, which are made for deflecting plasma and lasers, far easier than their regular energy guns. In addition, it's implied that the weapons in-game are mostly outdated: the anti-materiel rifle says it's been supplanted by two other, modern anti-materiel sniper rifles, which aren't in-game.
• Ammunition Backpack: A few of the heavy weapons have visible backpacks for storing their ammo. The RX22A's backpack is particularly vulnerable to enemy weapons; if it gets so much as stabbed by an opponent, the user ends up rocketing into the air and exploding in a shower of gibs.
• BFG: The XMV-850 minigun, SKAS-21 super shotgun, JL-21 MRL 'Peacemaker' rocket launcher, J2329 HAMR portable mortar (the biggest of the Big, as its recoil is so high that you take damage if you fire it from the shoulder), RX22A flamethrower, HVC-MK9 lightning gun, M75-TIC Railgun, R20 Bulldog Assault Cannon, and the E-V 9000 Plasma Cannon (which is a Shout-Out to the original BFG).
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: The AK490 has a Golden variant. There's also the GRSXX, a GRS9 with a gold-plated slide, slightly higher damage and mag capacity, and a blue laser that deals much more damage in return for faster rate of power consumption.
  • Various weapons added through Sergeant Kelly's bonus packs have multiple potential camo patterns. In the case of the RS04 Compact and SRS Mod 2, the rare Red Tiger Stripe pattern actually changes how the guns work - they become fully-automatic, and the former reloads in half a second. The SRAC-21/G autocannon likewise has the "Fabulous" paint scheme, which is purple and removes the manual fire mode (and renames the automatic mode to "Fabulous"), but is otherwise unchanged.
• Deadly Gas: The T10 Toxin Grenade. The G28 Medicinal Aerosol grenade inverts this by putting out healing gas... and plays it straight by giving it the ability to be ignited to damage enemy players. The same gas serves as the Spectre's secondary fire, and can be selected to heal or cook.
• Developer's Foresight: Most weapons have a specialized kill message depending on where the killshot hit - the chest, an arm, a leg, the head, and so on.
• Dirty Communists: The SK-410 and AK490 kill notifications are parodies of Soviet militarism.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: By default, you can't, as the game halves the walking speed. The devs, however, included a Ballistic Sprint mutator that allows you to... guess. This also applies to jumping. Interestingly enough, weapons can still be fired while running - but they're terribly off-target, making it impossible to aim unless it has a laser sight (and even then, good luck hitting anything past a couple meters in this fashion). Bots don't get the message, though, so at long ranges they're typically harmless.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: There's an optional keybinding in the menu for doing this. It never costs any of your ammo, even though a lot of the guns have an actual bullet ejected when you use it. In normal gameplay, it only happens when you equip a gun for the first time or after reloading it from empty.
• Emergency Weapon: Most of the melee weapons, though they're useful in surprise attacks. They also ignore the target's armor.
  • Sergeant Kelly's weapon pack adds fists, which are almost totally useless... except when used with the Berserk adrenalin combo, at which point they become the Berserk Fists.
• Every Bullet is a Tracer: Averted in that most guns have a random tracer chance. Some heavy weapons will always leave visible trails, though.
• Everything Fades: Dropped weapons begin to sink into the ground very shortly after being dropped by their user. And depending on your settings, so do dead bodies.
  • A particularly odd example comes with the revolvers, where if you wait long enough after emptying them, the used shells will simply vanish from the chambers.
• Fackler Scale of FPS Realism: At its most realistic, it plays like Insurgency after getting extremely sick and trying to be sci-fi. At its most unrealistic, it plays like a bizarre cross of Counter-Strike, Quake III: Arena, and Unreal Tournament.
• Flare Gun: the BORT-85, which can also fire grenades; its flares follow a fairly realistic trajectory, too. Oh, and it can be dual-wielded.
• Flechette Storm: The Spectre utilizes flechette rounds - the Acheron's secondary fire can also do something similar.
• Game Mod: Which has mods itself; most notable is Sergeant Kelly's Weapon Pack, which is basically a community effort to add even more guns.
• Gatling Good: The XMV-850; an interesting example in that it has a realistic max fire rate of 3600 RPM, at which point anyone on the receiving end may as well kiss their ass goodbye. It also doesn't overheat, but ammo is very limited - it only holds 900 rounds in a magazine, with 1800 spare, so you don't even have a minute of full-speed fire. The heavy recoil can be mitigated by mounting it using secondary fire. There's also the "XMB-500 Personal Minigun" that is much more man portable and has less recoil, at the cost of firing rate.
• Gun Accessories: The M50 has a grenade launcher and a small screen for use with the tertiary-fire camera, while the M46 has a launcher that shoots grenades/proximity mine combinations.
  • The LK05 has a suppressor, laser, flashlight, vertical grip, AND a holosight! And all can be used!
  • A number of pistols have a Laser Sight. The XRS-10 and S-AR 12 do, as well, the former combining with a detachable suppressor and the latter with an adjustable stock that allows for greater mobility at the expense of stability while firing when pushed in and vice versa when pulled out.
  • The SRS-900 has a mid-range scope with a rangefinder and height detector. The SRS Mod 2 replaces that with a holographic sight; both can also accept a suppressor.
• Gun Porn: Ballistic Weapons V2.5 - without extra packs - has thirty unique weapons.
• Guns Akimbo: Most pistols and submachineguns can be used in pairs - even different ones. Don't expect to be accurate if the server's using realistic settings, though. Reloading is handled a la Marathon - one gun at a time - which makes dual-wielding with pistols easiest due to their short reload time.
• Hand Cannon: The AH-104 'Pounder' assault pistol, which is somewhat over the top even for this trope: it fires .60 caliber explosive rounds. A torso shot with it is a one- or two-hit kill.
  • The revolvers also qualify, as they both have two barrels. Secondary for the D49 fires both at once for a two-bullet hit, while the 41-DB's second barrel loads shotgun shells.
• Hitscan: Played straight, but the illusion of bullet travel is faked very well; the effects for bullet weapons, including wall and object damage, are done after the original trace for damage.
• Homing Projectile: The G5 rocket launcher in mortar mode, by keeping an enemy in the zoom crosshairs for long enough to lock on.
• Improbable Weapon User/Abnormal Ammo: The AK490's secondary fire launches a ballistic knife; you can also use the knife on its own, either slashing and stabbing or launching the blade as above.
  • The Defibrillators are compact enough to be fitted onto fists. That's right, you have electric punching gloves that shock people to life. Or not, as the description states they're overpowered to the point that they kill people instead of saving them.
  • The MJ51 can mount and launch MOA-C chaff grenades from its barrel. You can also imitate a Demoman with the Ullapool Caber by bashing people over the head with the chaff grenades themselves (exploding on contact optional).
  • The upcoming Spectre uses flechettes, and its secondary fire sprays healing gas. Which you can ignite to damage enemies.
• Kill Streak: An unofficial patch to the base mod adds these when using the Ballistic Loadout mutator - make a certain number of kills without dying, and you can press a button to give yourself a new weapon.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Played with; most energy weapons fire visible and slow-moving projectiles, but they tend to do a good bit of damage or have other useful attributes. For instance, the E-23 ViPeR plasma rifle is also capable of acting as an assault rifle, a shotgun, a repair tool (a la the Link Gun), and a marksman rifle with nightvision scope. This is also justified in-universe, as kinetic weapons are the only thing that get through Skrith shields.
• Laser Sight: Several weapons come with one; though it gives away your position, shots will always hit the aiming dot. Using these are basically the only way to ensure hits when moving or dual-wielding.
  • The GRS9 and GRSXX take this to the next level, where their attached lasers are actual anti-personnel lasers, with either solid cutting beam or a single high-powered blast.
• Lightning Gun: the HVC-MK9 lightning gun; primary fires short-ranged streams of lightning which do little damage, but can fling those it has locked on to. Secondary is a 'red lightning' charged shot.
• Ludicrous Gibs: A new gore system was added to deal with new weapon effects, making dismemberment a little more... visceral than it was by default. Have fun smearing the walls with blood!
• Macross Missile Massacre: The JL-21 MRL 'Peacemaker' rocket launcher. Primary rapid-fires mini rockets; secondary fires so fast the loading system can't keep up, at the cost of many rockets going off-course, potentially injuring the user and those nearby.
• More Dakka: The entire purpose of the XMV-850 minigun, though the M353 light machine gun can also put out a respectable amount of dakka.
• No Scope: Possible, but not easy by default. Less realistic settings make it easier.
• One-Hit Polykill: the G5 RPG does enough splash damage to instantly kill non-vehicle targets with a close miss. One can only imagine what it could do against clustered targets...
  • The M75 Tactical Infantry Cannon can overpenetrate tanks and still retain enough power to kill someone on the other side, as long as it's fully charged when firing.
  • The STREAK's secondary fire dumps out all four barrels, which can shower a hallway in napalm and roast any poor bastard in the way.
• Overheating: Happens to some weapons. The HVC-MK9 lightning gun hurts the user if it overheats, while the plasma cannons explode - the HV-9000 in particular detonates like a Redeemer missile. Both can be cooled down faster by holding the reload button to turn them off.
  • The Firestorm IV overheats as well due to using caseless incendiary ammo. It also slows down as it overheats, making bursts much more useful. In Ballistic Pro, it will explode if you push it too far.
• Pistol-Whipping: Secondary fire of the MD24 pistol, though it's implied the weapon was designed to do that. Some weapons have blades attached to them, making it much more effective.
  • The Redwood Coach Gun has a stock bash attack.
  • The MRS138 shotgun has a taser mounted below the barrel for this purpose, while the M763's melee is simply smacking an enemy with the barrel.
  • The Fifty-9 SMG has an underbarrel blade. Dual-wielding a pair of these results in a flurry of attacks that chops down the target's health quite rapidly.
  • The AK490 has the ballistic knife-bayonet for this purpose; if that's been fired, the player instead uses the stock. The SK-410 also has a similar stock-bash attach.
• Player-Guided Missile: The G5 launcher's Secondary Fire in Rocket mode allows the player to laser-guide the missile.
• Recoil Boost: Possible with the XMV-850 minigun, the M290 Double Shotgun, and the MRT6 Shotgun Sidearm. The M925 Machinegun also has limited usage in this role - firing it downwards while falling will slow your fall.
• Removable Turret Gun: Both machine guns, the miniguns, the J2329 HAMR, and the two anti-materiel sniper rifles can be 'mounted' as turrets. They can be abandoned by the user, which will always happen if they're killed. Unlike most instances, these turret guns have limited ammo and need to be reloaded, but can be placed just about anywhere. Killing the user and picking it up yourself if you already have the same gun also gives you all its ammo.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Somewhat averted: while powerful and accurate, the D49 revolver has a very long reload for a pistol, making it of somewhat dubious use as a sidearm. The Wilson 41-DB isn't much better, as it's slightly weaker outside of an extremely close-range shot with the secondary barrel, and has to be reloaded twice to fully replenish if it's totally empty.
• Sawn-Off Shotgun: The MRT6 Shotgun Sidearm is an odd example. It's very short - small enough to be holstered - and is very inaccurate, but packs a large punch because it fires two shells at once. The recoil's heavy enough that it can be used as an extra jump, too.
  • Sergeant Kelly's Weapon Pack adds a proper sawn-off, which can be dual-wielded; accuracy and recoil are even worse than the MRT6, however.
• Schmuck Bait: Try firing an airburst grenade from the Puma-77 while the shield is deployed. Go ahead.
• Shockwave Stomp/Ground Pound: The FGM-70 Shockwave (duh) has a secondary fire that exchanges the explosive payload for a seismic one that has a very wide sonic boom that passes through walls and melts brains.
• Secondary Fire: Several weapons have these, and some even have a tertiary fire.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Somewhat averted with the M763, which has a relatively tight spread compared with the other shotguns, which play this perfectly straight. It's somewhat weak, however, but that's for balance reasons.
  • The SK-410 can switch between regular, short-ranged high-powered buckshot or slugs. They're slower-moving than regular bullets and are affected by gravity, however.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Golden Gun. Its flavor text is a direct quote of Scaramanga. It also functions like you'd expect it to in a FPS.
  • The E-V 9000 functions in a similar fashion to the original BFG.
  • In Sergeant Kelly's Pack:
    • Equipping the fists and activating the Berserk Adrenaline Combo turns them into the Berserk fists.
    • Many weapons come from the original Deus Ex. There's the XM300 Dragon Nanoblade, which is a Dragon's Tooth sword; the SKAS-21 super shotgun, and by extension the SRAC-21/G autocannon, are carbon copies of the assault shotgun; and the PS-9m stealth pistol is, well, the stealth pistol.
  • The .75 Bulldog is essentially a Warhammer 40,000 Bolter, down to the red paint scheme and square, ugly build, the fact it uses .75 shells, and can fire explosive shot.
  • If you cap an enemy with the AK's ballistic knife altfire, the kill message explains that, in Soviet Russia, knife shoots YOU!!
  • The ZG minigun shares the same look, fire rate (gets faster the longer you fire it), and function as Perfect Dark's Reaper.
• Swiss-Army Gun: the E-23 ViPeR, to some extent - it has a shotgun mode, a continuous laser, a rapid-fire mode, and a slower but stronger mode meant to be used with the integrated scope.
• Standard FPS Guns: Some weapons fall under this (mostly human weapons), but quite a few don't (usually energy, magic, or Skrith guns).
• Universal Ammunition: Mostly averted; weapons that are identified as using the same ammo will draw from the same ammo pool, but without addons this is only particularly noticeable with the shotguns, where only two of the five (the MRS138 and the Wilson 41-DB's secondary fire) have unique ammo pools.
• Unorthodox Reload: The MD24's reload has the player flick the magazine out of the weapon.
• Used Future: Nearly all projectile weapons are 20th/21st century weapons yanked out of mothballs and given higher-tech internals in a last-ditch attempt to fight off the Skrith, whose shields stopped all laser or plasma weaponry, but not old projectile weapons. The flavor texts says there are much newer guns that aren't desperation weapons, but we only see mostly outdated weapon models, with the exception of the cutting-edge Spectre, the stylized machine pistols, and the LK-05 and SRS battle rifles - and even then the latter two are heavily based on early 21st-century weapons. Jack Carver's pack also explicitly states that its Desert Eagle is a recreation of an overly popular 20th century gun.
• Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Averted; the RX22A flamethrower, while not actually projecting napalm due to the limitations of the UT2004 engine, is quite long-ranged. This is balanced by the rather volatile fuel tank on the user's back, which tends to rocket upwards when shot, or taking the slightest bit of damage. The Spectre's flamethrower doesn't explode, thankfully, and deals a lot of damage, but it has a small capacity - not enough to kill an enemy by itself, but useful for softening up targets to shower them with the Spectre's flechettes, or finishing them off if your magazine runs dry or the burst didn't do the trick. Finally, the STREAK is a murder machine that will close off hallways and stop enemy charges dead cold (well, not very cold, rather).
• Weak Turret Gun: Very, very averted. The four mountable weapons in the base mod are the XMV-850 minigun, the J2329 HAMR mortar, the M353 LMG, and the M925 .50 caliber machine gun; all four are incredibly deadly even unmounted, and are much moreso when set up properly. If gun sway is increased to realistic levels, this is the only way to actually hit anything.

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