The useless item/power/weapon in any game discussion (SPOILERS probaly) (GA Inside)

Atleast in TF2 you can turn them into scrap. :p

What if you have a little all of the above, change when you get something better (if it's alot you change them all the time), and adapt them all the time.

You could list any looter and 98% of their items. For example, Borderlands 2 has literally like half billion possible weapons, and people use like a hundred, including all variations. Same for any Diablo ever. But even cRPGs have this problem.

For limited item games, I remember not really liking the bio rifle in UT'99, it had very little use outside of one single assault level's one stage.

Crossbow in The Witcher 3
Will be nice if we can become a ranger too.

Sadly in many games, the "useless" items tend to be the more fun ones. I usually still use them for that fact alone. HL2 Crossbow I never saw as useless though, its the closest thing you get to a sniper rifle. Plus it pins people to fucking walls, with red hot steel rods.

It would be easier to ask what item/power/weapon is useful.

In my opinion I don't think the crowbar was useless in HL2, it was needed at the beginning of the game before you could find a better weapon. It was also handy for conserving ammo, and dealing with those face huggers when they lept at you. lol

Useless weapons, to me, in games would be ones that you get somewhere mid to end-game that don't offer better value than the ones you have all ready. Sometimes due to poor game mechanics as well. There has been many games where the shotgun for me has ended up being useless as it is easier and safer to pick mobs up at a distance, and on the opposite side of that, sniper rifles end up being useless if found in levels where there isn't much open space and shotguns and melee weapons are better.

The red-herring chainsaw, obviously.

I'd say the Fat-Man in Fallout. While it was strong, it had limited ammo and it had the radiation that came out from the impact point. It kind of sucked because of it... :/

The pistol in HL2. Besides the fact that it can shoot underwater, it's pretty useless for me. But use a crossbow is so much fun!

The fang repeater in bastion. Pretty much every other weapon is better.

Besides welrod, every pistol in sniper elite 2. Unless you are playing mp(and even if you are, because smgs), they are pretty useless. Well, unless you want to give everyone your position while moving from one spot to another. Yes, you can still stealth kill them, but that's freaking hard.

Silenced shotgun in far cry 2. I mean, I want to be stealthy, but if you don't kill in the first headshot, and your bump action is hard/slow as hell, I rather go around with the silenced pistol(which it was what I did). Silenced pistol, ak-47 and that air pressure rifle is my personal loadout :3

Crossbow in fable 1. They are really strong, I admit, but the reloading time makes me rather use a regular bow.

Bubble gun in just cause 2(never play it tho, just heard). Well, it's a bubble gun. But it's fun I think :P

I'll contribute the rocket launcher from Deus Ex: Human Revolution to the list.
It's way too big, too slow, ammo is scarce, and it's complete overkill against anyhting that isn't a mech or turret.
Of course, when dealing with one of those mechanical threats, an EMP grenade works just as well. Or the laser cannon, which is smaller and which can be used to kill the last boss easily as it'll pass through the glass wall that protects the boss from everything else

There is a grenade in borderlands 2 which, after being thrown returns to you and explodes xD

The Poop item in Binding of Isaac.

The most of BL2 weapons besides few legendaries are useless at very high or OP levels. Sadly due to that with every level beyond 50 the game gets worse and worse.

Same thing with PD2 - lots of weapons, specially SMGs, which again at high difficulties are pointless to use.

most games keep using a tier system with weapons that makes old ones obsolete, but at least some developers realize this and change the game mechanics to make everything work smoothly.

examples:
- good old quake 4 has upgrades to some weapons that kept them useful even in the last maps (like the rifle with x2 ammo and scope).
- wolfenstein 2009 also has upgrades that you can buy and apply to all weapons, makes even the basic rifles awesome.
- prey ( <3 ) has most weapons balanced, you can use the first weapon you get in the last map and still kill enemies.
- singularity ( <3 x1000 ) also lets you upgrade weapons. it keeps all the items useful.

View attached image.

I actually used the crossbow quite a lot in Half-Life 2. It was not my most commonly used weapon, out of the ones with rare-ish ammo, it was probably my most used.

The Fork of Horripilation from Morrowind was in itself really bad. It was a magic "short blade" which dealt minimal damage and had a constant "Drain Magicka 200 pts on Self" effect. The only reason to use it is because there is a quest involving it.

The Boots of Blinding Speed, also from Morrowind, was another useless item (with one exception). They raised your speed by 200, but also made you 100% blind.

The Top Spin power from Mega Man 3 is a notoriously bad, so bad in fact that even against the robot masters that it was supposed to be good against, it was generally better to just use your basic weapon (unless you were going for a speed run).

The Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity, from Baldur's Gate changes the gender of your character, and takes up an equipment slot. It's also cursed.

The Excalipoor from Final Fantasy V. Always hits, but only deals 1 damage.

Much of the equipment in the Arkham games, especially in Arkham Knight, strikes me this way. The story will provide a few places where you need ice bombs or electric discharge, but in most combat situations certain gadgets will only be worth pulling out unless you're going for a combo. (I beat every mission and picked up every trophy and used the zipline only about three times, and only in Riddler-trophy situations).

I mostly don't mind though: I appreciate the options.