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Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report. In this ongoing series we discuss, explore, and review the various firearms inside of the rimfire firearm world. This holiday season you’ll no doubt be seeing a lot of your kids and perhaps yourself playing video games. Video games and guns almost go hand in hand these days and just like in real life, guns are fun inside video games as well. However, it seems that rimfire firearms don’t get all that much love inside the video gaming world. Today we’ll go over 5 .22LR firearms I’ve run across in video games that I’ve played throughout the years.
The Rimfire Report: .22LR Firearms Found in Video Games
High Standard HDM – Mafia III
Mafia III is a video game about a Vietnam war veteran returning home to return to a life of crime and enact revenge on the Italian Mafia. Throughout part of the game, you’re able to encounter a High Standard HDM which is a firearm we’ve previously covered in The Rimfire Report.
The real-life HDM pistol was developed and adopted by the OSS during the Second World War as the organization felt that its agents needed a smaller caliber clandestine pistol. The .22LR caliber pistol features an integral suppressor and single-stack 10-round magazine.
The pistol is used for more or less the same purpose inside of the game with the main character taking the pistol in order to keep a low profile during his criminal activities. The pistol in the game, however, does not use the High Standard HDM name but instead carries the moniker “Silenced Deacon .22”.
Walther P22 – Hot Dogs Horseshoes & Hand Grenades
Right off the bat, this game takes a new and novel approach to firearms – mostly because it is done within Virtual Reality (VR). I only recently was able to experience VR video games due to a generous early Christmas gift from a friend and I have to say that I am truly impressed with how this particular game handles firearms.
While perusing through the massive list of firearms I stumbled across the Walther P22 and it functions almost exactly like the real-life Walther P22. The Walther P22 is a straight blowback .22LR pistol that emulates the size and feel of a 9mm Walther PPQ.
Inside the game, you’re able to load and unload magazines, eject live rounds, use iron sights, lock the slide back and even manually turn the safety on and off all using a series of simple hand controls. Personally, I think firearms fit perfectly within the VR video game scene. It’s worth noting that there are several other 22 caliber firearms within the game, the Walther P22 just happened to be my first experience with one inside the VR space.
Ruger 10/22 – State of Decay
State of Decay is an action survival game taking place during a zombie apocalypse. It should be expected that some sort of .22LR firearm makes it into the game. Pop culture has somehow concluded that .22LR would be the best caliber for survival during a zombie apocalypse and the 10/22 makes an appearance within the game alongside a few other .22LR rifles.
The in-game model appears to be a carbine variant of the rifle featuring a 16″ barrel and a walnut stock. Just like the real-life 10/22, the rifle holds 10 rounds inside a rotary magazine, however, there is no option within the game to use higher capacity magazines to extend the rifle’s usefulness. Funnily enough, the rifle is named after its real-life counterpart “10/22” but there is no mention of a brand name – probably because of copyright or license issues.
American 180 – Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout has a great mix of both fantasy and realistic firearms. In fact, the Fallout series has a special place in TFBTV presenter Andrew’s heart as he has dedicated many of his videos to exploring the various firearms within the popular role-playing video game series. The rimfire firearm that makes its appearance inside this game is the much sought after American 180 .22LR submachine gun.
In traditional fallout fashion, the firearm takes its real-life inspiration and adds a few extra oddities to its design in order to make it more fun to use. The firearm within the game still features the top-mounted drum magazine but now lacks a stock and adds an integral suppressor. If you ask me, keep the stock and add an integral suppressor and you have yourself a logical improvement on the American 180.
Ruger MK. 2 – Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Last on our list is both a firearm and a game I absolutely love. The highly popular “Tactical Espionage Action” game series Metal Gear Solid heavily features stealth weapons as part of its array of options for taking down enemies. One of the most popular ones in my opinion is the Tranquilizer gun that is featured in many of the titles within the series. Most notably the Ruger Mk. 2 pistol has been modified to be a tranquilizer gun for silent non-lethal takedowns of enemies.
Although the concept of a .22LR tranquilizer gun that takes enemies down without them noticing in a short amount of time is a bit fantastical, the game at least makes a believable difference between shooting them in the head for an instant takedown versus shooting them anywhere else and having the knockout take place many seconds later.
The in-game Ruger Mk.2 features an integral suppressor as well as a bolt-lock feature which is a real-life method of reducing the sound that a firearm makes when being shot suppressed. Overall, this one is my favorite on the list and I think it stands as an icon of the Metal Gear series.
More to come?
I think rimfire firearms are most definitely underrepresented within the video game world. Maybe this is because it’s more fun to shoot an M134 minigun whilst walking around the battlefield instead of painstakingly lining up your shot with the humble .22LR round. However, I think the few firearms listed above are evidence that .22 caliber firearms do have their place within the video game world and that they can be appreciated for what they are, relatively quiet, abundant, low power, and lightweight. Are there any other .22LR firearms in video games that you have come across? Let us know down in the comments and thanks for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report! Happy New Year!
