While rifles, bazookas, and shotguns are the most common hardware pilots will arm their AC’s with, that doesn’t necessarily mean these weapons dominate the realm of whoop-assery during a fight. In fact, some guys are more afraid of these guns AFTER they run out of ammo.
That’s because they know that all those grenade blasts and bazooka shells that have battered them within an inch of their AC’s life are just a prelude, an opening act, and that the minute their enemy drops all that heavy weaponry, the real ass-kicking begins.
Enter the HP, one of AC’s most celebrated (not to mention broken) handguns. What the HP doesn’t have in range, it makes up for with a deadly combination of shot speed, firing rate, and stopping power. In fact, this little monster is actually more powerful than most of AC’s rifles, with several tournaments (including our very own PACT) implementing strict guidelines on limiting its use.
Rules? For this little thing? A little extreme perhaps, but keep in mind that the HP is the Dirty Harry of handguns. It’s a tough, powerful bastard that doesn’t take crap from anybody. That boatload of legalese isn’t there to protect you from doing something stupid – they’re there to protect the enemy from getting blown away a little too quickly.
You’re probably thinking I’m going to pull out some equally badass handgun to match up to the HP’s sheer amount of awesome. Well if you were hoping for something like a .454 Cassull or even the .600 Nitro Express, you’re looking in the wrong place.
The HP was an ass-kicker because of a lethal combination of rate of fire and stopping power. And while the slugs I mentioned earlier are can definitely turn a bear into hamburger on slug, they’re also too hard to control.
What we’re looking for in this case is a gun that combines both the ability to rip the enemy’s head off with bullets the size of your fists, and the ability rip off their other limbs in a controlled rapid-fire burst. What we need is a gun like the Mateba Unica autorevolver.
First built in 1997, the Mateba is an interesting piece in that it’s a revolver that uses the bullet’s recoil forces to a cock its firing pin and rotate the cylinder much in the same way a semi-automatic pistol does. This system of using the gun’s recoil was actually first attempted by the Webley-Fosbery autorevolver, circa 1901 to 1915. The end result is a gun that, despite being on the heavy side, is known for its light trigger pull and stability even when rapid-firing something as powerful as the .357, or its bigger brother, the mighty .44.
The Mateba is what happens when Revolver Ocelot and Dirty Harry meet – it’s a balance of speed and power that’d make even the HP green with envy. Hell, it’s the gun Detective Togusa opts to packs in Ghost in the Shell. And if an entirely human cop decides that this antique is the best thing that stands between him and a horribly gruesome death by machine-gun-wielding-cyborgs, I’ll take his word for it.
And remember what I mentioned about the HP being on par with rifles? The Mateba company apparently had the same idea with their guns, and took it one step further with the creation of the Grifone series. These are basically the same handguns fitted with an 18-inch barrel and stock, all save for one, which was specifically built to mount the .454 Casull. Now how’s that for a hand cannon?
Maybe the devs should take a pointer from Mateba. Maybe it’s about time they took the HP, and evolved it into a full-fledged rifle that’ll kick even more ass than its pistolero incarnation. That would rock my world, but I’m guessing it’ll once again be broken. And subsequently banned.