Agreed. I play through most of the levels with the single barrel until I get the plasma.

Worst: Battlefield 2 Engineer setup repeating shotgun. Worthless in every way.

It's pretty hard to make a "bad" shotgun because shotguns rule since like Duckhunt

that said, Borderlands' shotguns suck balls.

Best: Doom 2



Worst: Doom 3


Just the sound and feel of it...

I think I will put Project I.G.I. here, it was the first game to portray the SPAS 12 as an automatic (I'm looking at you Half-Life) and later you got the Jackhammer which was totally awesome.

I also liked the long doublebarreled shotgun in Stalker, great against those pesky blinddogs. =P

Best: Red Faction, Quake series, Medal of Honor series, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat.

Worst: Battlefield 2, Gears of War, Vanquish, and Black.

Except that most video game shotguns are highly unrealistic, being utterly useless at ranges where a real shotgun would be devastating. Memories of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. elude me for the most part, but I think that the shotguns were restricted to unrealistically short ranges there as well.

what's wrong with GOW's shotgun?

I suppose that it is not necessarily bad, but I never used it and found it unnecessary. I always liked using the Lancer and revolver more. So I guess it is not one of the functionally worst, but one of my least favorite.

Not much to add here, I'm afraid. Doom's shotgun would be my obvious choice - if only for the sound it makes and fantastic animation alone .
As for the worst one - Doom 3. Horrid range, feels like a peashooter, doesn't look good, sounds terrible. In fact, pretty much every single weapon in D3 lacks "something", unfortunately.

With that said - I've always had a soft spot for these three:
<span class="bold">Chasm: The Rift</span>
<span class="bold">Quake 2</span>
<span class="bold">F.E.A.R.</span>
The shotgun in Fallout was pretty satisfying to use, as well.

There are far worse shotguns, but for me it was the most disappointing after what doom 2 offered and doom 3 every other gun was spot on especially the plasma gun. The shotgun was good but not good enough for Doom

Best: Doom 2 Super Shotgun

Worst: Quake Shotgun

Maybe playing Quake right after Doom 2 didn't help... it's like "BOOOOM!!!!!!!!" and "Pop" in comparison.

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/a_weapon_sound_better_than_dooms_shotgun

That holds all the answers. It never got a solution marked because nothing is better than Doom's shotgun.

I have two that I think are the best:

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl's double barrel shotgun. Its range is terrible, but my goodness does it pack a wonderful punch. The resounding boom when it's fired, the sudden, sharp recoil... there is nothing more satisfying than coming across a bandit and unloading a single, well-placed shell into him. That's about the only reason I think the first hour or so of the game is the best.

Mass Effect 3's Graal Spike Thrower. Even though it's heavy, is too accurate to use up close, and requires that you get a decent lead on a moving target, it is my favorite shotgun in the game. It has a weird, sharp sound and is just fun to shoot.

As for worst shotguns, I'm not sure. Maybe the Peacemaker from Red Faction Guerrilla. It is actually pretty standard as shotguns go, but not long after you get access to it it loses any effectiveness. It is more accurate and has far more ammo than the Marauder shotgun, but it does too little damage per shot, which can be deadly for the player when facing dozens of enemies. I just didn't find it to be very satisfying.

I don't know about that. ;)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=240007