"Give a guy a gun and he's Superman. Give him two and he's God." Using two guns at once is impractical, unrealistic,
and generally a liability - and yet we see pistols akimbo in many action-oriented games. So how did such a reckless regard for accuracy
originate? What was the first video game that introduced
two-pistol gun-play? And how on earth do you reload when both your
hands are full? Carrying multiple weapons was once an issue
of practicality - with early flintlock pistols taking quite some time to reload, pirates
such as Blackbeard would not be seen with a brace of fewer than 6 such sidearms ready-to-fire. By the time of the Old West, revolvers were
the norm: and some cowboys will have carried more than one, for those situations where
a single six-shooter simply won't do. Such backup weapons were used singly to avert
a lengthy reload, however - firing a weapon from each hand with wild abandon probably
reserved for desperados with nothing to lose. The blame for Dual Wield's popularity today
lies squarely at the feet of cinema: with the popularity of Westerns aligned with the
rise of the Action film in the 1970s, it was only a matter of time. Action films are not noted for their subtlety,
and firepower was one trait not often spared. Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum was described as
'the most powerful handgun in the world' - and so what better way to up the ante than to
double down on a second pistol. In the 1969 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid each employ a pair of Colt Single-Action Army revolvers in a daring shootout while
fleeing from the Bolivian police. Another more prominent use of dual wielding
in a Western film is 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', from 1976. Featuring Clint Eastwood as the titular character,
a wanted man driven by vengeance and a need for firepower that only pistols akimbo might
provide. The 1970s also marks the earliest days of
electronic entertainment: the popularity of Pong from 1972 spurred development of the
arcade game industry, some of which offered crude digital representations of popular culture
at the time. Video games with a Western flavour were inevitable:
'Gun Fight' in 1975 was the first - a simple shooting game, with players one and two facing
off in a six-shooter duel. One of the earliest depictions of dual wielded
pistols in a video game is in an arcade title from 1979 called 'Sheriff', an early Nintendo
game published by Exidy. Clearly taking clues from the Western movies
of its era - this multi-directional shooter featured bandits clearly seen swinging two
pistols. It was none other than Shigeru Miyamoto that
was responsible for Sheriff's artwork - so the mind behind Mario and Zelda might also
be behind the very first video game to feature dual-wielded pistols. The Western's popularity saw decline by the
end of the 70s, with Star Wars in 1977 prompting a shift towards space shooters, like the phenomenally
popular Space Invaders in 1978. There remained a few Western-influenced games,
however - and titles such as Gun.Smoke on the NES applied a familiar frontier theme
to the well-rehearsed scrolling shooter genre. One suitably-named swan song of the Western's
spike in popularity was the four-player run and gun action of Sunset Riders, in 1991. With some parallels to the 1985 film Silverado,
one of the characters on offer makes use of two revolvers simultaneously. This is perhaps to position the character
as a 'Billy the Kid' derivative: rash and impetuous through youth, but otherwise boasting
legendary gun skill. The neon-tinged 80s saw the displacement of
Westerns in favour of the blockbuster action film - and one man had influence outweighing
any other: John Woo. His brand of high-octane gunfight was fuelled
by acrobatic display, bottomless magazines - and flagrant use of guns akimbo. 'A Better Tomorrow' in 1985 was the first
outing of dual pistols in a John Woo film, but it certainly wasn't the last. 'Hard Boiled' in 1992 was his breakthrough
hit in the West - marking Woo's transition to Hollywood, and proving particularly influential
in other media. Chow Yun-fat features as Inspector Tequila
Yuen, an undercover cop who's not afraid to get his hands dirty - an anti-hero with a
total disregard for authority. It was around this time that the foundations
of the first person shooter genre were laid - iD's Wolfenstein 3D was released the same
year. With Doom's release in 1993, the now-familiar
format of gun-focussed gameplay with a first-person view had taken hold - and with the influence
of cinema, it wouldn't be long before we would see a game featuring Woo-esque gun-play. Typical - you wait ages for a first person
shooter featuring dual wielding, and then two come along at once. Bungie's Marathon and Apogee's Rise of the
Triad were both released on the 21st of December, 1994. Bungie are better known today for the Halo
series, and the forthcoming Destiny - but back in the day, they were champions of the
Macintosh platform - providing an answer to the IBM-compatible's Doom. Unlike the paper-thin storyline behind Doom,
Marathon was replete with lore - such attention to detail is something Bungie would build
much of their reputation on. The gameplay was no slouch, however - the
action was polished and as visceral as any competitor. Doom might have the edge in notability, but
perhaps only by grace of platform choice. 'Rise of the Triad' was released on the same
day as Marathon, and is perhaps more explicitly influenced by John Woo. Dual pistols feature much more prominently
- whilst you start the game with a single pistol, you need take only a few steps forward
to be bestowed with a second. Clearly this is not a game that takes itself
too seriously - between the ludicrous gibs, jump pads and magical weapons, Rise of the
Triad does much to establish an exaggerated nature, and within this scope Dual Wielding
feels relatively mild. The full version wouldn't see release until
February 1995 - but by grace of its initial Shareware release, both Rise of the Triad
and Marathon share the trophy for being the first FPS game to feature dual-wielded firearms. Marathon had an inevitable sequel in Marathon
2: Durandal in 1995 - a game which featured akimbo shotguns with flip-cocking action,
in a terrifying portent of what the future of the Call of Duty series held. The crypt-robbing Lara Croft's signature weapons
in 1996's Tomb Raider are a pairing of pistols perhaps picked for potency when facing off
against prehistoric peril - or perhaps just for the cool factor, otherwise to cover for
a lack of Lara's ability to aim. The shamefully underrated FPS, 'Blood' by
Monolith in 1997 featured 'Guns Akimbo' as a powerup, and would double the firepower
of almost any of the weapons on offer - even the rocket launcher. By 1998, Hardware accelerated graphics were
rapidly becoming the norm, and with a greater ability to push polygons came a surge in the
sheer number of First Person Shooter games released. Unreal Tournament was certainly one of the
better ones - an expansion on the original Unreal's multiplayer aspect, with an emphasis
on fast-paced and competitive action. The starting weapon was a tad feeble compared
most of the arsenal's offerings, but should you pick up two Enforcers your available firepower
was doubled. At the turn of the new millennium, John Woo's
influence had saturated the interactive art forms - but the march of special effects and
CGI opened the doors for a film with perhaps far greater impact: enter 'The Matrix'. The reality-bending effect of 'bullet time'
opened up the potential to illuminate the otherwise imperceptible - rippling bullet
trails amidst superhuman feat. In the wake of this, games employing similar
time-bending mechanics were inevitable - and perhaps the most notable was Remedy's neo-noir
Max Payne in 2001. The titular character is an undercover cop
stricken by the death of his family and the prime suspect of a murder he didn't commit:
a desperate man whose exoneration lies behind thousands of angry mobsters. Max faces insurmountable odds, surviving on
only copious amounts of painkillers while flinging himself into situations of reckless
self-endangerment. Serious Sam: The First Encounter is altogether
less serious in tone, despite what the title might indicate. Your starting revolver quickly finds a partner
during the first level, although these are quickly replaced as the level of firepower
required ramps up dramatically. The stylish Devil May Cry features demon hunter
Dante tackling the supernatural with aplomb, with the help of his two contrasting sidearms:
Ebony and Ivory. In a similar vein, cinema saw a stylish action
injection in 2002 with Equilibrium - where Christian Bale plays a dystopian cleric tasked
with removing errant emotion through perfectly choreographed 'Gun Kata'. The similarly cinematic Max Payne returned
in 2003, with the sequel adding some degree of polish, and documenting Max's ever-loosening
grasp on reality. The Fall of Max Payne was perhaps more than
subtext - it would be almost another decade until the third game would emerge. Bungie's highly anticipated follow-up to Halo:
Combat Evolved came in 2004, and saw the introduction of both Xbox LIVE multiplayer and new maps
and weapons - including the ability to dual wield. Given Master Chief's superhuman strength,
it seems fitting that he has the potential to use two of the smaller weapons at once,
although it does still carry an accuracy penalty, and denies the use of your grenades. Bungie were amongst the first to introduce
dual wielded weapons to the world of FPS: and in the decade between Marathon and Halo
2, the convention had firmly established itself. Once upon a time, the Call of Duty series
took historical accuracy seriously, with the World War 2 setting providing enough intrinsic
drama without the need to resort to theatrics. In 2005, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One was technically
the first in the series to add dual wielded pistols, although this was only within the
multiplayer component. Perhaps a sign that things had come full circle,
2007 saw the release of John Woo's Stranglehold - directly following the events of Hard Boiled,
and starring all of the acrobatic gunplay you would expect. Chow Yun-Fat reprises his role as Tequila,
and the game is an unabashed tribute to the choreographed shootouts that inspired so many
imitations. With the arrival of the current-gen consoles,
dual wielding had become commonplace - firmly cemented in culture after a decade of dual
depiction. Zombies are similarly cliché: and we saw
a meeting of the undead with the impractical in Valve's Left 4 Dead in 2008, where picking
up a second pistol effectively doubles your firepower against the oncoming horde. Inspired by Grindhouse-era cinema, 2009's
Wet took a Tarantino-esque approach to gunplay, blending dual pistols with a katana. The same year saw Dual Wielding return to
the Call of Duty series, with Modern Warfare 2 abandoning commitment to realism and instead
adopting an amped-up Hollywood tack. The power of the pre-patch dual Model 1887
shotguns is of legend, and you could equip two of every other pistol, machine pistol
or SMG - nobody was left wanting for firepower in this instalment. Not to be outdone, Bayonetta took dual wielding
to an unprecedented level - with the titular character firing four custom-made pistols
from each of her limbs: a superhuman feat beyond the ability of any mundane character. More recently, Max Payne 3 took the series'
signature gunplay to São Paulo - the Brazilian heat mirroring the intense firefights, only
tempered by brief stints of bullet-time. Gearbox's Borderlands 2 the same year introduced
the Gunzerker class - able to wield any two of the quadrillions of weapons on offer simultaneously. Counter-Strike has long had a token set of
dual pistols, and Global Offensive has the Dual Berettas available as a secondary option:
not a top-tier weapon, but handy enough in a close range firefight. Since Modern Warfare 2, Akimbo has been a
recurring feature in the the Call of Duty series: Black Ops's pistols equippable in
pairs, alongside the unusual HS-10 bullpup shotgun. Modern Warfare 3 had the infamous FMG-9s,
with such tremendous lead output trumping any form of precision shooting. From its origins in real life, where pulling
another pistol was far faster than a painfully slow reload, Dual Wielding made its way into
cinema through the Western genre. From there, it inspired emerging action films
tailored for a blockbuster audience - and directors like John Woo helped cement the
use of 'guns akimbo' into popular culture. With the emergence of the FPS genre at around
the same time, it didn't take long for doubled-up gunplay to become commonplace - and it has
been a familiar sight ever since. There's no doubting the fact that it looks
cool - and when paired with slow motion à la 'Bullet Time', the bilateral bad-assery
becomes quite palpable. While its effect might be muted through overuse,
there's still a certain satisfaction to be had by recklessly blasting two barrel's worth
of lead towards an opponent - a feat that's perhaps not superhuman, but certainly a spectacle. Thank you very much for watching - and until
next time, farewell.
