Gun of the Year 2024: Helldivers 2's AC-8 Autocannon

Videogames produce a lot of guns every year. Most of them fly under the radar, fulfilling their roles as one of dozens of options on a loadout screen or meeting a quota of archetypes that we reckon shooters ought to have. It takes a lot for a gun to stand out in 2024. Most of them are boxy, grey quadrilaterals so invisible that we reduce them to their stats. When we single one out, it's usually because we're reprimanding it for being so good it makes all the other guns around it look bad. Truly remarkable guns require invention—a distinct take on something familiar, a perfect marriage of mechanical sophistication and fantastical capability, or maybe just a memorable sound, action, or reload.

In 2024, no videogame gun checked all those boxes better than the Helldivers 2 AC-8 Autocannon. I've gotten to know the Autocannon well these last 10 months. We've fought countless battles side-by-side, the reliable 'tuh-thonk' of its armor-piercing rounds sending bugs, bots, and squids to an early grave by the hundreds.

AC-8 Autocannon

An uncomplicated, yet simply genius design both for the game itself and the in-fiction Helldivers, the Autocannon is not the best gun of 2024 because it's the best gun, but because of its quirks, its learning curve, its imperfections. The Autocannon is an animal to be wrangled, and once you do, it's a rewarding workhorse of a gun. This gun deserves a medal—in fact, it deserves four medals.