Assault rifle

"The 7.62x51mm assault rifle is designed for close-quarter combat, utilizing a shortened barrel and 'bullpup' design for increased maneuverability. An additional underhand 20mm HE launcher increases the rifle's effectiveness against a variety of targets."

- description of Assault Rifle

The ZHL-U1953 is a weapon in Deus Ex.

Background
The ZHL-U1953 is the standard assault rifle of many armies and paramilitary forces throughout the world. Even UNATCO, the premier anti-terrorist force, has adopted the assault rifle as its standard rifle.

Characteristics
The Assault Rifle fires in bursts of five 7.62mm bullets, 3 damage each, for a total of 15 damage per burst – barely above single shot from the Pistol (14 damage), and has a total damage per second of 30. The low damage value does not scale well at the Trained and Advanced skill levels because damage bonuses are rounded down to the nearest integer; the damage bonuses are supposed to be 20% and 50% for Trained and Advanced, respectively, but because of the rounding error, these percentages are actually 0% and 33%.

The Assault Rifle's alternate ammunition, 20mm HE, is a grenade that is especially useful if you do not have a GEP gun. Each round has a large explosive radius, so it is especially effective against groups of enemies and destructible objects. However, it is rare, and because the grenade's trajectory is parabolic, the user must aim up to launch it farther.

Recoil is very high at the Untrained skill level, with each burst causing the view to pitch up approximately 10°. The view pitches up approximately 5° at Trained, and 0° at Advanced and Master.

The Assault Rifle is prone to ammunition problems because of its low damage output per magazine. In addition, only 1 to 5 bullets are rewarded when searching the body of a character who was wielding an Assault Rifle. For these reasons, the Assault Rifle should generally be complemented with another rifle-type weapon such as a shotgun or the sniper rifle.

Locations

 * Liberty Island, killing or knocking out the UNATCO troop that appears after you find Leo Gold at the Statue of Liberty.
 * On the body of an MJ-12 soldier in the New York City sewers.
 * Hong Kong, used by the Chinese military police.
 * In various places after the capture by Gunther Hermann, used by the UNATCO and Majestic-12 troops.