I just finished Deus Ex.

[SwissMercenary]

Re: Pistols vs. Rifles

You're right, rifles outperform pistols in just about every way.  The only reasons I can think of for choosing pistols (other than a style choice, or for a "variant" type playthrough) would be the space savings (pistol + xbow = 2 spaces, sniper + assault = 8 spaces), and the early abundance of ammunition.  Heck, you can't even get an assault rifle/shotgun until Hell's Kitchen, and you probably wouldn't have enough 30.06, 7.62, or buckshot ammo to use them full-time until you get to the NSF airfeild anyway.

You can find an assault rifle off the UNATCO troop that walks up the stairs in the statue, when you get the terrorist leader to surrender. Just prod him in the back, and get a lovely comment from Manderley. Slap on some of the mods, and you are good to go.

You can get a sniper rifle off an NSF patrolling near the statue.

You can get a sawed-off shotgun in the sunken boat, before you even enter the statue. It's kinda like a guaranteed 1-headshot kill pistol, with a smaller clip.

The assault shotgun is a little bit more difficult - you have to tranquilise one of the MIBs that raid the apartment, or just wait untill the armoury. In any case, getting it before that is a waste. The assault shotgun is horrible untill you are Master Rifles.