Annabelle

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Annabelle
Production information
Type	Hunting rifle
Damage	40
Ammo	2
Max ammo	12
Ammo type	.357
Rate of fire	Low
Accuracy	Perfect
Range	Medium-Long (extremely long with HEV suit zoom)
Usage
Used by	Father Grigori
Game information
Entity	weapon_annabelle

 

Annabelle is the rifle used by Father Grigori in Ravenholm during Half-Life 2. It is extremely accurate and powerful, being able to one shot most enemies from far range.

Overview

The Annabelle's characteristics and capabilities bear a resemblance to not one, but two kinds of firearms: a lever-action rifle and an over-and-under shotgun. The lever-action and the fact that the weapon uses .357 Magnum ammunition suggest it to be a rifle. However, the Annabelle acts much like a double-barrel shotgun, as it isn't cocked between shots and it can only hold two rounds. This may be due to Valve simply not wanting to take the time to produce a custom animation, and figuring the dark setting it is used in would make this omission unnoticeable. Real-life lever action rifles can be operated very rapidly, and this would thus be a barely visible operation even if it were included. Indeed, Grigori's brief pause between shots does suggest operation of the lever, and would be more than sufficient time to cycle an actual lever gun. More than likely the low magazine capacity was simply Valve's means of balancing Father Grigori so he would not appear too powerful. The .357 Magnum and Annabelle are very even in terms of accuracy but the Annabelle outperforms it over an extremely long distance: The revolver has a very strong recoil and the scope tends to drift a lot, unlike the Annabelle which does not have recoil so the sight stays in the same place. Another thing is that the revolver is not so accurate at long distances and tends to miss a few shots before wounding or killing the target. The Annabelle does not have this problem.

Tactics

Father Grigori is the only NPC that uses the Annabelle, and it is his signature weapon. In combat, Grigori wields the weapon with great skill and accuracy, and he usually manages to hit Zombies in the head for an instant kill.

The Annabelle can only house two rounds at a time (as mentioned above), so Grigori has to reload frequently. While at first this isn't a problem when he spends his time on the rooftops of buildings, this can become a problem when facing a large number of Zombies up close. Therefore, try not to leave Grigori to kill all the Zombies himself, he'll most likely become overwhelmed.

Obtaining Annabelle

Freeman is not intended to use the Annabelle, but the weapon can be spawned in the console or picked up briefly if Grigori dies. There is no viewmodel for the weapon, so it takes the form of the player's pump-action shotgun (although there is a mod on PC that gives it a "proper" viewmodel). It should be noted that the Annabelle fires a single bullet rather than shotgun shells, as the Annabelle is loaded with .357 rounds and does identical damage to the .357 Magnum.

• Annabelle can be wielded by typing "give weapon_annabelle" in the console.
• The player can pick up the Annabelle if Father Grigori is killed, but can only use it briefly as the screen fades to black when the game ends.
  • This does not apply if he is killed after you go through the gate, since he is deemed he is no longer mission-critical.
    • Killing Father Grigori can be done in multiple ways. One is to keep the gate open via putting props in the way of it, like a stack of cinder blocks or a radiator. If punted with the Gravity Gun the prop(s) will briefly fight with the gate and build up a huge amount of velocity in the process. (though it will lose the velocity after a few seconds) If a living thing like Father Grigori or the player touches the prop(s) in this state, they will be instantly killed. A notable problem with this method is that it is quite precise and usually requires the gate to still be wedged open by the prop(s) for the Gravity Gun to be able to pull in Annabelle.
      • Another easier, albeit more luck based way to kill Father Grigori is by stacking explosive barrels around the gas canisters by the are where Grigori holds the gate. A part of the scripted sequence engulfs the area near them in flames causing the explosive barrels to explode, and will hopefully kill Grigori and launch Annabelle close enough to grab. The caveat with this strategy is that it might take a while to get the luck needed for the explosives to launch Annabelle in the right direction. To remedy this wedging the gate open with props is a good option, as it allows you to be able to grab Annabelle with the Gravity Gun easier, and with some props (like a stack of cinder blocks) you're able to fit through the wedged open gate to find Annabelle by going back into the graveyard, though it is easy for Annabelle to get tossed into the fire making it much harder to find.
• To obtain Annabelle earlier at the point where Father Grigori is about to give Gordon the Shotgun on the roof of a building, run towards the edge of the roof while sprinting, fire a grenade from the Submachine Gun at the ground whilst jumping (grenade jump) and hit the bottom of the catwalk that Father Grigori is standing on. Annabelle is lying inside on the wall.
• After the player gets Annabelle, the Pulse Rifle can be equipped only using slot key - scrolling through entire inventory will give no result.
• The tactic to use this weapon is very similar to that of the revolver, if the player picks it up, he can use this weapon as a sniper rifle at long distances with the zoom of the HEV suit, these tactics can be used in two ways: by pressing the button. primordial fire while pressing the zoom button then when you have a target the zoom button is released so that the weapon is fired

Behind the scenes

The Annabelle is a Winchester Model 1886, a part of a series of rifles popular in Western film and TV series. The texture on the model was taken from a photo of an antique firearms sale listing dated to August 5, 2002. Winchester 1886s are available in a number of chamberings, but this does not include .357 Magnum. Actual Winchester 1886 have a 7-8-9 round tubular magazine. In-game, the Annabelle's double-barrel rifle design was likely implemented for game balance.

Trivia

• On the PC version of Half-Life 2, Annabelle uses the same slot as the Pulse Rifle. Wielding Annabelle creates a few minor weapon selection glitches after obtaining the Pulse Rifle. After obtaining the Pulse Rifle, the player cannot select it through mouse scrolling through the weapons selection. Annabelle appears instead and is selected when clicked. The Pulse Rifle can, however, still be selected by pressing the rifle hotkey, 3 by default, twice on the keyboard (If you have fast weapon switch on you will not need to left-click).
  • If the Pulse Rifle is obtained before Annabelle via the use of cheats, the opposite will occur, with the Pulse Rifle being normally selectable and Annabelle only being selectable via the Pulse Rifle's hotkey.
  • In the Xbox version the Annabelle takes the empty slot below the Gravity Gun with a "shotgun" label permanently above the image. When selected, the outline lights up differently from the other weapons in the menu.
  • In the Xbox 360 version, the weapon is unselectable once any other weapon is drawn, as there is no icon for it in the weapon select menu.

• If the player has enough .357 ammunition and has the Annabelle wielded, they can hold both the "reload" button and "primary fire" button to fire the Annabelle at an automatic rate.
• Grigori does not pull the lever beneath the trigger down after each shot to put the second bullet into the chamber, he just pauses after each shot, and then fires again.
• Shooting to the body does not deal much damage, unless trying to shoot non-combat characters, like Breen or Dr. Kleiner. However they will only die if you do a headshot on them.
• Reloading with the Annabelle results in the console saying "ERROR: Shotgun reload called incorrectly!".
• If the Annabelle is used by Grigori and other NPC's (through the console command), it deals 30 damage per bullet (90 if headshot). However NPC's will only shoot when the enemy is at close range.
• In the PC version of Episode One and Episode Two, Annabelle is in the sixth weapon slot, although the HUD icon and the weapon name is not shown.
• When picking up the Annabelle's ammo in Episode Two, the HUD icon will read 2 .357 bullet for Colt Python instead.
• If the player picks up the .357 ammo box without the Colt Python, the leak HUD icon for the shotgun shell will appear.

Gallery

• 

  Father Grigori holding Annabelle.

• 

  Ditto, leak version.

• 

  Annabelle's HUD icon in the day one build of Half-Life 2.[Citation needed]

List of appearances

• Half-Life 2