Shotgun (Half-Life)

Semi-Automatic Assault Shotgun
Production information
Faction	Hazardous Environment Combat Unit Black Mesa
Type	Pump-action shotgun
Technical specifications
Damage	5/pellet 6 pellets per single barrel shot, 30 max 12 pellets per double barrel shot, 60 max 20/pellet (HLDM) 4 pellets per single barrel shot, 80 max 8 pellets per double barrel shot, 160 max
Ammo	8
Max ammo	125
Weapon category	3: Machine and Shotguns
Ammo type	12-gauge buckshot shells
Operation	Pump-action
Rate of fire	Slow
Accuracy	Poor
Range	Short to medium, effectiveness decreases with distance
Usage
Used by	Gordon Freeman Adrian Shephard Barney Calhoun Gina Cross Colette Green HECU soldiers Unnamed scientist
Game information
Entity	weapon_shotgun
Designer(s)	Steve Theodore (HL) Stephen Bahl (HD)

 

The Semi-Automatic Assault Shotgun is a powerful pump-action shotgun that fires buckshot in a cone-shaped pattern. Primarily used by the HECU, it is used by all playable characters from the Half-Life games' story arc.

Overview

Gordon and his shotgun.

• The shotgun has two fire modes. The first fire mode fires six pellets with a medium-sized spread, uses one shell and has a small delay between shots, while the alternate fire mode fires twelve pellets in a larger, more loose spread and uses two shells, but has a longer delay between shots.

• The shotgun is reloaded one shell at a time. The reloading process can be interrupted at anytime by pressing the fire key.

• The weapon is commonly used by the HECU, who often have one or two soldiers armed with shotguns mixed with ones wielding Submachine Guns.

• In Half-Life, the shotgun is first acquired in the game's fourth chapter, Office Complex, at the end of a hallway. If not found there, it can be found scattered throughout the rest of the chapter.

• After Gordon is captured and his weapons are confiscated, the shotgun can be obtained by killing a shotgun wielding HECU soldier at the start of the chapter Questionable Ethics.

Tactics

• The shotgun's primary fire is very effective against weak enemies, such as Headcrabs, Zombies, and Vortigaunts. However, the primary fire mode falters against stronger enemies, such as the Bullsquid, because of the low damage output and the small delay between shots.

• The shotgun's alternate fire is one of the most powerful attacks the player can use. In Normal mode, it can kill any enemy up to an HECU soldier in one hit, as long as around six pellets connect. The alternate fire also does heavy damage against the Alien Grunt, but the long delay between shots makes the player very vulnerable to counterattacks, especially while being close to the enemy.

• The only enemy that the shotgun does poorly against is the Alien Controller. At the various ranges the Alien Controller can be at, most of the shotgun's pellets will miss the creature due to its spread, no matter what firing mode is used.

• The shotgun ammo being very common, it is unlikely to run out of ammo for it throughout the game.

• Reloading must be made as often as possible, as an empty shotgun magazine takes much longer to reload than other weapons.

• In deathmatch gameplay, one shot only fires two-thirds pellets, but each pellet causes four times as much damage.

Behind the scenes

Early footage and screenshots shows that the shotgun had different textures and models. One of the early textures for v_model consists of dark grey slide action sleeve, a longer grey handguard with a single rectangular groove above, a silver barrel and a silver receiver. The other version of the v_model was identical to the final version, but with a different color scheme consists of a brown sleeve, a supposedly grey receiver texture being integrated into the back of the handguard and a black barrel. The early w_model consists of a longer handguard with a texture featured five big rectangular vented holes and a brown/silver color scheme. All traces of the old textures were removed except for the shotgun used by the scientist at Sector F's Level A, known as the "scigun", which still uses the early model and texture for the animation sequence. And the model is still use as the p_model in the final version with a different, final version style color scheme, the five rectangular vented holes can still be seen vaguely above the handguard.

Trivia

• The Team Fortress Classic Double-Barrel Shotgun uses the shotgun's model.

• The shotgun, along with its Half-Life 2 counterpart, is inspired by the real-world SPAS-12 by Franchi. The weapon icon in the HUD depicts a different model of shotgun, inspired by the Ithaca 37. The Half-Life High Definition Pack remedies this by replacing the icon and making it look like a real SPAS-12.

• Although the shotgun can switch between pump-action and semi-automatic modes, only the player uses the pump-action, while the HECU uses the semi-automatic. It is impossible to switch modes in-game. Moreover, in the Half-Life: Source, soldiers can fire their shotgun much faster than they did in the GoldSrc version of Half-Life, along with their Submachine Gun. However, to compensate for this, the shotgun deals sightly less damage. In Half-Life, two close range shots are powerful enough to kill a Security Guard, while in the Source version, four shots are required to kill them.

• In Half-Life: Source, it possible to skip the pumping animation and increase the rate of fire by quickly pressing the quick switch key after each shot.

• When the shotgun is used by HECU, they will reload all shells at once instead of putting one shell in at a time.

Gallery

Pre-release

• 

  Early model in an early Half-Life screenshot.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Early shell box model.

• 

  Early multiplayer characters with early shotgun and RPG in an early version the deathmatch map "Subtransit".

• 

  Early worldmodel.

• 

  One of the early viewmodels.

• 

  Ditto, in-game.

• 

  Ditto

Retail

• 

  HUD icon.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Worldmodel.

• 

  Opposing Force and Blue Shift versions.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Half-Life viewmodel.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Opposing Force viewmodel.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Blue Shift viewmodel.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Shell box model.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Unused shell worldmodel.

• 

  Shell worldmodel used when firing.

• 

  High Definition version.

• 

  Gordon holding his shotgun.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  The shotgun as first seen in Half-Life.

• 

  In a maintenance area.

• 

  The shotgun scientist and a security guard before seeing Gordon, mirrored in Half-Life 2.

• 

  Shotguns seen stored in the shooting range while Barney Calhoun is being given his gun.

• 

  Shotgun wielding HECU soldier.

List of appearances

Main games

• Half-Life
• Half-Life: Opposing Force
• Half-Life: Blue Shift
• Half-Life: Decay

Other

• Half-Life: Day One (First appearance)
• Half-Life: Uplink (Non-canonical appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

See also

• Shotgun (Half-Life 2)
• Shotgun (Half-Life: Alyx)

References

Combine OverWiki has more images related to Shotgun (Half-Life).