No first person shooter is complete without a large arsenal of weapons to bloody the walls with. You'll notice some old favourites reappearing as well as some interesting new ones.

Melee Weapons

 

		Crowbar First Seen: Chapter Two, A Red Letter Day The best melee weapon of all time, ever. This old favourite is back for a second time. Used primarily for smashing open crates and whacking Zombies, this typical crowbar is likely to do more damage to a Headcrab or Zombie than a pistol or sub-machine gun would. It's damn satisfying to use too, probably even more so on humans, if you're that kind of sadistic person. We definitely are.
		Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator First Seen: Chapter Five, Black Mesa East Definitely not a conventional weapon. The Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator or 'gravity gun', acts as a tractor beam of sorts, picking up objects and then it can propel them away with great force, effectively turning everyday objects into ammunition. Loads of fun is to be had with this particular device. And why limit it just to swatting enemies? Use it to smash open crates if you can't get to your crowbar, or use it to move obstacles out of your path. In the later stages of the game you will receive an upgraded version of this weapon.
Hand Guns
		USP Match First Seen: Chapter Three, Route Kanal The USP Match is a standard 9mm handgun which holds 18 rounds. You'll probably abandon the use of this gun towards the middle of the game as there are others that are more effective. The handgun is useful however to kill Headcrabs in a couple of shots and is effective against most human enemies, providing there isn't too many. The gun has a semi-automatic operation meaning it will fire off rounds almost as quick as you can click your mouse. Put this one away if you're fighting something like a Strider, it won't do any good.
		.357 Magnum First Seen: Chapter Four, Water Hazard This is the second handgun to be found in the game and is the punchier of the pair. While it only has a six round capacity, those are 6 of the deadliest rounds you're likely to fire against humanoid or alien targets. Couple that with the deadly accuracy that this hand cannon is capable of, and you get a very effective weapon. It won't fire as fast as the USP Match, but the stopping power behind it more than compensates. Will likely kill human opponents in a shot or two and most alien targets like the Zombies in a single shot to the head.
Sub-Machine Guns
		H&K MP-7 PDW (Personal Defence Weapon) First Seen: Chapter Three, Route Kanal One of a new range of Personal Defence Weapons from Heckler & Koch, the MP-7 PDW is designed to offer armour piercing capabilities within the size of a sub-machine gun. It has a 45 round magazine, so it will be your main weapon when faced with multiple targets. In terms of stopping power, the .357 is much more powerful, but with a really fast rate of fire and a built in grenade launcher, this is going to be one of the weapons you use most throughout the game.
		Overwatch Rifle First Seen: Chapter Six, "We don't go to Ravenholm…" This is an interesting weapon as it is the standard issue for the Combine Overwatch. It operates like a plasma rifle with two modes. First a fully automatic mode which shoots plasma rounds but the secondary mode fires a giant plasma round that vaporises anything it touches. While it doesn't hold as many rounds as the SMG and doesn't fire as fast, it does seem to be more powerful. Use the ammo sparingly, you can only carry up to three of the secondary fire rounds and 90 normal plasma rounds.
Shotguns
		SPAS-12 First Seen: Chapter Six, "We don't go to Ravenholm…" A pump action shotgun that holds 6 rounds. It is a popular weapon amongst police and special forces because of it's stopping power. It will make light work of lightly armoured foes in close quarters, but it wont be much use at range or against heavily armoured targets. If a single shot isn't enough for you, you can use the secondary fire mode of the weapon which shoots off two rounds at a time, utilising the second barrel. Though the double barrel mode won't help much more at long range, it's perfect for a nice huddle of enemies at short to medium range.
Explosive Weapons
		HE Grenade First Seen: Chapter Three, Route Kanal A standard High Explosive grenade. Pull pin, throw, listen for screams and watch the bodies fly over your head. Easy - and fun too. From what we've seen so far, it can be thrown over-arm (as normal) or rolled underarm. Like any grenade, you should watch where you're throwing this as if it lands too close to an ally or even to yourself, if you are that much of a bad thrower, you will do a lot of damage.
		RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) First Seen: Chapter Seven, Highway 17 Another old favourite returns. It's laser guided, highly dangerous and your best bet against airborne targets such as helicopters or the Combine Gunship. The laser on it makes targeting airborne enemies a synch, as the rocket will attempt to fly to wherever the laser is pointed at the time. It isn't advised that you use this weapon indoors as this would usually catch you in the explosion of the rocket. Ever so much fun though.
Other Weapons
		Alien Pheromones First Seen: Chapter Eight, Sandtraps Used to attract Antlion aliens. As long as you have these in your inventory the Antlions will not attack you. The pheromones make the Antlions think that you're their commander and therefore will run to wherever you throw one of these balls. Throw a ball of them towards an enemy soldier and watch the feeding frenzy as the Antlions take it as your command to attack. Alternatively, your secondary fire with this weapon will call the Antlions back to you with one simple squeeze of the ball! Be sure not to piss the mother off though, she doesn't like anyone near her babies…
		Crossbow First Seen: Chapter Seven, Highway 17 The old crossbow from the original Half-Life is back in all it's glory complete with sniper scope. A rather pleasant addition to the game now physics has been introduced, is that the bolts from the crossbow will now impale your target to the closest surface. This is the kind of thing you would have seen in Painkiller. It looked amazing in that game and we're sure it will look better in Half-Life 2. The crossbow has a fantastic long range and it's incredibly powerful. Use the bolts sparingly however as you can only hold up to 10 and they're few and far between.
Mounted Weapons and Turrets
		Combine Turret First Seen: Chapter Three, Route Kanal These are very handy. Imagine the scene: you're walking through an intense battle, ammo is low and there's plenty of Combine Soldiers to go around. What's better than one of their very own turret placements? This weapon acts a lot like the Overwatch rifle except it fires much faster and conveniently always seems to have an infinite supply of rounds. These are great for keeping back the Combine when there's a lot of them and only one of you! Keep an eye on your back though, the turret only turns so far in either direction so you're open to attack from the rear.
		Gauss Cannon First Seen: Chapter Seven, Highway 17 The experimental energy weapon from the first game has left the prototype stages and is as powerful as ever. The version you see in the screenshot here is mounted on a dune buggy, providing instant death at high speeds. Unfortunately this weapon is now only available on the side of the buggy but I'm sure we'll quickly learn that any Gauss Cannon is better than no Gauss Cannon! Primary fire releases an energy burst. Secondary fire lets you charge the weapon up for you to give that all important extra power to your shot.
		Air Boat Plasma Rifle First Seen: Chapter Four, Water Hazard For most of your time on the canals in your airboat you won't have any form of artillery. Until of course you meet some friendly resistance members who upgrade your airboat with a nice plasma rifle. The plasma rifle is similar to most combine weapons and this one has infinite ammo. Only thing is it overheats quickly so there'll be times when you'll be waiting for it to charge back up. This has a great rate of fire though so it'll easily mow down any thing in your path, taking down human and alien enemies in a short blast.