SPAS 12

The SPAS-12 shotgun deals ample amounts of damage over short distances. This weapon has incredible stopping power at close range, and is fairly effective at medium range against medium-sized targets.

Description

Half-Life 2's shotgun is modeled after the Franchi SPAS-12 combat shotgun, tactical black no-stock version. The gun has a whopping 22in. (564mm) barrel length and weighs under 10lbs (4.4kg). The gun uses hefty 12 gauge rounds to put down all but the biggest creatures in the Half-Life universe. It was used by HECU and the Overwatch.

Use

A close quarters weapon, the SPAS-12 fires a spread of lead pellets that cover a range in front of the wielder. Because the pellets will eventually spread out after leaving the barrel, the shotgun is best used when the enemy is directly in front of the player and at close range. This will ensure that most of the pellets will strike the enemy before they spread out, dealing the maximum possible damage. Using the shotgun's double-barrel secondary fire at close range is devastating.

Trivia

• As with certain other weapons in Half-Life 2, liberties have been taken with the number of rounds carried. The Half-Life 2 SPAS-12 carries six rounds, while the real life Franchi SPAS-12 shotguns come in five-round and eight-round variants. This could be an eight-round version loaded with slightly longer (and more powerful) shells.

• Though the gun has a secondary fire mode that shoots two shells at once, the SPAS-12 is not a double-barreled shotgun. Therefore it's likely that the double-blast simply fires two rounds in quick succession from the one barrel. However, using the secondary fire in-game only causes one shell casing to eject from the weapon, but this is likely an oversight by Valve.

• It should be noted that the real SPAS-12 has two firing modes, automatic and pump-action; Gordon uses only the pump-action mode in-game.