Flare Gun

The Flare Gun is a weapon used by Metrocops, Overwatch Soldiers and Nova Prospekt Prison Guards in Half-Life 2. Apart from the flare itself, it has no model.

Overview

 * Sometime after Freeman has left Kleiner's Lab, a Metrocop fires a flare in the Canals to summons his colleagues. Another Metrocop fires one when Freeman assaults a power generator during the City 17 uprising.


 * Overwatch Soldiers shoot flares along the Coast to summon a Gunship and to light cell block D8 in Nova Prospekt after turning off the lights.

Behind the scenes

 * Each time a flare is shot, the shooter is invariably out of the player's reach to prevent them from seeing any flare gun. When looking closely, it appears that no flare gun model is used, nor is in the game files (the Metrocop in the Canals for instance merely uses its standard pistol).


 * The weapon was originally to be used by the player to ignite targets, and can be found and used in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta. When shot, the flare sticks to the player when approached and can damage their health. It was likely to be found only in the Arctic levels, and at least on the Borealis and in Kraken Base, always stored in "pyrotechnic lockers". Disposable emergency flares were also originally to appear in Half-Life, and were finally introduced in Episode One.


 * Probably due to general ineffectiveness and redundancy as a weapon, its use by the player was apparently cut early in the game's development process.


 * The Beta flare gun handle was originally to be red, and be used by a female NPC, as evidenced by textures files found in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta texture files for the flare gun. This probably refers to a very early version of Alyx, the "I.A. Latham" concept, although the arm texture appears in the orientation of a player texture.


 * Also cut from Half-Life 2, the Incendiary Rifle was essentially to work as a multishot flare gun.

Trivia

 * In the Half-Life 2 files, several texture files for HUD weapon icons can be found, most of which still containing the icons for almost all of the cut weapons. The flare gun is among them.


 * The flare gun concept was reused in Team Fortress 2 as an unlockable weapon for the Pyro, used to ignite enemies from long range.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2