Crowbar

"I think you dropped this back in Black Mesa!"

- Barney Calhoun

The Crowbar is the signature weapon of Gordon Freeman in the Half-Life series. It is the first weapon acquired by Freeman in Half-Life, serving as a melee weapon and a tool for puzzles. The crowbar is also used as a tool for breaking open supply crates and clearing destructible obstacles in the world. The crowbar is widely considered the iconic weapon of the Half-Life universe, perhaps almost as famous for being referred to Half-Life as Gordon Freeman.

Overview
The crowbar is generally more useful as a tool than a weapon. It is ideal for clearing obstructions, smashing objects, knocking padlocks off gates, etc. In combat, the crowbar is very effective against Headcrabs and Manhacks, and is effective against standard zombies. The crowbar is also a handy backup weapon if an enemy gets too close, especially for those low on ammunition; a few hits with a crowbar will kill small targets.

In the original Half-Life and its expansions, the crowbar is relatively useless as a weapon. It does a small amount of damage and has too short of a range to be of any use against any strong enemies. However, it's deadly against headcrabs, houndeyes and zombies. The best way to use it against anything other than a houndeye or an alien grunt is to rush in, hit it a few times and dodge its melee. With alien grunts, soldiers wearing helmets and security guards, however, the crowbar will bounce off their helmets or armor and do little or no damage. In this case the player should aim for the torso (with alien grunts, aim for the abdomen) and circle them so they cannot hit him. Also, with houndeyes the player will find it very difficult to dodge their attacks, so it is best to hit each one once while it charges its attack to interrupt it and kill them one at a time.

In Half-Life 2, Crowbars take 5 hits to take out standard zombies and Combine Soldiers, 1 hit to take out all headcrabs and 2 to take out a manhack (however the first strike will cause it to fly away, leaving more time for another hit). The crowbar is most effective against fewer enemies since it is quite easy to get overwhelmed, especially at short range. It can be used to kill headcrabs in mid air before they hit - very effective as long as they do not attack simultaneously. Headcrabs can also be rushed since they take a long time to turn around after a jump, allowing for a quick and easy killing. The crowbar is not recommended against many manhacks, but can defeat small numbers quite easily without the player taking damage. Zombies are easier to defeat due to their slow attacking speed, which enables easy dodging. However, usage against poison zombies is only recommended if a few other enemies are nearby and the extra poison headcrabs on its back have been accounted for. Usage against fast zombies isn't recommended due to their incredible speed. Furthermore, when ambushing or rushing a Combine Soldier, the player will receive minimum damage by using a crowbar (if at shorter range) - the Combine units will fire once and attempt to hit the player, but if they attack as fast as possible, he will be dead by the time he does this.

When using the crowbar it can be seen that unlike other weapons, the players crosshair need not be directly on the enemy (most obvious when against headcrabs) - this is somewhat like melee weapons in Team Fortress 2, in which the enemy must only be in the players' line of sight to hit. This applies to all usages of the crowbar (e.g. breaking). In Garry's Mod, we can see (when slowed down) that the jumping headcrab actually moves into the crosshair when hit, even if it attacks from the side. This is done to balance out the melee usage of the crowbar and ranged weapons and helps to make the crowbar easier to use.

It should be noted that the Gravity Gun tends to supplant the Crowbar in Half-Life 2 as it is more versatile; it is quite effective at obliterating obstructions more quickly and for hurling heavy environment objects like furniture over short ranges for large amounts of impact damage (see Ravenholm). It should also be noted that the Gravity Gun is able to kill headcrabs using three primary fire blasts, providing yet another reason not to use the crowbar as the standard tool.

Half-Life
The first crowbar encountered is in the tutorial level Hazard Course, where the player is taught how to use the Crowbar. The crowbar used in the majority of the game is acquired in the third chapter Unforeseen Consequences and is used to break some nearby glass doors. After Gordon is captured in chapter Apprehension and is relieved of all of his weapons, another crowbar is found at the top of the trash compactor. It is notable that crowbars can also be found in various areas of Black Mesa beyond Unforeseen Consequences, such as in a tool room just above the freight lift at the beginning of Blast Pit.

Half-Life: Uplink
The crowbar in Uplink is found in a maintenance room near the start of the game, sitting on a table near a toolbox. It is also a single room away from the first guns available. Strangely, a soda machine is in the room for no apparent reason other than to be destroyed.

Blue Shift
The crowbar in Blue Shift is first found in the second chapter, Duty Calls, right outside the elevator the player starts in. It is used there to smash through the dozens of cardboard boxes in the room. After that, the crowbar is never found again. It is seen at the very end, though, where one scientist is using a crowbar to open a gate. This is also the only scene where the crowbar is actually used for its intended purpose and the only scene where a scientist who isn't the player uses it.

Half-Life 2


The Crowbar is the first weapon acquired in the game in the chapter "A Red Letter Day". Before Barney Calhoun gives the player the Crowbar, Barney remarks, "Before I forget, I think you dropped this back in Black Mesa." This suggests that he found the missing crowbar from Gordon Freeman. Barney most likely found the original crowbar in the ending video of Blue Shift, which features Barney being teleported into a small maintenance shed with a window grate showing Freeman being dragged there by two U.S. Marines. This would also possibly indicate that the crowbar could have fallen through as the scientist was stripped of his weapons in the original game. The crowbar is eventually destroyed however, by the "weapon confiscation field" in the Citadel.

Episode One
The crowbar is provided in the fourth chapter Urban Flight, when the player encounters Barney Calhoun in an apartment building. He gives Gordon a crowbar wedged in a bridge control, remarking, jokingly, that he "doesn't have many of these left".

Episode Two
It is found in the first chapter, To The White Forest, in an elevator shaft inside an abandoned mining complex. The crowbar is found wedged in an elevator's controls. Prying it loose will yield the crowbar, but will send the elevator crashing down into an Antlion nest, separating the player from the Vortigaunt.

Other Valve games
The Crowbar also appears in Team Fortress Classic and Deathmatch Classic. In TFC, it is the standard melee weapon for classes that do not have a special melee weapon. In DMC, it is the only melee weapon in the game and the player spawns with it and a Shotgun. In both cases, the Crowbar is a Half-Life themed replacement for the Axe, which is the standard melee weapon in the original Team Fortress and Quake 1.

The Crowbar was supposed to be in Team Fortress 2, but was cut when it was decided that each class would have their own unique melee weapons.

The Crowbar will appear in Left 4 Dead 2 as a melee weapon.

Trivia

 * As its status as being one of the most iconic weapons in gaming, multiple references are made to Half-Life by subtle use of crowbars in games.
 * In Halo 3, a crowbar can be found lying around on the multiplayer map Sandtrap that bears a striking similarity to Gordon's crowbar. Sandtraps is also the name of Half-Life 2's eighth chapter.
 * In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a crowbar similar to Gordon's can be seen lying on a table inside the Area 69 government facility.
 * When the player receives the crowbar in The Orange Box on the Xbox 360, they get an achievement.
 * One of the weapons available in The Ship is a crowbar, with the description "to be used by a free man," an obvious reference to Gordon Freeman.
 * In the flash game series Sonny, a crowbar can be used as a weapon. In Sonny 1, the weapon's description is "More than just a weapon, it's the symbol of a hero." which is an obvious reference to Half-life 2.  In Sonny 2, the description reads, "The weapon of free men" as a nod to Gordon Freeman.
 * In the game Deus Ex, a crowbar is the first weapon picked up by the player, and is considered the one of the most useful melee weapons in the game. It looks almost identical to the Half-Life crowbar, but is shorter and has a painted straight end.
 * In Half-Life 2, if the player is killed near a Resistance member while using the crowbar they may pick up and use it themselves. This is possible on the levels that have Resistance members following Freeman.
 * Oddly, all six of Gordon's crowbars (counting the one from Residue Processing) are the same color.
 * In the game BioShock, Atlas asks the player to look for "A crowbar or something"; instead, the player finds a wrench, which is similar to the Pipe Wrench which is the first weapon Adrian Shephard finds.
 * In the Half-Life 2 game files, the sound is named "iceaxe_swing1.wav". This is because it replaced the Ice Axe early on and both had the same sound files.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two

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