Flare Gun

The Flare Gun is a weapon used by Metrocops, Overwatch Soldiers and Nova Prospekt Prison Guards in Half-Life 2.

Overview

 * Sometime after Gordon 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.


 * In Half-Life 2: Episode One, disposable flares are introduced. They can be used with the Gravity Gun, mocking the operation of the flare gun.

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 weapon was originally to be used by the player, 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 to be found on the Borealis and Kraken Base.


 * 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 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.

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.


 * The flare gun is available in the mod Missing Information, at the start of the Borealis chapter.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2