Weapons cut from Half-Life 2

Throughout the development of Half-Life 2, its arsenal of weaponry varied considerably, and it contained several different/additional weapons when the game was first made public, weapons that were later cut before the final release.

It has been suggested that the bulk of the weapons were cut due to the fact that they were too similar to one another, as the AK-47 served a very similar role to the SMG2, and the OICW the same to the SMG1, and that it would not be very believable to hold more than 25 weapons.

Players could originally use small objects, such as bottles, as weapons by throwing them at the enemy. This was likely cut with the introduction of the Gravity Gun. Its entity name, weapon_brickbat, can still be found in Hammer, although it is an invalid entity.

Most, if not all of these weapons were usable in Half-Life 2 Beta, and are playable in the Missing Information dead mod.

=List of cut weapons=



AK-47
Type: Assault rifle Ammo: 7,62x39mm M43 Magazine: 30 rounds Rate of Fire: 650 rpm Accuracy: Moderate Range: Medium The AK-47 is a simple, but effective Russian-designed assault rifle, designed during the mid-1940s by Mikhail Kalashnikov and adopted as the Soviet Army's standard rifle in 1949. It is inexpensive to mass produce, and easy to clean and maintain. Its ruggedness and reliability are legendary. The large gas piston, generous clearances between moving parts, and tapered cartridge case design allow the gun to endure large amounts of foreign matter and fouling without failing to cycle. This reliability comes at the cost of some accuracy, however, as the looser tolerances do not allow the precision and consistency that are required of more accurate firearms. The AK-47 is chambered for 7.62x39mm rounds and uses 30 round magazines. AK-47 was originally intended to be the weapon of choice for the Resistance, but it was cut due to gameplay and balance reasons Trivia
 * In early HL2 release versions AK-47 could be spawned via the console upon typing "give weapon_ar1"



Combine Guard Gun
Type: Hand-held warp-cannon Ammo: Dark energy plasma (?) Range: Long Intended to be a weapon used by Combine Guards and then to be aquired by player. It resmbles the warp-cannon of a Strider but scaled down to be carried by human-sized units. It was a heavy weapon for use against buildings and heavily armoured vehicles. Dropped along with Combine Guard concept, although its sound was re-used for Portal.

Interestingly enough. Gordon holds the Combine Guard Gun similar to Duke Nukem holding the RPG in Duke Nukem 3d. As well the Combine Guard Gun functions very similar to the BFG from the Doom series



Fire extinguisher
Type: not a weapon. Ammo: powder. Range:short The fire extinguisher was used to extinguish fire that could stand in the way of the player and help him progress into the level. It was useful in the Borealis.



Flare gun
Type: Pistol Ammo: Flares Magazine capacity: 1 Range: Short A flare gun is a gun that shoots flares. They are typically used as a distress signal as well as other signaling purposes at sea and between aircraft and people on the ground. The most common type of flare gun is a Very pistol (often misspelled as Verey pistol), which was named after Edward Wilson Very (1847–1910), an American naval officer who developed and popularized a single-shot breech-loading snub-nosed pistol that fired flares. Modern varieties are frequently made out of brightly-colored, durable plastic. Though not supposed to act like weapon, flare gun's flare is extremely hot and could cause 2nd-3rd dergee burns upon contact with skin, or even sometimes set one's clothing on fire, which could result in target's death. The weapon was to be found on the Borealis. Due to general ineffectiveness when used as weapon it was cut out of HL2 on early development. The gun still exists in Half-Life 2 but cannot be accquired, this is evidenced by Overwatch soldiers on the Coast using one to summon a gunship, to light an area after deactivating the ceiling lights during the Entanglement chapter and a Civil Protection officer firing one when the player assaults a power generator during the rebellion.

Trivia
 * In Half-Life 2: Episode One disposable flares were introduced, that Gordon Freeman could use with his Gravity Gun, mocking the operation of the flare gun.



H&K MP5K
Type: Submachine gun Ammo: 9mm Para Magazine: 30 rounds Range: Short H&K MP5K is a compact version of German-designed SMG, the H&K MP5, with a shorter barrel making it even more maneuverable and more easily concealed. The MP5K was apparently set to be HL2's primary SMG, and at some point during the development the MP5K and it's replacement, the H&K MP7, existed side-by-side, but in the end it was cut in favour of the more modern MP7.



Hopwire grenade
Type: Tripmine (?) Ammo: Explosives (?) Range: Short Judging from its name, the Hopwire may have been the functional equivalent of the Laser Tripmine based on the M86 Pursuit Deterrent Munition. Such a weapon, once placed, leaps up into the air after several seconds and shoots out several wires which, when tripped, cause the grenade and all its tethers to detonate.

The hopwire grenade can be found in Half-Life 2: Episode One as a hidden weapon, dubbed the "blackhole hopwire". It creates a small black hole that disintegrates everything next to it - including the player). The Hopwire concept continued to be improved, and became the Magnusson device in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

There are 2 versions of the Hopwire in the mod SMOD there is the Beta version of this weapon that is the version that is cut from the Half Life 2 Beta. And there is a heavily coded Blackhole Hopwire ported from Episode 1.



Ice Axe
Type: Melee An ice axe is a multi-purpose mountaineering tool carried by practically every mountaineer. The narrow sense used here excludes ice tools for ice climbing. It could be also used as melee weapon, for example Leon Trotsky was assasinated in 1940 by an ice axe... The Ice Axe was probably dropped along with the Borealis concept, and also because it was identical in operation (in game terms) with Gordon's trademark crowbar.



Immolator
Type: Flamethrower Ammo: Unknown flammable and/or corrosive substance Range:  Short The Immolator was a weapon intended to be used by Combine Cremators and then acquired by the player. It functioned similarly to the human-designed flamethrower except that the burning liquid also possessed corrosive properties, allowing it to nearly "eat away" organic matter. It was intended to be highly effective against unprotected organic enemies, like antlions or zombies at short range Dropped along with the Combine Cremators concept; however the effects of the weapon were converted for the effects made by thrown objects of Combine soldiers in the laser-like vertical beams in the Citadel.

Incendiary rifle
Type: Projectile launcher (?) Ammo: (?) Range: Short/medium What little is known about the Incendiary rifle (or irifle) can be garnered from its appearance in the pre-release "Tunnels" gameplay video, where it is seen used against some Civil Protection officers. The weapon looks almost identical to the final version Pulse Rifle and appears to be single shot, firing incendiary bolts which ignite their target in flames. Perhaps due to the weapon's seemingly limited tactical use, the weapon was dropped and it's model repurposed as the AR2 Pulse Rifle.

Missile Launcher
Type: Guided Missile Launcher Ammo: stinger missiles Used a slightly different model than the RPG. Was never scripted.



Molotov cocktails
Type:Explosive Ammo:N/A Molotov cocktail is a self-made incendiary grenade. It includes a glass 0.5-0.7 litre bottle, and gasoline, diesel fuel and motor oil mixture filling the bottle, as well as an old piece of cloth serving as cover and fuse. To arm the weapon, the cloth is ignited and bottle thrown at the enemy, breaking upon contact and saturating its immediate surroundings with the flaming liquid.

The effects of the weapon are very similar to grenades, therefore its cut.



OICW
Type: Assault rifle Ammo: 5.56mm NATO Magazine: 30 rounds Accuracy: Good Range: Medium/Long The XM-29 OICW (part of the U.S. Army's Objective Individual Combat Weapon program) was an assault rifle concept that sought to combine a standard 5.56mm assault rifle (the XM-29's assault rifle component was based on that of the H&K G36 assault rifle) with a 20mm cannon and complicated computerized sighting system complete with thermal night vision imaging and laser rangefinder. The idea behind the 20mm cannon is the computerized targeting system would configure the rounds to airburst over or beside targets hiding behind cover against which regular rifle fire would be ineffective. A number of problems, including weight, bulk, lack of effectiveness of the 20mm airburst round, and ultimately cost of single unit exeeding 10 000 USD have led to the project effectively being shelved.

The XM-29 never entered full scale production or served with any military, but that hasn't stopped a number of games and films from depicting it in the hands of soldiers and mercenaries, including Half-Life 2 in it's beta phase. In the game, it was originally planned to be the Combine Overwatch's weapon of choice, but it was later replaced by the fictional Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle (OSIPR).



Physgun
Type: Manipulation gun Range: Long The Gravity Gun was originally called the Physgun and allowed the player to levitate far away objects without bringing them closer. The Physgun was cut and replaced by the Gravity Gun, but it was later used in Garry's Mod with different utilities.

Rollerwand
It allowed players to control Rollermines. Episode One granted Alyx the ability to reprogram Rollermines to help the player.

Sniper Rifle
Type: Sniper rifle Range: Long An unknown sniper rifle of Combine origin was planned to be in the arsenal, but was dropped in favour of the less conventional crossbow. This weapon was adapted for use by Overwatch Snipers, and was eventually seen by the player in Episode Two.

Trivia
 * In Half-Life 2 and its episodes, you can spawn a box of sniper rounds using the console command "give item_box_srounds". These rounds would originally act as ammo for the sniper rifle. Valve most likely forgot to remove the sniper ammo from the final release.



S.L.A.M.
Type:Explosive Ammo:N/A Range: Long Stands for Selectable Lightweight Attack Munitions. It's to be dropped with the left-click and triggered with the right-click. The player can throw as many S.L.A.M. he wants and then all explode at the same time. In was re-used in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.



Tau Cannon
Type: Experimental, particle cannon Ammo: Depleted uranium Range: Long Tau Cannon was first sheduled to be in the arsenal, but due to unknown reason was cut from final version. It had similar model with Tau Cannon mounted on Dune Buggy, and was similar in operation to Tau Cannon (HL1) Trivia
 * An unused sound clip can be found in the game's files of a citizen talking about detaching the Tau Cannon from something, suggesting that at some point in the game's development, the Tau Cannon was to be detached from the Dune Buggy for you to take with you after leaving the car at Lighthouse Point.