Combine SPAS-12

"Here, I have a more suitable gun for you. You'll need it."

- Father Grigori

The SPAS-12 is a powerful shotgun used by various characters in Half-Life 2.

Overview
The SPAS-12 fires one shot if the main fire key is pressed, and will fire two shots at once when the alternate fire key is pressed. Of note is that the double-blast uses two shotgun shells at once.

This weapon is used by both Rebels and Overwatch Soldiers, who have a different uniform than regular soldiers.

When the gun is reloaded, Freeman inserts one shell at a time. The reloading process can be interrupted at anytime by hitting any of the fire keys.

The SPAS-12 is first given to Freeman by Father Grigori in the sixth Half-Life 2 chapter, "We Don't Go To Ravenholm...".

Tactics

 * The SPAS-12 is very effective at close range against most targets. However, its effectiveness decreases significantly with range becasue its pellets spread more the farther they go.


 * The SPAS-12 is one of the most effective weapons in the game, as the single shot's spread is tight enough to hit enemies at up to medium range and it does a lot of damage per pellet. It's ammunition is common as well.


 * The double-shot is very powerful, but its large spread means that it should only be used at short range.


 * When using the SPAS-12, do not use use it against weak enemies, such as Headcrabs. Save it for stronger ones, such as Overwatch Soldiers and Zombies.


 * It may be desirable to enter a firefight with the shotgun and, once the player has exhausted its supply of shells, switch to a backup weapon instead of reloading.


 * A common tactic when using the shotgun is to reload every 1 or 2 shots if possible to avoid the long reload time. This is generally not recommended if multiple enemies are at close range, though.

Behind the scenes

 * The 2003 leaked Half-Life 2 Beta has a completely different model for the SPAS-12. This model appears in the E3 2004 trailer and in the final version as the DirectX 7 Shotgun, showing that it was taken out at the last minute.


 * The Beta Shotgun had completly different firing sounds, those can still be found in Half-Life 2 sound files.


 * The Beta SPAS-12 is almost the same gun, but is much thinner, due to rather big pump, and it has a rifle-like receiver. The animations looked like the user was holding it at their waist, pointing upwards a bit.

Trivia

 * The shotgun-using Combine soldiers are suggested to be a squad leader, though they do not have any distinguishing marks until Episode 2.


 * When used by other people the SPAS-12 appears to be operated in semi-automatic mode because though the player can see up close that he moves the gun bit to the side after firing, there is no sound heard from the pump. The firing speed is also a bit faster than the player's.


 * NPCs and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch's player models have no reloading animations for the SPAS-12.


 * The soldiers at Nova Prospekt seem to use the shotgun more frequently than normal soldiers, perhaps due to the shorter combat ranges and therefore enhanced shotgun effectiveness.

List of appearances

 * ''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