Overwatch Sniper Rifle

The Overwatch Sniper Rifle is a pulse rifle used by Overwatch Snipers. It fires powerful pulse rounds and emits a blue beam, which is used as a laser sight.

Overview
Highly trained Overwatch Snipers use this weapon to great effect, especially in urban areas. The rifle is very accurate and extremely powerful. It emits a blue laser sight to help with aiming, but this tends to give away the sniper's position.

The rifle fires a powerful pulse round capable of destroying a wide variety of targets. These rounds are powerful enough to kill most targets in one shot and send objects flying several meters from the force of the impact. In this way the rifle can be used to limit the target's available cover, by destroying it or simply sending it flying.

Although originally planned to be accessible to the player, this feature was cut during Half-Life 2's development, and in the final game the player never acquires the Overwatch Sniper Rifle, however, Alyx Vance, uses it briefly in both Episode One and Episode Two.

Episode Two


During Half-Life 2: Episode Two’s third chapter, Freeman Pontifex, the player encounters a mounted sniper rifle firsthand at an abandoned Resistance base. This seems to be the same rifle used by Overwatch Snipers in the previous games, but was never actually seen until now. The rifle appears to be quite bulky, so it may be the case that the sniper rifle must be mounted to be fired effectively. This would also explain why the rifle is never blown out of sniper's nests by grenade blasts along with its user. It appears to require energy to operate, as the Vortigaunt companion states in Episode Two: "the gun would appear to be powerless", he can then be seen using his abilities to recharge it as Freeman heads into the industrial complex. This is also consistent with the electrical "charging" whine it emits between shots. Once charged, it is used by Alyx Vance to cover Gordon as he moves through the complex.

It should be noted that the rifle in Episode 2 does not share the appearance of the sniper rifle in the Half-Life 2 Beta.

Trivia

 * Curiously, if a grenade is thrown into the window while Alyx uses it, a combine soldier can be seen falling from the sniper nest. This also works with the SMG grenade.
 * When the player first encounters the sniper rifle the barrel is clearly sticking out of the hole in the fencing but when Alyx actually starts shooting the barrel is no longer visible as with the rest of combine snipers.
 * The Sniper Rifle was going to be a actual weapon in Half-Life 2 but it was removed for game balance. It is present in many modifications and it is also present in the 2003 leaked Half-Life 2 Beta.
 * It appears to be based on the South African NTW-20 sniper rifle. It could also be based on the Keppeler & Fritz KS II Prescision, or a combination of the two.
 * In Episode Two, the rifle is jointed on angled surface with no vertical joint, forcing it to point upwards, but Alyx can still aim vertically with it.
 * In retail Half-Life 2 the rifle was louder and could be heard being cocked after each shot, this is most likely because the Combine Snipers wielded cut bolt-action Sniper Rifles. However, in Episode One and Episode Two the rifle appears to be suppressed and makes a 'wind up' sound after each shot. After the May 2010 Half-Life 2 update this was retconned, so that HL2 snipers now employ 'pulse' rifles too.
 * The sniper rifle's bullets are not "instant effect", instead, it fires a very fast projectile that can be dodged at a distance.

List of appearances

 * ''Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two