HECU SPAS-12


 * Acquired: Half-Life, Chapter 4, Office Complex
 * Weapon category: 3
 * Primary Fire: Blast of 6 pellets, 5 pts/pellet (maximum 30 pts)
 * Secondary Fire: Double blast of 12 pellets, 5 pts/pellet (maximum 60 pts)

This pump-action shotgun is probably your best bet when your enemies are close, though the wide spread of its blast decreases it's effectiveness beyond short range. You can load the weapon with up to eight shells and fire them one at a time with the primary attack button. You’ll automatically give the shotgun a quick pump after each shot. Though the shotgun resembles a Franchi SPAS-12, this model has an additional bonus – an additional "double-blast" secondary fire mode which allows you to fire two shells at once, a devestating attack. (This weapon is not a double-barrelled shotgun – the tube underneath the barrel simply holds the ammunition. The secondary attack simply fires two shots from the same barrel in very rapid succession.)

Using the shotgun can be tricky at times – as well as having limited range, it can only be reloaded one shell at a time. It takes several seconds to fill the weapon with all eight shells, though in an emergency you can interrupt the reloading process by simply pressing the fire button. Nevertheless, you may feel that you spend more time reloading this gun than you do firing it.

Although the standard shotgun weapon model somewhat resembles a SPAS-12, the weapon icon in the HUD is a different type of shotgun. The Half-Life High Definition pack remedies this by replacing the icon, as well as making the weapon model itself look more like an authentic SPAS-12.

It's also interesting to note that even though this weapon is sometimes found near the corpses of security guards, they are never actually seen using it. Security guards are only ever seen using their Glock 17 sidearms in combat.