HECU SPAS-12

The Shotgun is a common weapon used in Half-Life and expansions. It's closely based on the Franchi SPAS-12 Shotgun. The player acquires their first shotgun in the game's fourth chapter: Office Complex.

Usage
This is probably your best bet at close range, though the wide spread of its blast decreases it's effectiveness beyond close 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. This shotgun features an additional "double-blast" secondary fire mode which allows you to fire two shells at once, a devastating attack. (This weapon is not a double-barrelled shotgun – the tube underneath the barrel simply holds the ammunition. The secondary attack simply fires two shells 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.