Shotgun (Evolution)

Throughout the development of Half-Life and it's sequel, Gordon's iconic shotgun changed looks quite a lot. Despite this, it's always retained it's basic look as an off-brand SPAS-12.

Part 1: Half-Life

Version 1: Late Alpha

The first version of the shotgun was very still very detailed, having a detailed receiver and pump. The barrels are more simple relative to the rest of the weapon, with hexagonal barrels. Despite having no ungloved mesh for this weapon, it can be established that the earliest version of the shotgun didn't have gloves, due to Gordon's hand mesh not having any defined HEV details like the Glock or Python.

Version 2: Early Beta

This version of the shotgun only has one major difference; Gordon's hands are now covered with chrome-played gloves. Other than that, this version of the gun is identical to the prior one. However, it's worth noting that this is the first version we have screenshots for, where we can see a centered view origin, as with a later variant of the MP5. The weapon's worldmodel at this stage was also preserved within the model the scientist uses at the end of Lambda Core, being much lighter and more grey.

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  Centered iteration

Version 3: Late Beta/E3 1998

Compared to the last revision, this version completely ditches the old textures and introduces a brand new set of textures. Instead of having a nice blue-silver finish with light blue barrel and dark grey grip and pump, this version now has a dark grey finish, with a brown grip and pump and a light grey barrel. The HEV suit's hands are now orange as well, with the final chrome applied as well. Finally, the weapon's origin was moved to it's final position on the right as well. This iterations textures can be found in the Half-Life: Source repo leak.

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  Recreation, by the Dermoker & Co team.

Version 4: Day One

The Day One shotgun features notable changes from the last version. The weapon's finish has now been changed to a gloss black-violet, with the pump being completely redone, albeit keeping the same general design cues as the last variant. The weapon's mesh has also been altered, featuring a more round muzzle compared to the hexagons the weapon had prior. The worldmodel for this variant also recieved the same changes, and is fairly high quality for a worldmodel.

Version 5: Retail

Very little at this point was changed from the Day One shotgun. The weapon's viewmodel received very minor adjustments, and the worldmodel's textures were downscaled.

Version 6: Gearbox

For Gearbox Software's Half-Life expansions Opposing Force and Blue Shift, they didn't alter the Shotgun as much as they did the Glock or MP5. Here they only re-animated the weapon, but kept it close to the original, unlike the MP5. The model was not changed aside from Adrian or Barney's hands being added in place of Gordon's.

Part 2: Half-Life 2

Version 1: 1999?

Despite no images existing for this version of the Shotgun, this was a slight modification of the first game's shotgun, with the only major difference is this one had normal maps. handle_normal.vtf, despite being named incorrectly, shares it's design with grip.bmp on the Half-Life shotgun.

Possible Version 2: Pre-2001 Shotgun?

Circumstancial evidence points towards a lighter shotgun being used, with the texture being called "shotgun3.tga" in the game's source files.

Version 2: E3 2002

Three years into development and we have our first confirmed new shotgun model; a thin but powerful boomstick. Compared to Half-Life 1's shotgun, the general profile of the weapon has been slimmed down and stretched on the Y axis, and much more detail from the real Franchi SPAS-12 has been incorporated into the in-game weapon. The tritium sight has been dulled down, and the weapon itself looks much more scuffed and beaten. Gordon's brand new dark grey and orange-red HEV suit grips the shotgun.

Version 3: 2003

While the mesh of the weapon remains identical, the textures of the weapon were smoothed out, being much a subtle violet colour with a brighter tritium sight, which is now coloured green. The weapon recieved new animations however, as it swapped from the orange-red arms, to the final game's lighter orange arms. The shotgun would stay this way for much of the game's last two years in development.

Version 4: Retail

While the previous model was kept through the early months of 2004, this model was created and inevitably used for retail Half-Life 2. The weapon was heavilly desaturated, still keeping the smooth sheen but being much more grey and dirty. Proportionally the weapon was fattened up, making the resemblance to the real SPAS-12 much closer. The weapon's sounds were also changed to be less loud.