Half-Life Guns Compared to Real Firearms by a Weapons Expert

An analysis of the guns in the venerable first-person shooter Half-Life is provided, along with comparisons to real-world firearms.

Fans of the first Half-Life will undoubtedly recall all the iconic weapons Gordon Freeman is able to use, and a firearms expert has examined the virtual weapons to compare them to actual ones. It’s unfortunate that Valve isn’t much of a game developer these days. Gabe Newell and his team are still a force to be reckoned with in the gaming industry, primarily concentrated on its lucrative Steam platform and last year’s Steam Deck mobile PC.

One of the most influential first-person shooter games of the 1990s, if not of all time, Half-Life was Valve’s debut offering when it launched more than two and a half decades ago. This influential game had an enormous impact on the genre and set off a wave that is still being felt today thanks to its groundbreaking environmental storytelling and impressive visuals for the time. The game’s arsenal of weapons, in addition to the plot, overall world development, and the numerous enemies the player faces, distinguishes it from others in the genre.

Recently, Jonathan Ferguson, a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries in the UK, put the weapons in Half-Life under a metaphorical microscope. Ferguson examines the guns in-depth in a video posted to GameSpot’s YouTube channel, as well as those in Half-Life 2 and the fan-made remake Black Mesa. He can naturally compare how well the digital models compare to their actual counterparts because he specializes in firearms. Ferguson is aware that video game weapons won’t always be accurate, but it’s interesting to see how similar they are nonetheless.For example, he pointed out that the shotgun from the first game resembles an SPAS-12, despite being shorter. Ferguson does take issue with the fact that the Half-Life version uses two barrels to eject shells while the second barrel in the real-world version is used to store ammunition. Ferguson does concur that the shotgun in the game is very satisfying, though.

Half-Life, a video game released in 1998, has one of the most recognizable crowbars in gaming history, but it offers much more than the ability to smash boxes and throw headcrabs into the air. Freeman has a wide range of options at his disposal, both Earth-like and extraterrestrial, that enable the theoretical physicist to repel the alien attack and combat the military forces sent in to dissimulate the Black Mesa disaster.

Additionally, Ferguson has offered his knowledge of other games. He recently conducted an analysis of the weapons in GoldenEye 007, for instance, demonstrating once more how accurately the game’s creators were able to simulate real guns. While it’s true that developers will sometimes stray from reality when creating video games, it’s fascinating to note that even when there are discrepancies, great care is taken to ensure that certain elements are as realistic as possible.

Half-Life is available on PC and PS2.

Source: Andrew Heaton