It is marked with the logo of the fictitious "RATEL" brand, and features markings implying Combine ownership (which lines up with it being taken from a dead Combine worker) accordingly, Combine Chargers carry a modified version, with a longer barrel and magazine tube, a heat shield, no stock or trigger guard, and a variety of large, bulky modifications to the front end, including what appears to be a drum magazine of some sort. It is semi-automatic, with a capacity of 6+1 12-gauge shells it is reloaded by breaking open the receiver and loading shells directly into the magazine tube, in a manner possibly inspired by the Cosmi Lusso, albeit with a traditional underbarrel magazine tube instead of one in the stock. The second weapon Alyx can acquire, the game's shotgun is a fictitious design vaguely reminiscent of the Techno Arms MAG-7, with an AK-esque receiver and a Franchi SPAS-12-esque barrel, magazine tube, and set of iron sights. It should be noted that signs explictly forbidding firearms are seldom seen in European metro systems.Īlyx examines the sign, for once thankful that the game doesn't have any usable revolvers. Generic RevolverĪ sign seen at the beginning of Chapter 4 displays several items that are prohibited on the now-abandoned subway system, with a silhouette of a somewhat generic, vaguely S&W-ish revolver among them. Realizing that this section's overstayed its welcome a bit, Alyx decides to merge a few different observations into one screencap aside from showing what the end of the laser beam looks like, this also shows off two of the other ways the game alerts the player that the LDA is empty (in addition to the ammo counter on the grip, the slide locking back, and a small tone that sounds when it does so): the pistol's magazines all have bright orange followers (a feature of many real-life magazines, meant to make a locked-empty pistol more obviously distinct from a loaded or jammed one at a glance), and the bottom of the slide features a bright red LED that shines onto the user's hand when it locks back (a feature real-world manufacturers have understandably been a bit hesitant to try). One of the bonuses included with a pre-order of Alyx was a set of alternate weapon skins the LDA's consisted of a blued finish with wooden grips. The LDA has four upgrades (a reflex sight, a conversion from semi-auto to a selectable 3-round burst mode, a "bullet reservoir" that doubles the capacity from 10 rounds to 20 with a strange device that pulls rounds out of the ejection port, and a laser sight) these upgrades ultimately make it resemble (and, lore-wise, presumably making it into) Alyx Vance's pistol from Half-Life 2. By default, it is fitted with a muzzle brake, as well as a set of aftermarket illuminated sights, and grips similar to those of a Kimber Warrior with an electronic ammo counter in the left panel. A modified Para-Ordnance LDA appears as the first firearm obtainable due to the nature of the game, it has no direct name, though the slide markings seem to indicate that either the pistol itself or its manufacturer is named "Le Clarion" (French for "The Bugle").