Half-Life 2 weapon ratings

For those of you who follow my other blogs, I think you can tell that Half-Life is my favorite franchise. And for good reason. I finally beat Half-Life 2 the day before this was posted! so, after grabbing all of the weapons: Here are my Half-Life 2: Weapon ranks.

Here's a quick sheet of all the ranks. I will go into all the details below.

Ranks:

• S: Super useful weapons that shred Combine.
• A: Really good weapons.
• B: Good weapons that are useful when you are out of ammo in others.
• C: Mediocre weapons.
• D: Trash weapons that should rarely be used.
• SP: Special weapons that serve a unique purpose.

S: Bugbait

Bugbait is the most unique weapon in the game. Why? Because it's not an actual gun. It's part of an Antlion queen. You get this after killing one. The reason why it's so good is because of the fact that it allows you to summon alien soldiers to come to your aid. The Antlions are super useful in multiple ways. First off: They can outnumber and overwhelm soldiers. Second: They can distract Combine and take fire while you eliminate bigger threats. And they are really useful against Turrets and large groups.

S: Resistance Crossbow

This one may seem weird. But for me, the crossbow is one of my favorites. Why? It's the only weapon with a scope! There are no sniper rifles in Half Life 1 or 2. There's this. The Crossbow has a few flaws. 1: Reload time is annoying. 2: If an enemy moves you miss. 3: Ammo is scarce. HOWEVER: These flaws are made up for via one shotting any enemy in the game AND having the best aim in Half Life. (Other than maybe the Grav gun. But I don't think that counts.) Once you get this, No Combine is safe.

S: Super Gravity Gun

You get this gun ONLY for the final level of the game. And for good reason. This weapon is a guaranteed kill any time you use it. Like the original Grav gun you pull and throw things using it. Like in Portal. Except you can pull them from a distance and throw MUCH farther. The Super Grav Gun is better however due to the fact that it can grab just about anything PLUS Combine soldiers and energy bullets. Any Combine solider who is grabbed dies in an instant and any Combine soldiers who you throw the first one into share the same fate. This weapon is one of the best.

S: Spas-12

The Ravenholm weapon is underrated. This gun is WAY better in HL2 than the OG HL. It's a shotgun, obviously. So, it's complete trash long range. But in close quarters (Sewers, Buildings, ETC.) You can one shot CP, Zombies and Soldiers/Shotgunners. Elites take a bit more power. Which is where the power shot comes in. If you hit the alt fire button, you can use 2 shells at once to fire a powerful Elite killing shot. Power shots also kill normal enemies where a normal one would not. For example: A normal shot to the leg rather than the head would not kill your target BUT a power shot to the toe is killing any enemy except Overwatch Elites. Power shots make this gun a valuable asset.

A: .357 Magnum

One of my favorite guns from HL1 falls just short of S rank. Why? In HL1 the 357 was like a Micro-Shotgun with more ammo and better accuracy. But in 2 it's dwarfed to a strong sidearm. Besides killing CP and Soldiers it's not as good as the Spas. Don't get me wrong though. It's the best early game weapon easy. The fact that it can 2 shot Soldiers is enough. It also has more ammo in one reload than the Spas. But if you are close enough or you hit in the right place, your target is history.

A: Gravity Gun

Have you ever wanted to kill a zombie with a toilet? Now you can with the gravity gun! I like the gravity gun for 4 reasons. 1: No ammo. This thing shoots anything you can grab. 2: Instakills. Certain items like Toilets, Sawblades and cinderblocks kill soldiers and zombies instantly. 3: Item grabbing. You can use this to pull items to you and stay in cover. 3: Getting Unstuck. You can be stuck in a lot of places in HL2. This helps you escape. The Grav gun can be a little awkward to handle sometimes. BUT: It makes up for that with its high damage.

A: OSPIR

The best rifle in the game is the OSPIR. This gun has better accuracy, better aim and better DPS. The only area where it loses to the MP7 is in ammo. The OSPIR has 30 shots in one clip where the MP7 has 45. This gun is a great option for killing groups of Combine. I used this gun A LOT in the last few levels. The OSPIR also has no shortage of ammo as it's one of the main weapons used by Combine. Another plus is it fires a disintegration bullet as its alt fire. When you shoot it, the bullet bounces around and kills anyone it touches. For that it earns an A.

B: MP7

The MP7 is a good gun. It just pales in comparison to the OSPIR and other weapons. The reason is due to 2 things. 1: Low damage. While the MP7 is a good gun to use on crowds and in a pinch, it deals less damage than the OSPIR. 2: Awful accuracy. This gun has the worst aim in HL2. Even the Spas is better. It deals good damage long range BUT you will almost NEVER hit your target. However, this gun makes up for that by having the easiest ammo to find in the game and firing explosive bullets. The MP7 is a solid weapon against combine.

D: USP Match

Trash. The USP match is the first gun you get in HL2, and you will almost never use it after getting the MP7. The only times I used it after getting the MP7 was when I was out of or wanted to conserve ammo. Or if there was a weak enemy who I didn't want to waste ammo on. Or when I was out of Crossbow bolts and needed to take a long-distance shot. The USP is one of the more accurate guns in HL2. But it also deals close to no damage. It is pretty much useless against Overwatch and basically anyone other than Headcrabs and CP.

D: Grenades

I almost never use grenades. I used them a few times other than killing snipers. There were times where I forgot I had them. These things are near useless. I honestly never wanted to use them because I have killed myself more times than I care to admit. I was killed by these things WAY more times than I actually killed Combine. GARBAGE.

Now to the special cases.

SP: Crowbar

The iconic Crowbar is the only melee weapon in HL2. The crowbar is a Special case because of the fact that other than one enemy and if you run out of ammo in the early game it's only used to break stuff.

SP: Resistance RPG

The RPG is mainly used for killing Striders and destroying Gunships. Other than that, it doesn't see much use. But if you imagine fighting those without it.... OH MAN.

There you have it. Half Life 2 weapon ranks. My next posts will also be Half-life related! Keep an eye out for my Half-Life 3 rumors post and my HL1 weapon ratings!