See the Wiki
So looking at this we can see that the Alien Grunt Design was Changed from a grey alien and not only that the “Black Hole Gun” was also the Gluon Gun or Egon Gun. I assume that the Gluon Gun the alien was carry would have acted like the “Black hole Gun” in terms of it’s attacks before it became more ghostbusters orientated.
It states that it was replaced by the hivehand.
But before he got an organic Weapon perhaps he was still an alien grey in a hulking metal suit was the design for his weapon this below?
The Displacer Canon bears a strange resemblence to a mechanized Hivehand and I feel that it’s purpose was modified slightly for Opposing force.
The whole teleportation system for the Displacer I do not feel would be a part of this weapon. I think Gearbox added that for the story.
My guess is that the Primary attack would have been a fast Laser (left Mouse)
My guess for the secondary is basically the Displacer Orb that it shoots but it just disintegrate enemies works the same but it’s basically a BFG. The Combine Orb seems to have inherited the Disintegration Damage effects for this Orb Attack.
If what Black Mesa are saying is True about the Hivehand Secondary Spray Attack which is not in game. This Mechanised Iteration may have been ifinite Ammo like the Hivehand but could only fire the primary and secondary attack after it recharges naturally. It ran on Crystals somehow even if it was a Bioweapon it would still need a crystal. I think it was Labelled on the wiki made by the Black Mesa Research Institute but I think it was a Mechanised Hivehand for the Alien Grey before it become the Hivehand.
There is more evidence to support this when we look at the cut enemy from Half Life 2 the Combine Guard which looks very similar to the Grey Alien Grunt.
Now in this Video Above what we have is an Alien Type Gluon Gun? But look at the Charge up where the Dark Matter Ball Appears… This was the precursor animation to releasing the Lightning Orb attack we see on the Displacer Canon.
What seems to have happened is the Beam that is Present is actually the Primary Fire for the Fast Laser bolts. The Right Click Sends off the Lightning Orb Disintegration Attack.
This is My theory on what the “Black Hole Gun” was before it appeared as the Dissplacer Canon or the inspiration for the Weapon Wielded by the Combine Guard although it went back to being a Gluon gun in Half Life 2.
I don’t know this for sure but please if you can add anything further I think it is an interesting and obviously it goes without saying “Xen” never had any weapon progression and to me it’s obvious that the “Black Hole Gun” was the last weapon the player would get to complete the roster.
What do you think / know the “Black Hole Gun” was? and do you like the Idea of the “Black Hole Gun”?
It seems that the “Black Hole Gun” Kind of got scuppered and spread out across other weapons and other games in my opinion, but it is a very cool weapon from what I can make of it.
This Weapon may have also been important and the only way to defeat the Nihilanth Before Stuff got changed it might have been important to say disintergrate him through dark matter or something.
With this also Said if we look closer at the Hivehand there seems to be two sockets either side was this for Crystals?
It’s all guess work on this, but the actual weapon projectiles exist for the Black Hole Gun just the view model weapon sort of does not have any true identity.
Is it Simply the Secondary attack for the Gluon that was planned not to be available until Later?
Is the Hivehand Secondary Attack Something that also is available later by sticking Crystals in the thing or something like upgraded? Perhaps you need to modify the Hivehand so it does not go after the Vortigaunts slaves if we are saving them and will only chase the baddies?
The Other thing I have been pondering is what was the Gravity Gun before it was modified? Was it simply a Hand Held device for Moving small Crystals About so you would not get hurt? Simply a Claw for transporting Crystals?
I thought of Variations of the Crystal Claw (Formerly Gravity Gun) Being Modified to be like a Chainsaw / Crystal Tip Drill… I thought about an Alien Spear with a Crystal on it’s tip…Perhaps the Explosive Darts from Deathmatch were Crystal tipped Darts glowing Orange explaining the Difference in Half life 2 with the Glowing Orange Rebar… For Some reason I kept thinking about something sharp like a shard splitting open Nihilanths brain… Anyway just my imagination probably running away with me… But I am very curious about “This Black Hole Gun” what ever it was.
https://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/List_of_cut_Alien_Grunt_weapons
Seems the Spore Launcher was also intended for Half Life and the HIveHand was the Chainsaw. Wow really stuff get’s a bit wild with the weapons indeed.
I kind of want to finish this OP with a statement about how we know Half life was meant to have more layers to it; would that have made it better or worse? Water under the Bridge you may say, and I would agree with you but it is still amazing and interesting and better than most stuff you see in games today.