Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview - Infected Side
THE TANK
Tremble before the might of the incredible monstrosity that is the Tank! Seriously, this guys one bad mother. The Tank can spell trouble for all but the most organized team. He's big - really, really big, and the ground shakes around him as he charges across the map on all four limbs. You will only get a chance to play the tank a couple of times each level, so you better enjoy it.
The Tanks primary weapon? A massive amount of health. Nothing short of a mounted machine gun can do these guys in on its own and even then things can get sticky. No, the only way to take this one down is focused fire from the whole team. A smart Survivor will most likely be backpedaling while you try to charge at them and their bullets will drag you down. Thankfully, the Tank has a useful trick up his sleeve...
Slamming the right mouse button will launch a rock or debris at whatever you're aiming for. If you're standing near a car, you can rocket one of these babies right into a Survivor. If nothing is around, you will tear a hunk of earth and rock from the ground. This can be somewhat tricky to aim but when you do connect, you will stagger the Survivor and do some serious damage (thereby slowing their movement). These rocks can be thrown a fair distance and may lead to some fun siege situations, with Survivors held up at some point and the Tank lobbing stones.
The Tank's melee attack can pack a serious punch, launching the Survivor back a significant distance. Knock the Survivor out and you can begin to slam them while they're on the ground (it takes four slams to finish off a Survivor when they are bleeding out). As a Survivor, it is important to remember that every bullet counts. In one situation, I was knocked down by the Tank, on my own, getting pummeled, and blasting it in the face with my pistol. My efforts brought the tank down and I was picked back up by a friend.
Not that you'd want to play him in this way, but the Tank is really unable to set up any sort of ambush. A frustration bar begins filling up every moment that a Survivor is not within sight. When this meter is full, the player dies and immediately loses control of the Tank. Also, the Survivors will hear you coming from a long ways away, with the ground pounding and shaking and all. This means there's not a lot of choices other than charge and destroy. Sure you can play smart, and time will produce some great Tank players (there was certainly a huge difference between what the developers accomplished and what we were able to), but in many ways the Tank will be an opportunistic fighter.
For example, while we were working our way through on the Survivor's side, we hopped in an elevator and we waited with guns pointing up the grate in the ceiling. It just so happened that one of the developer players on the Infected side had spawned as the Tank in a room above us. He charged down the corridor, leapt through the grate, and proceeded to completely destroy all four Survivors in a matter of seconds. It was awful. It was amazing. And I'm still pissed about it.
Now, I feel that I should discuss one gameplay detail that didn't get a lot of attention in our first part. As Survivors, you have the ability to open and shut the doors on the map (crazy, I know) and many of these doors are lockable. This effectively stalls any Infected, boss or otherwise. Zombies may bash their way through shut doors or boarded up windows, but it takes time. Each smash will tear down a piece and the visuals here are very nice. Similarly, Survivors may blast through doors, opening up holes. It's pretty common to see a Survivor behind a locked door, top blasted through, safely holding back a stream of zombies with their weapon of choice.
For the Tank, doors mean nothing: you can bash through doors and windows like swatting flies. In some areas of the map, walls can't even stop you. Throughout the map, some areas will be highlighted in glowing yellow cracks (similar to the green Infected ladders) to signify an area that can be bashed through by the Tank. These points can produce some of the most terrifying, cinematic moments in the game, as the Survivor on the other side of the wall are slammed back by debris and stone, while the Tank barrels through the opening.
Playing the Tank is unquestionably the most exciting part of playing as an Infected. It doesn't play like any other Infected so it really breaks things up nicely and you know that you have the chance to take out the entire team. After feeling so fragile for 20-30 minutes, it feels great to control so much power.
NEXT: The Witch and Infected Wrap-up >>
