Glass Tanks

Deflection is the game.

Glass Tanks is a top-down arena shooter where the smart shot is rarely the direct one. Fire a shell, bank it off a wall, and catch someone from an angle they didn't see coming. One hit ends any tank, yours included. It's funnier when it's yours.

Bring a friend, or don't

Co-op is the best way to play: two tanks, one shared pool of lives, one partner to blame when it goes wrong. Solo works fine too, if you'd rather not have witnesses. Up to four people can share a couch, and Steam Remote Play Together covers the friends who couldn't be bothered to drive over.

Twelve enemies, zero mercy

Every enemy has its own colour and its own grudge. Learn the palette and you can read a room right before it kills you.

• Slate – The tutorial. Fires wild, even at its friends. Embarrassing if it kills you.

• Turquoise – Roams and shoots straight. Your first lesson in leading a shot.

• Jade – Walks all the way round you for the angle. Polite, and still trying to kill you.

• Kunzite – Charges, fires fastest, and has never heard of personal space.

• Amethyst – Backs away and leaves mines. Presents you will not want.

• Coral – A sniper whose shells bank twice. Cover is more of a suggestion.

• Amber – Opens doors and fires two fast shells around you. Fast, rude, one door ahead.

• Onyx – Charges, banks, lays mines and leads its shots. The overachiever.

• Garnet – Onyx with shells at nearly twice the speed. It has taken this personally.

• Quartz – Invisible. Fires twice and shoots your shells out of the air. Watch the tracks.

• Iolite – Circles at range, dodges, leads and banks twice. Never stops moving long enough to be insulted.

• Topaz – Orbits at long range laying mines. Has a hobby. The hobby is mines.

• The Golden Boss – Waits at the end of the Gauntlet. Gold-plated, fast shells, fond of power-ups. Modest.

Twelve-plus ways to lose friends

• Campaign – 50 levels in two acts, solo or co-op, one shared pool of lives. Act two is where the colours get nasty.

• Practice – Any level you've reached, no record kept. For rehearsing your excuses.

• Gauntlet: The Horde – A great many enemies, a few at a time, from every direction. Four rooms, your pick of doors, a gold-plated surprise at the end.

• Gauntlet: Hydra – Kill one and two grow back. The maths is not on your side.

• Gauntlet: Siege – Hold the King in his glass against wave after wave, and rearrange your Defenses between them. He takes five hits. Don't spend them.

• Deathmatch – One hit ends a tank. Last side standing scores.

• Battle – Three balloons each. Pop theirs, protect yours.

• Classic – Score kills until the clock runs out. A tie goes to sudden death, and so, often, do you.

• Shell Ball – Tank soccer. The shells are the feet.

• Collapse – Shells shove, the void kills, the floor crumbles. Cause the most falls.

• Kill the King – Break the other side's king before they break yours.

• King of the Hill – Hold the moving lit zone. Sharing is not an option.

• Playlist – The mode changes every round until somebody has had enough wins.

• Party – Five to eight people, four playing at a time, the rest heckling from the sofa.

• Map editor – Build your own arenas, then make your friends play them.

Versus runs as 1v1, 2v2, 1v3 (we all have that one friend), or free for all, with AI seats at four difficulty levels for the friends who didn't show up. Four modifiers twist the rules, and you earn them rather than being handed them: Lights Out, Drifter, Team Tether and Loser Stack.

Twenty-four power-ups, none of them fair

Temporary:

• Bounce – One more bounce. Geometry is your friend.

• Rocket – Faster shells, whistle included. Subtle it isn't.

• Ghost – Enemies lose you. Firing ends it, because physics has a sense of humour.

• Split – Your shell becomes two on the first bounce. The maths is on your side for once.

• Shield – Eats one hit. Then it's gone, like your dignity.

• Mines – More mines down at once. Hospitality.

• Speed – Drive faster. Reach the next mistake sooner.

• Laser Guide – A long glowing aim line, for when you'd like to be wrong with confidence.

Permanent, and they stack:

• Piercer – Shells go on through the tank they kill. Overkill, formalised.

• Wrecker – Shells smash through glass instead of bouncing. Subtlety, deleted.

• Aftershock – Dying sets off a blast. Spite as a feature.

• Armoured Front – Shells that hit your front bounce off. Don't show them your back.

• Featherweight – Drive 10% faster. Lose the weight, keep the attitude.

• Bigger – Shells 10% bigger, slightly slower. Compensating.

• Aerodynamics – Shells 5% faster. Marginal gains for the marginal.

• Xray – See hidden bananas from three times as far. Priorities.

Gadgets, one at a time, in place of your mine:

• Dash – A burst forward that shells can't touch.

• Parry Pulse – Turns enemy shells round and makes them yours.

• Snare Mine – Holds whoever sets it off on a short leash.

• Rolling Mine – Rolls out, rests, ruins somebody's day.

• Spike Mine – Goes off on contact, in a ring of shells.

• Sentry – A turret that shoots the nearest enemy it can see.

• Light Wall – Your team walks through it. Nobody else does.

• Beacon – Drop it, press again, jump back to it.

Dressed to kill

• A dozen tank models, including a Banana, a Submarine, a Turtle, a Duck, a Monkey with a bazooka, a Boot and a Balloon Dog.

• 16 finishes, nearly 20 crosshairs, trails, a dozen kinds of shell, pit backgrounds and arena styles.

• 97 achievements, most of them with a prize attached, and 25 golden bananas hidden throughout the game.

• Everything is earned or bought with bananas. No real money and no micro-transactions after purchase. We remember when we used to own things. We're here for it.

Made for the couch

Controller-first, built to read from across the room, happiest with a gamepad in each hand. Mouse and keyboard work fine too, if you're feeling responsible. Climb the high score board, put your initials on it, and lie about how you got there.

Key features

• Ricochet physics and crazy animations

• 50 campaign levels, three Gauntlet scenarios and seven Versus modes, with a playlist and an eight-person party on top

• Twelve enemies, each with its own colour, habits and grudge, and a gold-plated boss

• Local play for up to four, plus Steam Remote Play Together

• Co-op with a shared life pool: carry your partner, or get carried

• A map editor, for the people who think the problem is the maps

• 24 power-ups and a garage full of ways to look better than you play

• Glass walls you can shoot through, stone walls you can't. Know the difference before you don't

• Full gamepad support, tuned for the couch; keyboard and mouse also welcome

• A local high score board, for bragging rights nobody asked for