TankRat shows 15 minutes of gameplay, a mind-stealing Remote Viewer and a boss called the Cableworm

Eight hundred meters out, dead center, something big is waiting in the wreckage of a city. You've got a tank, a tip from a stranger, and a bad feeling. That's the setup for the new 15-minute gameplay segment from Alpha Channel and Kepler Interactive, and it's our longest look yet at TankRat.

If the name rings a bell, it should. TankRat grows out of Alpha Channel's TankHead, and this footage shows off a mission that wasn't in its predecessor at all.

Welcome to Ironstrike

The mission is called Ironstrike, and it digs into the lore. Whittaker, now a digital copy of himself, goes looking for the original, his "Persona Zero." Acting on a tip from his mysterious guide Cyril, he picks through the ruins of Ironstrike and learns how a once-great city fell apart.

A boxy hovering drone with glowing blue eyes and LITCH written on its shell, seen through a broken wall — A drone hovers outside a shattered wall in TankRat.

It also shows off the Remote Viewer, one of TankRat's new ways to make a mess of the ECA. It lets you temporarily take over an enemy unit and use its weapons against its own allies. Why destroy a tank when you can borrow it first?

A rugged tracked tank in TankRat faces a spindly glowing machine on long legs amid a storm of flying rocks — Debris fills the sky as a tank squares off with a long-legged machine.

A boss built from the scenery

The mission ends with the Cableworm, a mech-fusion that builds itself out of the landscape around Ironstrike by ripping metal out of the ground and bringing it to life. Its signature move is a nine-pronged laser, so your tank needs to be fast enough to dodge it or tough enough to take the hit.

It brings help, too. Smaller TankRats called Grabbers swarm you during the fight and try to flood both your tank and your Needle with radiation.

Six-wheeled TankRat war machine with camouflage paint and a long red gun barrel decorated with a tiger — One of TankRat's wheeled war machines.

Then there's Willow, one of the game's new characters. She's an old friend of Cyril's and one of the first Highpoint residents to upload her mind through Teleprojection. She's been alone in the ECA far too long, and her grip on sanity shows. She also tells Whittaker more about his future than he might want to hear.

A capsule-shaped robot with a single blue eye and a Hello name tag floats down a red-lit industrial corridor — Not every stop in TankRat is out in the open.

Here's what the new footage covers:

Ironstrike: a new mission that wasn't in TankHead
Remote Viewer: take over an enemy unit and turn its weapons on its allies
The Cableworm: a scrap-built boss with a nine-pronged laser and Grabbers backing it up
Willow: a new character who uploaded her consciousness long ago

A TankRat tank with twin guns sits in orange grass beneath a glowing blue and pink dome in the sky — More of the wasteland waiting in TankRat.

A TankRat tank rolls through a sunny overgrown meadow toward ruined houses and a tall radio tower — More of the wasteland waiting in TankRat.

TankRat rolls onto PlayStation 5 and PC on January 15, 2027, and you can wishlist it on Steam here. Stay tuned to GamingTrend.com for our review, and for all your upcoming reviews, previews, and gaming news!