M16 Assault Rifle

"An assault rifle. This shit's gettin' more like 'Nam every second!"

- Bill

"Man, I wanted this rifle since I was nine!"

- Ellis

The Assault Rifle (M-16 Assault Rifle in Left 4 Dead 2) is a Tier 2 replacement for the Submachine Gun and Silenced Submachine Gun, with higher damage and better accuracy. It holds 50 rounds with a 360 round reserve, having less total ammo than the two submachine guns, but being a better overall weapon. The Assault Rifle is the best choice as a general use firearm, being adaptable to virtually every situation.

Tactics
The Assault Rifle is a weapon that is mostly effective in medium-range combat, as opposed to the short-range Auto Shotgun and the long-range Hunting Rifle. It is a very flexible weapon, however, adept at picking off Special Infected from a distance and piercing multiple Common Infected. It has a relatively high piercing power, but not quite as high as the Hunting Rifle. Its high piercing power makes it a useful weapon for clearing rooms full of Infected or destroying oncoming Hordes. The Assault Rifle is also a very potent anti-Tank weapon, due to the Auto Shotgun's damage penalty against them and its ability to deal full damage to the Tank before he even gets close.

Assault Rifle ammo is easy to waste. The weapon trades ammo capacity for accuracy and damage, and this must be used to full advantage to be effective. The Assault Rifle generally needs only two or three shots to do its job, and any more hampers its accuracy at mid to long range. Thus, burst firing or "headhunting" is highly recommended at medium to long ranges, since all Infected run at the same height (except the Mudmen). It is possible to fire single rounds with the Assault Rifle, although the fire button must be very quickly pressed. This can be useful when shooting long-range, and is effective on most difficulty settings except for Expert.

With burst firing, a technique known as the "postman's knock" cadence technique can be utilised if required; switch targets after a burst of several rounds about five times before reloading to avoid wasting ammo. The five count limit is so the user knows their gun is half empty and so must reload.

The Assault Rifle's tighter cone of fire makes it safer than the Auto Shotgun when firing near other Survivors, but on higher difficulties it struggles to keep up with the increased health of the Common Infected, requiring three hits to kill one on Expert, whereas the other Tier 2 weapons only need one (provided the Auto Shotgun user is close enough).

In a group of four on finales, it is a good idea to have two people with Auto Shotguns and two people with Assault Rifles. Get in a closet or similar point which causes the Infected to file in slowly. The two people with the Auto Shotguns crouch and shoot or use melee, while the two people with the Assault Rifles stand behind them and fire at the Infected as they approach. This is obviously ineffective against the Tank. It is also ineffective in Left 4 Dead 2, as the Director will spawn a Spitter to prevent Survivors from staying in one place for too long.

Pros

 * Higher rate of fire than its counterparts.
 * Is highly versatile, being able to be used in almost any role.
 * Laser sight effectively cancels out any accuracy problems.
 * A skilled user can easily conserve ammunition.
 * Has the fastest reload time out of the three assault rifle variants.

Cons

 * Has the lowest damage per shot of all the assault rifles.
 * Somewhat inaccurate without a laser sight when moving.
 * If firing non-stop and reloading, will burn though ammo fairly quickly.

Left 4 Dead 2
The Assault Rifle returns in Left 4 Dead 2, but has some new animations along with a new name: the "M-16 Assault Rifle". Compared to the other two rifles (the AK-47 and the Combat Rifle), it is the "middle of the road" assault rifle variant in terms of capacity along with balancing stopping power and damage with accuracy and range, making it good for almost any situation.

Behind the Scenes
Early screenshots show that the Assault Rifle lacked text on its left side at one time.

When the Assault Rifle was drawn in early versions of the game, the character would pull the charging handle as soon as he/she took the gun out. The sound for this animation is still played when the Assault Rifle is drawn out in the final version of the game.

The Assault Rifle was based on Counter-Strike ' s M4A1 assault rifle. Its "price" in the gun's weapon file is the same as the M4A1's, and it references the M4A1 in its "animation" listing. Its firing sounds are slightly modified versions of the sounds used for the M4A1. This is because in real life, the M4A1 is essentially a shorter M16.

It had a different reload animation as well. After replacing the magazine, the player would both pull the charging handle and hit the bolt catch.