Nintendo Wii Features

Hands-on with 'ZombiU' multiplayer

By Hector Cortez Jun 13, 2012, 3:18 GMT

Nintendo may have touted asymmetric gaming, but it was Ubisoft who truly showed off its potential.

Written by Michael Barryte

During and after Nintendo's E3 presentation, the words "asymmetric gaming" where tossed around multiple times. According to the study of game theory, asymmetric games are described as “games where there are not identical strategy sets for both players.” In Nintendo's case, when they talk about asymmetric gaming, they're referring to the Wii U's ability to deliver two completely different gaming experiences concurrently on two separate screens--the Wii U GamePad and the television. And while Nintendo may have touted it heavily, it was Ubisoft who truly showed off the potential of asymmetric gaming with its upcoming survivor horror game, ZombiU.

The E3 demo objective was straight forward: capture four flags to win. The twist, however, is how the GamePad comes into play. ZombiU is both a first-person shooter and a quasi-real-time strategy game. Choose to play as a human and you'll find yourself in first-person shooter mode, complete with a familiar arsenal of primary and secondary weapons, along with items like an anti-zombie vaccine. The way you die is by getting bit a zombie, but worry not, because three seconds later you'll respawn.

However, those seconds are precious because, while one player is playing as a human survivor in FPS mode, the other player is playing an RTS mode, dropping four different types of zombies on the map, also in hopes of claiming flags. The RTS mode shown off isn't incredibly deep, but that doesn't diminish the fun of being able to drop ten zombies on the map, some for the purpose of distraction, while a separate swarm seizes a flag across the map. The multiplayer feels balanced while not coming off as overly complicated.

Overall, ZombiU's multiplayer demo did a great job of highlighting the joys that one can have with asymmetric gaming and is a positive sign of things to come. For more information, visit ZombiU.com.