Asymmetrical multiplayer

Asymmetrical gameplay

Asymmetrical multiplayer is a type of gameplay in which players can have significantly different roles or abilities from each other – enough to provide a significantly different experience of the game. In games with light asymmetry, the players share some of the same basic mechanics (such as movement and death), yet have different roles in the game; this is a common feature of the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre such as League of Legends and Dota 2, and in hero shooters such as Overwatch and Apex Legends. A first-person shooter that adopts the asymmetrical multiplayer system is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. Giving players their own special operator changes every player's experience. This puts an emphasis on players improvising their own game plan given the abilities their character has. In games with stronger elements of asymmetry, one player/team may have one gameplay experience (or be in softly asymmetric roles) while the other player or team play in a drastically different way, with different mechanics, a different type of objective, or both. Examples of games with strong asymmetry include Dead by Daylight, Evolve, and Left 4 Dead.