There aren’t many multiplayer games for Android. Although, in the past year, there has been an increase in their availability. Now there are games like Pocket Legends, Raging Thunder, Words with Friends, ProjectINF and Dungeon Defenders.

However, most of the best games on the market are exclusively singleplayer. Take Shadowgun, for example. It’s a third person shooter in the same vein as the Gears of War series, only it’s been designed specifically for mobile touchscreen devices.

Shadowgun

Shadowgun is a third person shooter for mobile devices and tablets. It uses the Unity game engine to provide enhanced graphics like advanced lighting effects and realistically rendered environments. It is well known for its console quality graphics which was, at the time, relatively unheard of in mobile games.

“SHADOWGUN puts you into the role of John Slade, the galaxy’s most infamous bounty hunter. Your mission: hunt down Dr. Edgar Simon, maniacal genius and leader of his own mutant army. Infiltrate Dr. Simon’s mountain fortress and fight his personal guard of cyborgs, battle droids, and genetically-enhanced humanoids. Using state-of-the-art weaponry, ships, and the assistance of S.A.R.A. – Slade’s personal android assistant – SHADOWGUN combines intense tactical combat with 3rd person action.”

Needless to say, Madfinger games clearly did an excellent job when developing Shadowgun. The enemy AI is actually quite intelligent, which provides a more difficult gameplay experience than most shooters. Shadowgun also features a full campaign, with a superb story and multiple endings.

Until now, Shadowgun has largely been a singleplayer only title.

Shadowgun DeadZone Beta

Madfinger has been working on an online multiplayer mode for Shadowgun for some time now, but it has finally seen the light of day. The new multiplayer, called Shadowgun DeadZone, is in open beta. It was originally unveiled to the public in January, 2012 at CES (as you can see in the trailer we’ve included which quotes a first quarter of 2012 release).

Unfortunately, DeadZone is only available for Tegra-3 equipped devices. That means if your tablet or smartphone is not powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset, you may never be able to experience Shadowgun DeadZone multiplayer.

The official Google Play page has this to say about the DeadZone exclusivity on Tegra 3 devices:

“At the moment, the Beta Version is available only for those with Tegra 3 devices.”

Which leads us to believe that it will eventually come to other devices too.

DeadZone Multiplayer Features

DeadZone includes two multiplayer game modes: DeathMatch and Zone Control, a king of the hill type gameplay mode. During the beta, there are only two maps available, Assembly Hall and Invasion, but more will probably be included when the game is officially released.

The DeadZone beta also introduces four playable characters, and a plethora of weapons and gadgets.

• Playable Characters
  • Soldier
  • Mutant
  • Assassin
  • Dancer

• Weapons
  • Bandit (SMG)
  • Vega (Attack Rifle)
  • Big Boy (Machine Gun)
  • Spate (Plasma Rifle)
  • Mace (Shotgun)
  • Osog (Sniper)
  • ShitStorm (Rocket Launcher)

• Gadgets
  • Sprint
  • Medi Kit
  • Ammo Kit
  • FlashBang
  • EMP Grenade
  • Frag Grenade
  • Sentry Gun
  • Mine

On the official Shadowgun Facebook page, the developers have teased a few other characters including Sheriff Moregun, Jessica “Widowmaker” Metzger, the Toltech Corps Scientist and a robot named S.A.R.A.

DeadZone has quite a few positive reviews in Google Play (283 as of the time of this writing), so obviously there are people out there enjoying the beta. If you’ve ever dreamed of fragging enemies online in a multiplayer deathmatch via your tablet or smartphone then DeadZone is perfect for you.

Shadowgun & Shadowgun DeadZone Are Available Now

If you’ve never played Shadowgun before then you should probably get on that, it’s available via Google Play for $4.99. If you’re one of the lucky few who owns a Tegra 3 powered device, then you can also download the Shadowgun DeadZone beta for free via Google Play.

There has been no official word on DeadZones actual release, or when it will be available for non-Tegra 3 devices, so for now we’ll just have to wait. If you can, get into the beta and start testing it out for the rest of us.

It is a beta so that means there will be bugs and software issues, and Madfinger has stated that there is a limited supply of server slots so if there is lots of traffic you may have to wait a while before playing.