Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is so stupidly addictive and entertaining and I can’t stop playing it. Just thought I’d skip the formalities and set the tone here because I haven’t been this engrossed in a game for some time.
Ok, I’ll give you a brief rundown. In 2014, PopCap decided to go big with their mobile tower defence game Plants vs Zombies, and release a full fledged AAA title for home consoles. And it was ridiculously entertaining.
Now, following on from the positive vibes that surrounded Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, they made a sequel that virtually improves on everything.
Set after the events of GW (which didn’t have that much of a story to be honest), Dr. Zomboss has edged his way to victory, but the plants still fight to take back their home.
Suburbia (now renamed Zomburbia) is literally split down the middle. One side is idyllic, green and luminous and houses the plants’ home base and on the other is the zombies HQ, shrouded in darkness and all manner of death.
Clearly cognizant of the potential for a fresh mythos and interesting story, there is now a solo campaign that lets you take on quests for Crazy Dave or Dr. Zomboss. It’s nice to have a narrative to accompany the proceedings. There are cool little stories woven in throughout the game like the presence of bounty hunters, time travel and former soldiers retuning to fight the good fight.
Mission variety is lacking initially. You either have to go and pick up something in Surburbia or transport to a map to to take part in GW2’s version of the ubiquitous horde mode, Garden Ops. But things ramp up and before you know it, you’re escorting a group of imps through a field of sniper fire and potato mines or jumping in a plane in a hilarious lampooning of modern war games predilection for AC-130 missions. There is a great range and with the ability to swap between both factions, you’ll find that you’re never doing one type of mission too often.
PopCap have done away with menus. Suburbia is the hub for anything you want to do in game and outside your safe zones, plants and zombies do battle on the divide. So if you don’t want to do anything in particular you can go and rack up up some XP in the ongoing battle. In your safe zone, you can visit machines that let you customize you characters, purchase items at the sticker shop, check your mail and stats and enter one of the game modes. I love not needing to cycle through menus and just having everything exist in one big world. It makes everything feel so connected and adds to the overall homogeneousness that PopCap are trying to create.
The great thing now is that you’re not forced to play as only plants. In GW, the only time you could play as zombies was in multiplayer matches but now it’s an even split and anything you can do with plants, can now be achieved with the undead. And its a game changer. All it takes is heading over to a booth and switching sides and you’re on the opposing team in an instant. This means that zombies now have their own horde mode called Graveyard Ops, their own missions and anything else that plants are capable of. It topped the list of things we needed in the sequel and PopCap haven’t let their fans down.
GW2 has introduced 6 new character classes too, bringing the grand total to 14 so you’re bound to find someone you like.
The new additions on the zombie side are those pesky little imps, only diminutive until they call down a giant mech warrior; The pirate Captain Deadbeard who can send out a parrot for air support and Super Brainz, GW2’s resident superhero who specialises in melee attacks.
Newbies for the plant faction are Citron, a time travelling orange who can transform and roll into opponents; Rose, a sorceress who can slow down zombies and turn them into goats and my personal favourite Kernal Corn. He’s basically a commando, who can reign down corn with air strikes or leap over enemies firing his dual cob busters like an action hero.
Of course there are variants of each character once again and all that hard work you put into GW wasn’t in vain. When you start, you’re given an option to import your unlocked characters from the first game. A very welcome feature.
It always stuns me how solid these games are as third person shooters. The only thing they lack is a cover or crouch option but you’re constantly moving and utilising one of your three special abilities so it fits in with the structure of the game. AI is smart too (despite one side not having brains) and will pummel you unless you strategise effectively. Combat is just so satisfying -that ding of a coin alerting that you have killed someone is practically cathartic.
Game modes have remained largely intact. No matter what you’re doing, it’s always going to be chaotic, fast paced and completely nuts. Garden/Graveyard Ops only lasts up to 10 waves now instead of being endless with the catch being that you must make it to an extraction zone at the end. There are few new plants to defend you and now that the zombies have their own mode, its great to try out their robots that fire rockets and shatter armour. Doing Ops modes on your own has a nice new implementation. Now you can choose 4 characters and hot-swap between them during battle. They hold their own and the sunflower and scientist will get their medic on while the cactus will barricade itself and lay down sniper fire.
Online is fun too and probably more manic than playing solo. There are numerous modes including a kill confirmed inspired one. It’s easy enough to get into a match and everything runs really well. The only issue I stumbled across was getting a game on the Australian server but if you don’t mind it too much, the American servers have a fairly good ping and run just as smooth.
GW only let you use split screen for Garden Ops buts now you’re friend can join you for the entirety of the game, no matter what you do. This opens up a plethora of options for you and a friend and gives you so many more hours of co-operative game play.
GW 2 just keeps on rewarding you. You can pick up mini-quests like killing 10 enemies with a certain ability or taking out a super boss and they reward you with stars. These can be used to unlock chests and clean up your home base.
You procure coins by completing just about anything and you can get special rewards for reaching certain ranks. Sticker packs contain legendary characters too .
All of this means that just by playing the game, you’re always progressing. No matter what mode you’re in, just getting things done with the character you’re playing as yields you XP and with each level up, you can gain customisation options and alternate abilities.
GW2 looks the part too. Suburbia pops with colour and beautifully rendered architecture/ There is barely an inch of wasted space with each map and location decorated with quirky characteristics.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is so refined that it almost renders the first game obsolete. The wacky array of characters, inventive new HUB, solo additions and persistent reward system is like a 101 on how to keep people playing your game. PopCap have crafted something so utterly audacious and unabashedly fun that whether or not it is talked about in five years, it unequivocally breaks new ground for third-person shooters.
Review Score: 9 out of 10
Highlights: Improves on EVERYTHING; consistently rewarded just for playing; Incredibly solid and satisfying shooter; New characters are a blast; Playing as zombies is fantastic; HUB world is a great addition
Lowlights: Hard to get a game on Australian servers
Developer: PopCap
Publisher: EA Games
Released: February 23, 2016
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on PlayStation 4
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