Plants vs Zombies 2 New HD Cover

Description

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a sequel to a game I didn't expect to like in the first place.

When it was announced back in 2013, the original Garden Warfare seemed like a monstrosity, taking the accessible, goofy charm of casual-friendly developer PopCap's overhead strategy game Plants vs. Zombies and shooter-ing it up. How crass, I thought. How unnecessary. But it turned out that PopCap was on to something, and what resulted married excellent mechanics with all of the bonkers design decisions of a real, honest-to-goodness Plants vs. Zombies game. It was even funny, and a rare example of a sophisticated shooter that didn't rely on graphic, bloody violence. It was also a game with surprising legs, racking up millions of users despite its complete focus on multiplayer.

Now, almost exactly two years later, the Plants and the Zombies are back in a game that aims to make up for some of the original Garden Warfare's limitations. In many respects, PopCap has gone the extra mile — and then some — to build something more than a budget experiment in mixing casual, cartoon aesthetics with a hardcore, team-based multiplayer shooter, but there are certain returning design issues that Garden Warfare 2 doesn't quite shake.

WHEN IT COMES TO CONTROLS, RESPONSIVENESS, WEAPON HANDLING AND TEAM MECHANICS, POPCAP IS NOT FUCKING AROUND
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2's greater ambitions are obvious right away. Where Garden Warfare started at a basic menu, asking if you wanted to play the cooperative Garden Ops mode or competitive multiplayer, Garden Warfare 2 drops you into a war —€” or rather, a completely ridiculous demilitarized zone. Backyard Battleground is the container for everything in Garden Warfare 2, taking place in a town split into three parts: one section in the sunlight occupied by the Plants and their benefactor, Crazy Dave; one end controlled by Dr. Zomboss and the rest of his super-advanced Zombie army; and in the middle, a no-plants-or-zombies land where chaos rules.

It's a really bizarre conceit, but it works, adding a sense of narrative only hinted at in previous PvZ games. There's a context for just about everything happening in Garden Warfare 2, which is a nice change of pace from the bare-bones presentation of the original. But, more importantly, it adds a framework from which PopCap hangs a frankly ridiculous number of things to do. Each side's base contains missions, bounty boards, multiplayer portals and more, but the world at large is also full of its own secrets and hidden missions and challenges. You can also party up with friends and wander the world —€” which is called Zomburbia, because PopCap —€” and annihilate enemies wandering around before accepting missions or queuing into multiplayer together.

Everything you do in Garden Warfare 2 contributes to your overall character and player progression, no matter where you do it. Wayward zombies or plants are worth experience in Zomburbia as well as in the cooperative Garden Ops mode, and you can level up anywhere. It provides a level of persistence and involvement that very few shooters or action games manage, especially with a multiplayer component, and bigger, higher-profile titles have tried and failed to do what PopCap is pulling off.