Plants vs
| game Info |
| Box Art N/A |
| Platform Win, PS4, Xbox One |
| publisher Electronic Arts |
| Developer EA Canada |
| Release Date Feb 23, 2016 |
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a sequel to lớn a game I didn"t expect to lượt thích in the first place.
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When it was announced back in 2013, the original Garden Warfare seemed lượt thích 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, & what resulted married excellent mechanics with all of the bonkers thiết kế decisions of a real, honest-to-goodness Plants vs. Zombies game. It was even funny, & 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 và the Zombies are back in a trò chơi that aims to hóa trang for some of the original Garden Warfare"s limitations. In many respects, PopCap has gone the extra mile — & then some — lớn build something more than a budget experiment in mixing casual, cartoon aesthetics with a hardcore, team-based multiplayer shooter, but there are certain returning thiết kế issues that Garden Warfare 2 doesn"t quite shake.
When it comes lớn controls, responsiveness, weapon handling & team mechanics, PopCap is not fucking aroundPlants 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 và their benefactor, Crazy Dave; one kết thúc controlled by Dr. Zomboss & 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 và more, but the world at large is also full of its own secrets and hidden missions and challenges. You can also buổi tiệc nhỏ up with friends và wander the world — which is called Zomburbia, because PopCap — và annihilate enemies wandering around before accepting missions or queuing into multiplayer together.
Everything you vì chưng in Garden Warfare 2 contributes lớn your overall character & 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, & you can màn chơi up anywhere. It provides a màn chơi of persistence and involvement that very few shooters or action games manage, especially with a multiplayer component, & bigger, higher-profile titles have tried and failed to bởi vì what PopCap is pulling off.
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There"s so much stuff to bởi here that it"s honestly a little intimidating. After about a dozen hours, I don"t feel like I"ve chipped the surface of Zomburbia. I"ve unlocked almost no hidden areas, and haven"t raised the Flag of power nguồn — I"ll let you find out what that is yourself — once in the final version of the game. There"s almost too much to lớn do, but this strikes me as a good problem. While Garden Warfare was a bit of a hit-or-miss value proposition hinging entirely on your desire lớn play with other people, you can kill plenty of time solo in Garden Warfare 2, in addition khổng lồ playing every part of the game together as a group. It"s one of the most seamless cooperative experiences I"ve ever played.
Then there"s adversarial multiplayer, which has seen its own expansion. There three new classes on each side, bringing Plants và Zombies to lớn seven each. Garden Warfare 2 brings back one of the original game"s best features: the Welcome Mat playlist, which limits players lớn base classes on each side & also provides bonuses lớn struggling players to màn chơi the playing field a bit. Garden Warfare 2 also brings the same objective trò chơi types back, albeit with plenty of new quirks and maps that feel significantly larger than the last game.
It"s not that the Zombies aren"t fun lớn use. There"s plenty of variety & their brute-force approach can be deeply satisfying. But I felt lượt thích I was often running uphill in comparison lớn my games on the other side. And for whatever reason, during my review sessions for Garden Warfare 2, my time spent undead was often accompanied by strange lopsided matches where the foliage severely outnumbered us player-wise. I was annoyed that the game didn"t vì chưng something, anything to lớn balance matches lượt thích this — I played through the general matchmaking system with a retail Xbox One copy of the game. But I also wondered more than once if some players were just switching sides whenever they ended up playing as a Zombie.
If there"s a saving grace here, it"s that Garden Warfare 2 works to take the sting out of losing. There"s a podium recognizing particularly effective players at the end of each match, và it acknowledges success regardless of the winning team. There"s also a medal system in each game that goes out of its way to let you know when you did the most of a particular thing, và the progression rewards are generous as well, win or lose.
Wrap Up: Garden Warfare 2 rectifies the original"s budget-priced compromises
If Garden Warfare was an attempt to make a multiplayer-only shooter that just about anyone could enjoy, Garden Warfare 2 takes that a step further by removing the original"s budget-priced compromises. Making the original PopCap concept into a shooter isn"t novel anymore, and I hope that the developers pay attention khổng lồ the game"s potential balance challenges over time khổng lồ make sure that "asymmetric" doesn"t become "lopsided." But Garden Warfare 2 stands strong on its own, and with friends.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 was reviewed using final, retail Xbox One tải về codes provided by EA, involving time spent in multiplayer sessions on retail servers arranged by EA. Time spent with Garden Warfare 2 at an advance sự kiện in December was also considered. You can find additional information about lrocrevn.com"s ethics policy here. Note: this reviews originally stated that there were two new classes per side. There are three. It also referred khổng lồ the overworld as Backyard Ops. The mode is called Backyard Battleground.
