Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 Review

Developed by PopCap and published by EA in 2016, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is an online multiplayer team shooter, where you control one of the many character options for an all-out brawl in a variety of maps. It is a wonderfully silly and crazy time-sink with a surprising level of depth that rewards your time with more and more characters and bonuses, all tied together with entertaining, if short, story missions and offline options.

Horticultural Homicide

Garden Warfare 2 offers an expansive multiplayer experience complete with different game modes ranging from the classic base-capture mode from the original (now named ‘Turf Takeover’), which has one side defending and the other attacking a series of capture points- ending with one big grandiose objective at the end of the map, to Gnome Bomb where players on each side must secure an overly-excitable garden gnome with an attached explosive to destroy 3 statues on the other team.

The smaller game modes, such as Gnome Bomb, suffice as quick time-killer or something different if you fancy it, but Garden Warfare really shines in Turf Takeover. With a full game lobby, one match of Turf Takeover could last more than 30 minutes, with the two teams of 12 players duking it out over each new objective. It is in this larger game mode where the different classes of characters shine in their roles. You have your tanks, healers, snipers and damage dealers, much like other games such as Overwatch, except Garden Warfare 2 offers a mountain of customisation options.

There are over 100 playable characters to choose from, each of them falling into a class. For example, the classic Peashooter class returns but you can also, like the first Garden Warfare, choose one of the variants (for example Rock Pea has more health but is slower) that you can unlock through buying ‘Sticker Packs’ with in-game currency. Each character, and the variants of them, allow you to play to your playstyle or experimenting if you wish. Because each variant stays fundamentally the same as the original, it is never daunting or demanding to learn how a new character works due to this familiarity. On top of this, as you play a character and gain experience with them to level up, you are then able to ‘Promote’ a character, unlocking extra boosts to give that character specifically. For me, my max level Chemist (a variant of the ‘Scientist’ class which trades the regular ranged weapon for a high damage but extremely short range blast) has a damage, ammunition and reload upgrade equipped, allowing me to do more damage more often with a smaller gap in between damage output. By giving players the option to tweak their favourite characters further, Garden Warfare 2 has a surprising level of depth that I did not see initially. But, as I played more, more options upon options opened to me and I was genuinely impressed at how this game kept offering more to me.

Of course, like most multiplayer games, Garden Warfare 2 has its shortcomings with the online experience. On multiple occasions (not common but it happens nonetheless), I have been kicked from an online game due to a server error. One second I am playing and having a fun time and the next my screen abruptly turns to black as I return to the home screen with an error. Pair this with rather long loading times (at least for me on the Xbox One), these errors usually make me stop playing altogether as I find it tedious to wait through the loading screens and find another match.

Peas in a Pod

Garden Warfare 2 also allows for split-screen with a friend to enjoy every game mode- against AI. Split-screen support is very welcome and the ability to play the game nearly to its fullest with a friend or family member in the same room is a great experience. And while you can only play against AI, I have found the AI to be quite fun to play against. You have a range of difficulty options, which affect their accuracy and damage dealt as well as a few ‘Crazy Settings’, including low-gravity and one-hit mode, to spice the matches up. Provided Crazy Settings are deactivated, you can also earn just as much character experience as you would in an online game, and even more if the difficulty is set to its harder options. However, even split-screen is not safe from stability bugs. I have experienced the occasional freeze which leads to either the game fixing itself after a couple of seconds or a hard crash. It is a huge shame that these issues persist in offline games because they really ruin the tempo and fun of this game.

Garden Warfare 2 also has a hub world, known as the Backyard Battleground, and it is phenomenal. With a Plant and Zombie framing each side, the Backyard Battleground is an endless war that you can take part of at any time. Smaller foes that are summonable fodder in the online games forever spawn and attack each other as well as you. The longer you stay in the Backyard, the more it escalates. The playable character classes begin to spawn, stronger versions of these (known as ‘Champions’) function as mini-bosses and reward money upon death and actual bosses, normally reserved for the returning ‘Garden Ops’ mode, spawn in the Battleground on both sides. All this creates a huge brawl and endless fun. Furthermore, the Backyard is massive and expansive, full of little secrets, shortcuts and gags throughout that you can discover as you explore it either alone or with a friend. The hub world is a wonderful addition to Garden Warfare 2 that the original did not have and it offers yet another option to enjoy yourself as a player. Don’t feel like playing against other players? Then play against AI in all game modes, or mess around in the adaptive and escalating warzone quite literally at your doorstep.

Multiple story missions for both sides also provide their own level of fun, even if it is short lived. Some missions are forgettable, but there are some spectacular standouts. Covering Kernel (“Colonel”) Corn in a plane made, also made of corn, shooting explosives and high calibre rounds, also made of corn, from above as he makes a mad dash to deliver a tactical Cuke (“Nuke”- except it is a cucumber) to the Zombie Base definitely comes to mind. The story missions are a perfect showcase of the game’s tone and humour and I think they achieve what they set out to do- be fun and (mostly) memorable.

Verdict

Offering a plethora of customisation, game modes and ways to spend your time, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a great multiplayer game with a silly undertone aimed at people of all ages. Anyone can enjoy their time with this game either alone or with someone else. A surprising level of depth gives this game a longevity that similar games would not have and with the amazing Backyard Battleground, there are countless hours of fun to be had. That is if the server connections issues do not surface and raise their head like the titular zombies.