Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a 2016 third-person shooter video game developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and the fourth game in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. The game was released in February 2016. A successor, Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, was released in October 2019.
The game includes multiple online multiplayer game modes which can support 24 players per game. There is also a story mode which includes missions given by Crazy Dave on the plant's side, and Dr. Zomboss on the zombie's side. A hub world is introduced called the Backyard Battleground, which consists of a town called Suburbia, split down the middle with plants on one side, and zombies on the other. Each side has a base for either plants or zombies, and in the middle of the town is a park which includes a King of the Hill match called the Flag of Power. The game takes place after the events of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, which shows Dr. Zomboss taking over parts of Suburbia and renaming it to Zomburbia. Crazy Dave and the plants go to war with Dr. Zomboss to reclaim their home.
The game received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic. The game sold an estimated 279,000 units, and the retail version was the second best-selling game in its week of release in the UK.
Gameplay
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a third-person shooter, similar to Garden Warfare. Gameplay largely remained the same as its predecessor, with the addition of 10 new plant and zombie classes, a zombie version of Garden Ops, titled Graveyard Ops, and a new mode called Herbal Assault, a swapped version of Gardens and Graveyards where the Zombies must defend the bases and prevent the Plants from capturing them, which supports a maximum 24 players per game. Different classes have different abilities. Most characters and modes from the original Garden Warfare returned, as well as a new "remix" music from the original Garden Warfare for the Zombies. New abilities for returning characters were also introduced in Garden Warfare 2. The new plant characters are Citron, Rose, Kernel Corn and Torchwood. The new zombie characters are Imp, Super Brainz, Captain Deadbeard, and Hover Goat-3000. The old plant characters are Peashooter, Sunflower, Chomper, and Cactus, while the old zombies are Soldier, Engineer, Scientist, and All-Star.Unlike the original Garden Warfare where players can play solo only on Garden Ops, via private mode, in Garden Warfare 2 every mode in the game that is not a mystery portal exclusive can be played solo. Split-screen multiplayer, private servers, twelve maps and forty different characters will be supported at launch. Free additional content will also be released regularly upon the game's release.
A new mode called Backyard Battleground is also introduced. It serves as a hub world that is free for players to explore. In Backyard Battleground, players can access portals that are connected to missions, view unlocked characters' bobbleheads, collect collectibles scattered in the world, and join King of the Hill-style matches known as Flag of power matches against artificial intelligence at will. When playing Backyard Battleground, the game will send waves of enemy heroes, although the game will also send crates, containing either an AI ally or coins. There are also plant pots or places where the player can build either plant turrets or Zombie bots. A shooting gallery and moon-based missions are also featured.
Plant and zombie variants earned in the original Garden Warfare could've been transferred by interacting with the mailbox in the Backyard Battleground. This included rewards based on your level in the first game, and for players who reached max ranks, a unique character variant. This feature was available from release until February 28, 2017. The UI has been improved, with Crazy Dave and Dr. Zomboss shown talking in 3D model of themselves.
At the bases of both the Plants and the Zombies, there are several common features, including a Customization Room allowing the player to change and accessorize characters, a Quest Board with different objectives for Plants, Multiplayer, and Zombies, sticker Shops, a Multiplayer Portal, a Mailbox, and a special Garage, with quest missions for both sides.
The game also includes many exclusive rewards for players who have played the original Garden Warfare. The player can use their Mailbox in either side's base to import all of the unlocked characters and abilities that they have unlocked in Garden Warfare, depending on if they actually played the first game. They can also use their rank from Garden Warfare 1 to get loyalty rewards, which rank from sticker packs to an exclusive character for those who reached the max rank of 313, the Unicorn Chomper. The Unicorn Chomper, however, was only available for the first year after Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 was released. Players who either pre-ordered or purchased the deluxe edition of Garden Warfare 2 will get many exclusive items, from emoji customizations to an exclusive Mass Effect-themed character, the Z7 Imp.
Modes
Most of the game modes from Garden Warfare returned to Garden Warfare 2 '','' while several new modes have been added, including a zombie version of Garden Ops, Graveyard Ops, and an alternative of Gardens and Graveyards, Herbal Assault, in which the plants attack and the zombies defend.Single Player
The game consists of a hub world for the player, which is a large map divided in two, with the plants on one side of the Backyard and the zombies being on the other. In the middle, the plant and zombie forces fight each other constantly. The player can access the Garden Ops and Graveyard Ops modes through Crazy Dave's time-traveling RV named penny, or Dr. Zomboss' blimp in each side's base, and can access every other mode through the Multiplayer Portal, where they can choose to play any mode solo, private with friends, or go online in multiplayer. The player can pick up daily quests from a Quest Board to complete, can buy sticker packs from a Sticker Shop, customize their characters in the Customization Booth, promote leveled up characters in the Stats Room, complete quests around the Backyard, and can also take part in solo story quests for either Crazy Dave or Dr. Zomboss from any NPC characters. There is also a sewer system where the player can find hidden areas and a timed shooting range.Located in the backyard battleground, there is the Flag of Power: A King of the Hill-inspired mode in which the player must defend the 'Flag of Power' from the opposite faction, who will constantly send out waves of enemies, with each wave being more difficult than the one before. After each wave the player will be rewarded with coins. During each wave, a crate will be dropped for the players to break open, and doing so will release an AI reinforcement that will help the player fight. The mode is endless making it so the player cannot actually 'win', but rather see how long they can keep the flag raised. The game ends when the flag is dropped completely.
Co-Op
There is a garden ops and a graveyard ops where up to four players take control of either the plants defending a garden through ten zombie waves, or as the zombies defending a tombstone through ten plant waves, with the fifth and tenth waves being boss waves represented by a slot machine. The slot machine is hosted by either Dr. Zomboss or Crazy Dave, depending on if you're the plants or zombies respectively. It can spawn 1-3 bosses, a jackpot, a huge swarm of zombies or a Super Boss. After that, they must run and survive to the extraction point to be saved by either Crazy Dave or Dr. Zomboss. There is a solo ops version in which the player can choose up to 3 AI helpers instead.Multiplayer
Team Vanquish is a team deathmatch variant, where two teams representing plants and zombies fight against each other to take down opponents where the first team to 50 kills wins. Vanquish confirmed is the same as team vanquish, but opponents drop orbs that you have to collect to receive credit for the kills. Herbal assault and gardens and graveyards include capturing various objectives as either plants or zombies respectively, while the other team tries to defend them. Suburbination is a domination style variant where the objective is to capture three areas as a team. If all three are captured, "Suburbination" occurs and the team who captured them all gets bonuses until they lose an area. Gnome bomb is where players attempt to secure a bomb shaped as a gnome and detonate them at various bases.Setting
The game takes place in the present day after the events of Garden Warfare where, after a long war, the Plants have been defeated by the Zombies after Dr. Edgar George Zomboss contacts his future self and obtains the more technologically advanced Z-Mech, which is piloted by Zombie Imps. The Zombies use it to turn the tide on the Plants and conquer Suburbia, which they rename Zomburbia. The Plants go to war against the Zombies to reclaim their home and fight for what is left of Suburbia.In July 2015, it was announced that a three-part tie-in comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics was scheduled for release in October 2015. It is set before the events of Garden Warfare 2 and explains how the Zombies defeated the Plants and conquered Neighborville. The comics were successful, and now 31 total comics have been released.
Development
A new Plants vs. Zombies video game was revealed in Electronic Arts' annual earning reports. A sequel to Garden Warfare was teased on June 8, 2015. A trailer for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 was presented for the first time at E3 2015 as part of the presentation given by Microsoft and on August 22, 2015, during Xbox Live's webcast of the Miss Teen USA 2015 beauty pageant. A mashup with Mass Effect called Grass Effect was announced at Gamescom 2015. Players who pre-order the game would receive a Mass Effect-inspired mech-suit for the new class, The Imp. BioWare assisted PopCap with developing the Grass Effect mech-suit.An open beta testing for the game was held from January 14, 2016, to January 18, 2016, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, this was largely for multiplayer tuning, and many of the game modes and Backyard Battleground secrets were disabled. A trial version of the game was released by the end of April 2016. This version of the game allows players to play the game for up to ten hours.
They have released their first free content update called The Graveyard Variety Pack. It was released on March 8, 2016, and it contains some character balancing, a new map Aqua Center, and some Backyard Battleground changes and additions. Another pack, titled Trouble in Zombopolis, was released in June 2016. It adds a new map called Zombopolis, and several new characters. Trouble in Zombopolis: Part Two was released in June 2016, introducing new features such as community challenges, delivering challenges, platforming elements, and new spawn points. EA partnered with Diamond Select Toys to release action figures featuring Garden Warfare 2 characters.
Reception
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.Kevin Dunsmore of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5 saying, "PopCap Games paid close attention to the criticisms of the original game and ultimately crafted a worthy sequel." Jordan Devore from Destructoid rated the game a 9/10 saying, "The hub world is a far more realized slice of the wider Plants vs. Zombies universe, and it's so delightfully odd." Spencer Campbell from Electronic Gaming Monthly rated the game a 7.5/10 saying, "PopCap has gone out of their way to amend many of the first Plants vs. Zombies shooter’s issues with Garden Warfare 2". Scott Butterworth from GameSpot rated the game a 7/10 saying, "With more generous pacing and worthwhile single-player content, Garden Warfare 2 would have been a truly outstanding game, but even without those things, it's a robust shooter with an astounding level of mechanical diversity that all but guarantees you'll encounter something new every round you play". IGN gave the game a score of 8.2/10, saying that the game "is all grown up into a premiere shooter".
The game's retail version was the second best-selling game in its week of release in the UK, debuting at number 2 in the UK retail software sales chart, behind Far Cry Primal.