Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a chaotic good time that takes everything that was great about the first game, gives it a fresh coat of paint, and adds in more nonsense on top.

Jordan: And there it is. The truth comes out. Naturally, I’m a zombie guy, so we need to be sworn enemies until I invariably grow tired of playing as the still-kinda-cheap soldier class with the crossbow and switch sides.

EA’s purchase of PopCap games, developers of the Plants vs Zombies series, heralded a move towards AAA console titles with the first Garden Warfare game receiving critical praise for its unique game modes and applying the IP successfully from a mobile game to a third person shooter back in 2014. Its sequel, that sounds like a familiar Call of Duty title, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 doesn’t...

Under its attractively bright and cartoony art style, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 has a great amount of modes and customization options to enjoy, whether alone against the AI or with online allies and enemies. The interesting abilities options of the six new character classes gave me something to sink my teeth into, and the customization options are a great reward for playing outside my c...

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 improves on its already great predecessor in a bunch of ways. New characters, game modes, and other modifications make for a better, though very familiar experience. This is definitely an iterative sequel, offering nothing revolutionary, but for those that want more PvZ action, it'll easily fit the bill.

Overall, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a prime example of a fantastic sequel, albeit one that plays it rather safe. It doesn’t wildly change the formula in any way or offer anything drastically different from the original Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, but it improves upon it in pretty much every single way to make it a much more rounded and attractive package. Sure, it’s still not th...

It’s one of the unlikeliest genre shifts that I’ve seen in a long while, but Garden Warfare really does do a great job of taking the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, with that peculiar sense of humour and the catchy music intact, and wrapping it round a multiplayer action shooter which borrows and twists ideas from the rest of the industry into something distinctly PvZ.

From its gorgeous graphics to its expanded gameplay features, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a clear improvement over the first game in every sense of the word. That being said, it still feels somewhat small in scale compared to other games in the genre, which may keep it from becoming a go-to title for shooter fans. A full-fledged single player campaign, split-screen online support, and ...

In bloom.

It feels more like an expansion than a sequel, and misses some easy opportunities to improve on the original, but this is still the best family-friendly shooter outside of Splatoon.

Garden Warfare 2 will be fun for those who enjoy the tower defense genre. Anyone else will want to stay away from this game that suffers from lackluster controls in third person shooting and a missed opportunity to create a much larger world to explore.

No one ever said the fight between the living dead and flowers would be a fair one, but in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is doing its best to even the battlefield. Although originally the series was an amusing distraction found on the phone of millions, the franchise has evolved into a sizable, attention grabbing and unique shooter.