Plants vs Zombies 2: Garden Warfare Review
Game Reviewed: Plants v Zombies 2: Garden Warfare
Release Date: February 23rd, 2016
Developer: PopCap Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: [Reviewed: Xbox One], PlayStation 4, PC
Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Rated: E10+
It’s Suburbia, where everything things seem as beautiful as can be. It was at least until zombies found a new town to terrorize. And as you can expect, it’s up the plants to save what used to be home sweet home. Who will prevail in the sequel? Welcome to Plants vs. Zombie: Garden Warfare 2.
Now Zomburbia, zombies have fully taken over and the smallest, most beautiful flower has alerted zombies to be on the lookout. Lucky for the plants Dave is still around and is protecting you every step, or crawl of the way.
Once extracted you land in the backyard, the headquarters for all plants. Here you can choose to do solo quests, jump into multiplayer, switch and customize characters. There’s also a mailbox that informs you of upcoming announcements and allow importing of the original PvZ characters. There are also hidden rewards throughout that allow players to score coins and diamonds for purchasing additional characters for your brigade.
Not wanting to play so much online, solo objectives can be completed to earn badges. Some objectives even allowed help to intervene as you break open crates or plant a hero to help. Completing each objective comes with its rewards; coins for the sticker shop.
As in the original Garden Warfare plants are given three special abilities, utilizing similar controls as on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A major twist in Garden Warfare 2 there’s so much to do, including the opportunity to become a zombie and complete the quest as the undead.
Zombies are actually a fun twist in Garden Warfare 2 as their abilities are similar, but more breathtaking. Why? Some zombies have a special Z-Mech suit that drop from the sky and allow an awesome, temporary beast of a machine that would leave the Transformers running for their lives; or plants.
The zombie missions were out of this world with impersonations from other EA titles, including Star Wars.
Multiplayer has a variety of options: Team Vanquish (death match), Turf Takeover (Battlefield’s Rush), Gnome Bomb (detonate the gnome 3 times), 
Vanquish Confirmed (Kill Confirmed) and Surburination (domination)
Garden Warfare 2 is visually impressive, truly evolved from the mobile game and a step up from previous console releases using the Frostbite 3 engine. Maps look vibrant, reminding me of Skylanders environment.
In regards to whom it matters most, kids, and my children had an absolute blast with the solo story as one played as plants and the other as zombies. Replay value is extremely just as high as its predecessor. And with the addition of split screen, PopCap has just put a smile on every PvZ fan of the series as this was one the biggest complaints and most requested feature.
Pick a side and dominate in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. A great offline story, impressive gameplay, along with an incredible multiplayer experience, EA and PopCap has just delivered on a game that will be a must have for quite some time.
The Scores
Gameplay: 4/5
Visuals: 4.25/5
Audio: 3/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay Value: 3.75/5
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