Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 (PvZ-GW2) is the best, fun, multiplayer game since ever.
For Electronic Arts (EA) it has been a rough relationship with players the past few years. And to all the players hating on EA lately, I say to you, play PvZ-GW2. This game (including the first) is the most fun I have ever had playing a multiplayer game. The majority of the players are kids, as it should be, but there is enough fight in the game for older gamers to appreciate it too. My other gamer friends are always like I need a game to distract me when I want to take a break from the 2 or 3 "main" games I am really concentrating on playing. I give you your game distraction PvZ-GW2. In GW1 there was multiplayer vs multiplayer and then multiplayer vs npc modes (lack of modes didn't matter GW1 is hella fun). GW2 has stepped its game up offering more modes and more character options than before.
Setup
You will start the game with 7 character classes on each side plants and zombies. Each class has variants of the "base" character that you will unlock with a combination of leveling up, collecting coins (in game currency), and buying "sticker packs". You can customize each character with accessories you collect in sticker packs. Each character within each class has it's own XP (leveling up) system. Your goal is to level up each character doing many different tasks that will earn you XP. The higher you get each character the higher your player rank becomes. As a character levels up they will be able to equip stronger abilities and attacks.
A big improvement over the last game is the XP level up system, the last game had an overly complex level up system that gave objectives to do in game but you have to be really good at completing tasks or just OCD about it to get all the characters leveled up. Now it's straightforward play the game get into fights and level your character up as you play no matter how you do it.
Characters
There are 14 character classes total with at least 5 variants within each class. Variants are specific to the character but a good example is the classic Peashooter. The standard has a basic exploding shot and two of the variants, one is an Ice Pea which has an ice shot that can freeze enemies with enough shots, another is the Fire Pea which has a fire shot which can catch an enemy on fire and continue to inflict damage for a short time.
The characters are well designed from the original game and play well with one another. There is enough variety that you will easily find a favorite on both sides.
Backyard Battleground
Battle ON
A new feature that we have to the multiplayer genre is an instant battle feature. Your home screen and all your play options are located in a place called the backyard. The backyard consists of the two sides Zombies and Plants and you can switch to either side you want to play on anytime. In the middle of the two backyards is the backyard battleground where you can start the game at any point with no extra load screens or boring choosing what I want to do. You can jump in the middle and be in a battle without doing anything. There is a capture the flag mode in the middle of the field you can activate and it will give you an endless battle to see how many waves you can complete before having the flag position taken from you.
Hot Rod Chicken Needs to Fix his Ride
A new feature that we have to the multiplayer genre is an instant battle feature. Your home screen and all your play options are located in a place called the backyard. The backyard consists of the two sides Zombies and Plants and you can switch to either side you want to play on anytime. In the middle of the two backyards is the backyard battleground where you can start the game at any point with no extra load screens or boring choosing what I want to do. You can jump in the middle and be in a battle without doing anything. There is a capture the flag mode in the middle of the field you can activate and it will give you an endless battle to see how many waves you can complete before having the flag position taken from you.
Single Player / co-op
In a single player mode there are quests, missions and trophies all around the backyard that you can do. All I need to say is "Hot Rod Chicken"! Quest Board and the instant backyard battleground are a nice way to add more single player action which the GW1 had none of.
Co-Op mode is pretty robust for a non co-op game you can join with a friend with a second controller and you can run around together or pick opposite sides and fight it out for no reason. However, the co-op mode doesn't really serve a purpose in online multiplayer this would be one area I would like to see flushed out a little more.
Online Friend play - Friends can join parties and follow each other in any part of the game they want this is an unlimited option to the co-op mode. However, it seems to be missing a play with my friend element, As my son was playing with his friend and said let's play tag. As they developed the rules of "tag" I thought this would be a great addition to any online friend play game like a game you can just play; tag, hide and seek, freeze tag and so onto any school yard game you can think of.
In a single player mode there are quests, missions and trophies all around the backyard that you can do. All I need to say is "Hot Rod Chicken"! Quest Board and the instant backyard battleground are a nice way to add more single player action which the GW1 had none of.
Co-Op mode is pretty robust for a non co-op game you can join with a friend with a second controller and you can run around together or pick opposite sides and fight it out for no reason. However, the co-op mode doesn't really serve a purpose in online multiplayer this would be one area I would like to see flushed out a little more.
Online Friend play - Friends can join parties and follow each other in any part of the game they want this is an unlimited option to the co-op mode. However, it seems to be missing a play with my friend element, As my son was playing with his friend and said let's play tag. As they developed the rules of "tag" I thought this would be a great addition to any online friend play game like a game you can just play; tag, hide and seek, freeze tag and so onto any school yard game you can think of.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer experience is where EA does a good job of handling players fighting each other, agree with me or not, they do. GW1 & GW2 use the Battlefield Engine (same as Star Wars Battlefront) and the same type of server handling which makes for consistent server time, not much lag and large scale battles on fairly large playing fields. There are 4 standard modes at launch to start with, each mode has 6 map rotation, some maps mirror the PvZ app game (like sands of time). The lack of multiplayer modes is a little disheartening when you see some other multiplayer games with 10 or more standard modes and more map variations. The maps however are detail laden with a bunch of funny references to all things plants or zombies. Sometimes wandering the map is more fun than playing the game.
The multiplayer experience is where EA does a good job of handling players fighting each other, agree with me or not, they do. GW1 & GW2 use the Battlefield Engine (same as Star Wars Battlefront) and the same type of server handling which makes for consistent server time, not much lag and large scale battles on fairly large playing fields. There are 4 standard modes at launch to start with, each mode has 6 map rotation, some maps mirror the PvZ app game (like sands of time). The lack of multiplayer modes is a little disheartening when you see some other multiplayer games with 10 or more standard modes and more map variations. The maps however are detail laden with a bunch of funny references to all things plants or zombies. Sometimes wandering the map is more fun than playing the game.
Graphics/Development
Based on the Battlefield engine GW2 does a good job on improving it's own graphical abilities from GW1. The characters look and feel a little more "cartoon real" which means they look like their cartoon counterparts but have real behaviors. They did a great job in GW1 bringing 2D characters into a 3D world now they have expanded the 3D world and made it all come together with great art direction and game development. This is how you bring a 2D game into 3D.
Based on the Battlefield engine GW2 does a good job on improving it's own graphical abilities from GW1. The characters look and feel a little more "cartoon real" which means they look like their cartoon counterparts but have real behaviors. They did a great job in GW1 bringing 2D characters into a 3D world now they have expanded the 3D world and made it all come together with great art direction and game development. This is how you bring a 2D game into 3D.
DLC / Downloadable Content
While EA has said there will be downloadable content, it will more than likely be new characters and a new multiplayer mode. Let's hope they don't start making weapons patches and kill perfectly good weapons like they did in Star Wars Battlefront.
While EA has said there will be downloadable content, it will more than likely be new characters and a new multiplayer mode. Let's hope they don't start making weapons patches and kill perfectly good weapons like they did in Star Wars Battlefront.
GAME SCORE
WINNER
The best part about this now franchise is that it is a game that does not take itself seriously while at the same time actually giving us a serious game to play. The characters are funny, the environments are more funny and now we have NPC's with dialog that is even more funny still (HOT ROD CHICKEN). The game could easily be stripped out of all of the humor and the characters could all be 6' humans with real weapons and you would have a serious Battlefield 5 game. And as a dad I feel ok about letting my boys play a shooting game knowing that I do not have to worry about swear words and gallons of blood everywhere. The game delivers a solid multiplayer shooter experience but stumbles a little bit with first time single play options, the instant play is fun but gets boring quickly if you don't have a goal to achieve. Co-Op mode is still limited and play with online friend feature is fun but lacking some features. The comedic elements of the game and the solid shooter action keep me playing even after I have been vanquished by the same purple cactus six times in a row.
UPDATE:We found a playable soccer field on the plants side of the backyard. PEA SPORTS
WINNER
The best part about this now franchise is that it is a game that does not take itself seriously while at the same time actually giving us a serious game to play. The characters are funny, the environments are more funny and now we have NPC's with dialog that is even more funny still (HOT ROD CHICKEN). The game could easily be stripped out of all of the humor and the characters could all be 6' humans with real weapons and you would have a serious Battlefield 5 game. And as a dad I feel ok about letting my boys play a shooting game knowing that I do not have to worry about swear words and gallons of blood everywhere. The game delivers a solid multiplayer shooter experience but stumbles a little bit with first time single play options, the instant play is fun but gets boring quickly if you don't have a goal to achieve. Co-Op mode is still limited and play with online friend feature is fun but lacking some features. The comedic elements of the game and the solid shooter action keep me playing even after I have been vanquished by the same purple cactus six times in a row.
UPDATE:We found a playable soccer field on the plants side of the backyard. PEA SPORTS
visit. http://www.pvzgw2.com/ for more information - This is not a paid for article advertisement
Thanks for reading!
Mike Fischer
PSN ids - big_fisch & fischcraft
Steam id - sniper_fisch
Xbox id - indypodcast
Twitch - big_fisch
No comments:
Post a Comment