Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 – If Looks Could Kill
Look, we all know it’s the most ridiculous concept for a game ever, and we all know that the primary audience for this game legally can’t purchase Call of Duty due to age restrictions, but Garden Warfare 2 might be the most fun you will have in any multiplayer shooter. The visual skin may be cute and family friendly but the core mechanics, and wealth of content on offer mean that this is something everyone will enjoy and spend hours on.
Towards the back end of last year I got to go hands on with the Beta (you may have seen my initial thoughts) but here I’m going to talk about what it is like to play the core multiplayer portion of PVZ: GW2. It is ultimately very similar to the first offering but that is by no means a bad thing. The shooting mechanics are solid, each character feels unique and most importantly it feels quite balanced.
Across my day with the beta we tried out many of the game modes, most of which were the standard sort of affair that your would expect in a multiplayer shooter, but with a slight PvZ skin on them. The first mode we played involved one team trying to capture a single point on the map while the other team must push them back, if the attacking team takes the capture point the battle moves to another point of the map. What makes this mode interesting is that when a point is captured the battle moves to an entire new map, which will usually be in a totally different landscape. This keeps things varied and entertaining although a close match in this mode can get very tiresome as it can go on for some time.
The other standout game mode involved both teams fighting to grab an explosive gnome that’s positioned in the centre of the map. Once they have the gnome in their possession they must take it to one of three locations and set the timer, but if the opposing team doesn’t manage to defuse the gnome (God, what a ridiculous phrase…) in time, it blows up. The first team to blow up all three enemy positions wins.
Attempts at a stealth defuse, suicidal runs so that a teammate could finish his defuse and, believe it or not, actual teamwork were all fairly commonplace. Whereas in the other mode you can run in alone and actually achieve something, here, solo play generally won’t work. Running in small groups and protecting the gnome carrier with your life is the tactic that seemed to work out for us, but more often than not victory usually came as a result of a few incredible plays from one team. There are other game modes, but none of them stood out to me as much as these two.
One thing that did become apparent is that using your abilities in the right way is key. Sure, you could use one of your skills to secure a single kill, but later down the line that skill may still be on cooldown when you need it to secure an objective or take down multiple foes at once. For some characters such as Super Brainz this isn’t a massive issue due to low cooldown times, but for others (such as Imp) cooldown management is key. Being a MOBA player this seemed fairly obvious to me, but many of my teammates would blow abilities with massive cooldowns just because they could – which, honestly, frustrated the hell out of me.
It would be unfair to say anything other than that I loved my time with Garden Warfare 2. It may have only been an afternoon of play time, but it was perhaps the most fun afternoon I have had with any shooter in the past twelve months. Whereas the likes of Battlefront require you to properly learn the ropes before you start to feel like a God, this one offers instant gratification even if, in the grand scheme of things, you aren’t doing all that well.
I am also confident in saying that this won’t be a game you are done with quickly. There are plenty of customisation options, ranging from cosmetic changes (Kernel Corn has a kick-ass suit) to trying out different abilities and leveling up heroes. There’s a wealth of modes on offer and the Backyard Battleground seems to have lots of unexplored secrets to discover and spend time mastering. This isn’t just a game for kids, but one that can be enjoyed by everyone.
