All we are saying is give peas a chance......
I could be really really lazy and leave this review as being just one word long, and that word would be 'bonkers'. I mean a game that started as a tower defence game on mobile phones and portable devices, suddenly evolved and took a quantum leap forward and became a third person shooter. The original game was released a few years ago now and yours truly got the job of reviewing the title on it's original release.
Well now I have the job of reviewing it's sequel and I know what you are going to say, surely it's more of the same? Well yes and no is the answer to that. We have some new tweaks to game modes and of course new zombies and plants with new abilities and what not to keep you amused and entertained. Let's take a deeper look into the undergrowth shall we?
So what's new?
We have a new solo mode for a start that comes in two modes. Mode one is basically a hoard survival mode, the second is a series of RPG style fetch and retrieve style missions, given to you by either the mad farmer or the chief of the Zombie army. You will be presented with a Lego game style 'hub' where you can investigate different options and swap from one side to the other as often as you want to.
So take a pea shooter for some missions, collect coins and level the plant up and heck if you want to play a different plant then feel free, or go to another spot in the garden and swap to the zombie side. As said collecting coins is important as well as levelling up. These coins can be used to buy 'packs' of 'stickers'. These contain consumable items such as one off boosts, plants that can be installed onto a battlefield for one mission etc. They also contain modifications for the appearence of existing plants or in some cases, parts that build new plants or zombies entirely. Be careful though, REAL money can be used to buy these parts and for a child unsupervised, could accidentally click on the option to purchase using real life money! This does strike me as being a little bit naughty....
But the solo missions are really quite repetitive and to be honest, though you will collect tokens and the like for levelling up and customisation, I really suggest that after dabbling with this mode for a while, you might just as well go straight into the multiplayer mayhem, because this is after all, it's heart and soul and to be frank it's the most fun.
So you want new characters?
Well now you have them aplenty! The original cast of plants and zombies are updated to say the least but there's also a great function that enables you to import any customised Zombie or Plants from your origianl PvsZ games and as the servers are still active for PvsZ one are still very active have at it! But the new plants and zombies make life interesting to say the least, there's a zombie that stomps around the battlefield in a mech suit (a tip of the hat to Mass Effect), a Super Hero zombie, capable of delivering a devastating drop kick, energy bolts and spins like a tornado on steroids! The American Footballer zombie has been tweaked as well, but there are also zombie pirates, how cool is that? The plants gain a crab like Citrus fruit that's quite tough, and the Wizardly style Rose that was admittedly 'nerfed' recently as players said it was way too powerful, but even so her spells still pack a punch, believe me. There's the corn plant that drops buttery bombs of doom and can call in a corn powered air strike. There are many many more, I'll leave it to you to discover the rest for yourselves.
So is sverything in the garden rosy?
The answer is no, but then the game has more plusses than minuses. But the minuses have to be mentioned. The real money purchases that could be clicked on by accident for a start. The solo campaign that offers much but soon becomes repetitive and somewhat bland. I'm not sure that this was really needed to be honest. But I do like the hub like command center, that's worth exploring at least. Some of the solo missions are also damned hard (or is it just me being inept? You decide) One involving ninja zombies is a real pain in the posterior, as the little so and so's ambush you and swarm over you like wasps around a sunday picnic. So level up first before doing this, but hang on, isn't this the point of the solo campaign? Level up to make you stronger in the multiplayer? I find it's best to do it the OTHER way around. This strikes me as making the solo mode somewhat counterproductive. Some will like it, some won't. I don't hate it but I'm not a total fan either. If there's going to be PvZ GW3 (and I don't see why there wouldn't be, as this is selling well) I hope it's tweaked or perhaps better yet, removed.
So is it worth buying?
Yes it is. It's not a must buy for me, but it IS fun and makes a pleasing and somewhat surreal distraction from the other games on the market right now. It's certainly no CoD, or Destiny clone. And I have to say the servers are a family friendly affair, I have yet to encounter some nutter taking it too seriously, no hurling of insults and better yet, no flipping campers! Team work seems to mean just that right now, TEAM work, and it encourages it without ramming the co-op is best message down your throat. You have enough to keep you occupied too. Team death match, capture the flag, hoard mode, etc, etc, all that you would expect and some things that you may not. Again explore them for yourself, we don't do spoilers here! It's fast, frantic and fun and that's what a game like this should be. It has elements that you will recognise, like the levelling up etc, and also tips the hat at games like Splatoon with the new Painter Zombie.
Now excuse me, I have to go there's some unpleasent activity going on in my Vegetable patch....
Thanks to the good folks at Xbox for sending us the code for this.
