OdysseyTOS

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 blew me away on launch, doing what most sequels fail to do by redefining and mastering the formula of its predecessor while still staying true to the foundation it was built on. Garden Warfare 2 fixes most of the issues of Garden Warfare 1 while expanding to create a game with its own character. The backyard, the town hall, the single player, private and solo games, and an easier party system are all great additions; and the additions of eight extra classes along with a ton of new variants really spice up the gameplay and make each side, plant or zombie, feel incredibly entertaining and much more balanced than the original game, where zombies felt like the more dominant side. Everything in Garden Warfare 1’s combat stays; the movement on all classes is somewhat slow and stagnant, not changing unless a certain variant (like Hot Rod Chomper or Metal Petal), or a movement altering ability (like Rocket Leap or Warp) is used, making Garden Warfare 2’s combat still feel very linear; but in a much better way. Garden Warfare 2 encourages you to stay in a fight once you’ve begun one; similar to GW1, which is even further helped by the fact that GW2 tones down the map sizes on most maps to be a lot smaller, which aids in creating situations where do or die fights are a lot more common; even if GW1 already encouraged those kinds of fights. The movement on most classes is still very explosive when it needs to be, with interesting new ways to move for the newer classes, such as imp’s double jump, or citron being able to turn into a ball to roll around incredibly quickly. With old burst movement options like Turbo Jackhammer still being in the game, it makes GW2’s combat still feel as rewarding and even exploitable as GW1’s; but unlike GW1, because of the maps being smaller, crazy movement is a lot less frustrating to play against as there’s less to move around on. GW1’s maps are fun to play on to see where you can move around on, but GW2’s maps are fun because they have a focus on interesting terrain and it intertwining with combat while not harming it. Moon Base Z has anti-gravity, and has a lot of interesting buildings to jump around on. Seeds Of Time wildly expands on this concept, with each point wildly changing where you fight at, from the park itself, to egypt, Rome, and beyond. GW2 nails it’s player and environment interaction, which makes most of the maps in this game outright just a blast to move around on, even if the maps are less free than GW1 in a lot of ways. GW2 masters map design, giving a similar advantage to each side for most of its points. It’s miscellaneous maps, such as Sandy Sands or Z-Tech Factory are a blast for all of their respective gamemodes as well, having fun gimmicks and solid map design that make them a blast to pick up and play, even after years of playing the game. GW2 has some oddities of its own, such as Taco Bandits not returning as a permanent gamemode, and community challenges shutting down; but overall Garden Warfare 2 still remains a masterpiece of the series, and is a must-by for anyone who loves movement-based shooters.