Hands On With The Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 Beta

Following on from one of the more unusual mash-ups of recent years, PopCap are trying to straddle the line between sticking closely to what worked so well in The first Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and adding meaningful new ideas and features into the mix. The open beta which starts tomorrow, January 14th, on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One doesn’t just test the game’s online infrastructure, but gives them a chance to show off what’s new and different.

Ironically, despite having a different name in all of the game’s marketing, Herbal Assault is little more than the original game’s Gardens & Graveyards running in the opposite direction. Now that the zombies have won the war, its the turn of the plants to go on the offensive and attack Zomboss’ fantastical bases of operations. Which team is defending and which is attacking depends on the map you’re playing, but they’re mechanically identical. The defending team can place potted plants or robots to try and defend each control point from attack, while the attackers can summon slow moving plants – dubbed Weeds – or basic zombies to give you a numbers advantage in the fight.

We see some of that homogenisation in the six new characters as well, where Captain Deadbeard has equivalent abilities to the Cactus, while Kernel Corn’s twin sweetcorn machine guns leads him to having a similar role to the Quarterback. That doesn’t really matter though, when they still feel like distinct and separate characters, and when you can switch to those new characters that really are much more unique.

Rose is a powerful sorceress, with the ability to trap zombies in her Time Snare, turn herself into pure energy to evade enemies and, best of all, turn zombies into goats for a short amount of time. Then there’s the Imp, who can summon in a powerful, potentially game changing Z-Mech – think Titanfall – which is balanced by being one of the few abilities in the game which you don’t automatically regain when you respawn.

In addition to the simple added variety of having three new characters on each team, there are also variants of all of these, and a few new ones for the original game’s quartet of plants and zombies. The Vampire Sunflower drains a little life with every shot you land, for example, while Rock Pea sacrifices a little speed for a touch more health and damage output.

All these options will doubtless have an impact on the co-operative Garden Ops mode, and it’s new zombie counterpart Graveyard Ops, in which you hold a garden or graveyard from waves of enemies. Where you had four characters to match the four player coop, the added roles muddy that water.

While you can’t play the co-op in the open beta, you can get a sense of it in the restricted version of the Backyard Battleground. This hub world with a zombie base on one side, a plant base on the other and no man’s land between them replaces the games main menu. You load into this as the game starts up, you can switch out characters and swap sides and, in the full game, you’ll have daily quests delivered at the notice board as well as missions handed out by NPCs like Crazy Dave and Zomboss.

Venture out of your base and you’ll find enemies to shoot and a flag pole you can try to defend from wave after wave of enemies. If you’re on your own, AI teammate heroes will drop in to lend their support, but friends can also drop in and team up with you on the fly, before heading off to play one of the main game modes through the portals in your base. Best of all, they can even switch teams and let you set up a quick little competitive match.

The beta does a great job of showing us what Garden Warfare 2 is all about. Yes, it’s largely more of the same, with reversed game modes disguised by new names and some new characters which conform with previously established archetypes. Yet, when combined with those new characters that do feel unique and clever ideas like the Backyard Battleground, Garden Warfare 2 arrives on amidst the current crop of futuristic shooters smelling just as fresh as the original did two years ago.