Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (PS4)
By: EA
GIVING new meaning to flower power, gamers who've had their chlorophyll of traditional shooters will have a triffid time with Garden Warfare 2, a shrubbery shooter sequel with variety by the trowel-load.
The original Garden Warfare moved away from the Plants Vs Zombies formula of mobile-friendly tower defence in favour of third-person blasting that lampooned the Call of Duty set. With a humble garden the setting for its horticultural holocaust, zombies set out to mow through their herbaceous foe like Flymo's finest.
For the sequel, the dead may be pushing up the daisies, but the daisies are fighting back as, like some tooled-up Titchmarsh, players defend their patch against shambling cadavers out to toss their salad.
Gross-out humour and pop culture riffs abound, and with the original's cast and content returning, favourites such as Team Vanquish and Garden Ops get to put their roots down for a new generation.
But with a root-and-branch overhaul, the plant-based parody boasts new characters, bigger stages and lush visuals that have been given a Baby Bio boost. Two years later, the sophomore outing is much deeper affair, and while a new single-player quest prevents the disc becoming a coaster for the network-deprived, multiplayer is once again where the botanical buffoonery shines.
The biggest addition is a Backyard Battleground hub world from which players jonesing for fights and minigames can customize their characters, jump into missions and funnel their credits into vending machines for virtual sticker packs.
Over 100 playable characters (including six original personalities) and 12 new maps to command and conquer ensures variety, while the game honours its loyal fanbase with a variety of thank-you perks for those who ploughed a furrow through the original.
There are still a few thorns, such the inability to run and a lack of melee attacks meaning you'll be left defenceless on running out of ammo. But these are rare weeds in a horror hoedown that, apart from the soil, removes the grit of its stablemates for a family-friendly lawn of the dead perfect for young gamers who've honed their delicate trigger-fingers on Splatoon.
Roses are red, zombies are green in a game stuffed with a greenhouse of content that puts other online blasters, including EA's own Star Wars Battlefront, to shame. Pumping posies with lead has never been better in this blooming marvellous blast.
