In addition to Garden Ops, there are competitive multiplayer modes where you will be put with up to 24 people in one match. The classic team deathmatch that every shooter fans love will be on this game under the Team Vanquish mode. The first team who manages to kill 50 wins the match. In this mode, teamwork will be required as every time someone dies, anyone in your team can revive them and deduct a point from them. The more teamwork the team puts in reviving people, the better the chances of them winning the match.
Aside from Team Vanquish, there’s this one more mode called Gardens and Graveyards which is like the attack and defend mode of other shooter games. In this mode, you will either defend a garden or destroy them depending on which side you are put into. When playing this mode, you will be in one big map where at every objective you finish, a new one will pop up. As players are nearing the final round, a unique objective mission pops out where the challenge starts. For the final objective, the game will randomly ask team to do something like destroying the roots of a giant sunflower.
Fans of the shooter genre looking for a lot of modes will not find it in this game. Yes, the lack of modes may seem a tad disappointing, but I guarantee you that the modes that this game offers are fun and worth playing. For every mode that you play, there are certain maps available and the game makes a great use of them as each are unique where you can use several things in the environment as your advantage. If you are new to a map, I suggest getting to know them well as you may be able to use them to your advantage when doing an objective mission or simply just taking down the opposing side.
Every kill or objectives that you do, you will gain points that you can use later to buy Sticker Packs. The coins that you get are the in-game currency for this game and you use them to buy Sticker Packs to get more advantageous items that you can use in modes like Garden and Graveyards. An example of item that you can get from packs are pots that you can plant to hold off Zombies from reaching the garden. Just like in a booster pack, we don’t know what comes inside and it’s pretty much a gamble. You may get one item that is worthless at times while there may be times you will get the most awesome item card that you can use. Pretty much, you will be spending too much time racking up coins to buy Sticker Packs every time.
When it comes the game’s presentation and design, I must commend PopCap for doing a great job in visuals. The game offers pretty visuals that can get very colorful at times. The plant and zombie designs pops out really well in a 3D environment and playing as them allows them to show off their unique looks. As for the maps, they may not have a lot of maps available right of the bat, it’s guaranteed though that you will be able to enjoy their designs and the environments that you can use to your advantage.
From its current state right now, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is worth the $40 dollar price tag. Currently, there’s no microtransactions available but this is something that you should expect in the near future. For anyone who loves a fun online competitive multiplayer game, Garden Warfare will give you that satisfaction, especially if you have played Plants Vs. Zombies. Sure, the amount of modes and maps may be lacking but PopCap and EA already announced that a free map and game mode DLC will start rolling out in March.
[Editor’s Note: Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare was reviewed on the Xbox One platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
