Plants vs Zombies 2 Review

Plants vs Zombies 2 has finally arrived! More than three years after the original tower defense legend launched on mobile, the sequel has now landed on Apple’s App Store and it is completely free to download. Plants vs Zombies 2 (PvZ 2) brings countless hours of gameplay, new plants, clever zombies and different environments. It’s a freemium game and that means that you can speed up your progress with real money if you wish, but nothing is directly in your face and you can just as well play it without spending a penny.

The basic idea of Plants vs Zombies has not changed in the second part. Protect your territory from the slowly but surely invading army of zombies. The game comes with three different environments. You get started in Ancient Egypt where mummified zombies attack, but if you spend enough time you can get to play in the Pirate Seas and even in the Wild West. There is a ton of replay value as whenever you pass certain levels, you can then go back and try to play them to earn all three stars, to collect the maximum of 40 stars for the environment.

At start, the game guides you through all the elements in the gameplay explaining in detail what every new plant does. You start off with just a couple of plants - in your disposal are the Sunflower that makes sun (that you use to add other plants), the Peashooter, your main artillery-plant, the Wall-nut defense plant, but as you progress or for money you can unlock crazy new plants like the Jalapeno which ignites a whole row of zombies, or the Snow Pea that slows down zombies, or the evil looking Squash that smashes nearby undead.

Gameplay is fun at start, but the level of difficulty is not challenging at all and it might get repetitive after you get the hang of it. Sound effects are not just fun but also useful as they warn you about incoming enemies. The zombies come in all varieties from the unprotected to the heavily armored with a tin can on their head and wearing ancient Egyptian shields.

Our biggest complaint about the game would be the controls. Or rather, the fact that the 4-inch display of the iPhone 5 is just too cramped for this game. It would be even harder to play on a 3.5-inch display. An Android version would have had all the screen estate of 4.7+ inch displays and that would not be a problem, but as the game is iOS exclusive at the moment we had some issues with the small icons. Often times we hit the wrong button, or had to tap and tap again to do something.

Conclusion:

Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time is a sequel worth the name of the popular franchise. It’s fun, it’s engaging, it packs countless hours of gameplay and it’s free. The freemium model does not get much in the way, and the only slight complaint are the cramped controls. Otherwise? Nothing to keep you from directly going to the Apple App Store and getting started killing zombies right away. Protect them brains!

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