These matches are chaotic from the start and it's not uncommon to die and respawn more than once per minute. In Gardens and Graveyards mode, the zombies must capture seven locations in sequence within the allotted time while the plants try to defend them-in this case, a path leading to Crazy Dave's mansion.
I was also glad that on launch day during full matches, I experienced only slight and very infrequent lag.ĭefeating your enemies even as your pants are falling off is a great feeling, and my Zombie Engineer has a legendary plumber's crack. A beneficial side-effect of having few modes is that I never had trouble finding a full or near-full match almost immediately, and matchmaking seems to do a decent job of keeping teams balanced based on player rank. In addition to four player co-op, there's 24 player team deathmatch, a capture/defend mode, and Gnome Bomb, which tasks teams with locating a bomb and destroying three enemy bases before the other team. The one area that's lacking is the paltry four game modes through which to express that variety. Add to that the variant on each of every class's three special abilities and hundreds of cosmetic items, and every match becomes a new spectacle of goofy scenes and interesting team compositions.
Toxic, a hazmat suit-wearing Zombie Scientist whose radiation gun causes damage over time. Plants and zombies each have four character classes and six variants for each class, such as Dr. Garden Warfare's greatest strength is its variety in everything from character customization options and upgrades to its 11 maps. Making it through wave 10 and surviving to be airlifted out by Crazy Dave's flying RV requires teammates to constantly communicate and play to the strengths of their class. Garden Warfare's co-op shines in these moments, when death is almost certain. Just as wave five of 10 seems to be winding down, a huge Zomboss filling half the screen and wielding an electrified power line pole roars into view. He pounces up from a hole about 20 feet away with a flailing zombie caught between his Venus flytrap-like jaws. The Chomper, played by a buddy, burrows underground and hurtles behind enemy lines like a worm out of Tremors. As the Sunflower (healer), it's all my deployable healing plant and I can do to keep the team's health out of the red.
Our fire-breathing Snap Dragons have both been squashed, allowing skittering explosive zombies to detonate at our feet. The action is heated at the garden's central approach in the pavilion. This is PvZ's Garden Ops four player co-op mode, and on higher difficulties, it hangs in there with the best 'horde mode' and third-person tower defense games, such as Dungeon Defenders and Orcs Must Die!. The garden we've been tasked to protect is safe for now, perched atop a small knoll and surrounded by a menagerie of potted defense plants such as Gatling Pea Shooters and Bonk Choy melee tough guys who pummel anything that scurries within range. Their orange road cone helmets and detached screen doors deflect clip after clip of green peas and electrified cactus needles. The bug-eyed zombie onslaught swells around us. Packed in the center of a crumbling graveyard pavilion, my three co-op partners and I are barely clinging to life.