Speaking of co-op gameplay, Garden Ops returned, and this time around was joined by the Graveyard Ops вЂ“ the Zombie version. This was a lot of fun, and as you could invite friends to your backyard, it played out like a horde mode.

Venturing out into no manвЂ™s land, you can shoot Zombies or Plants to your heartвЂ™s content, and also raise the Flag of Power, which causes waves of enemies to spawn, leaving you to then defend the area. Also dotted around the place were NPC characters that could give you missions to carry out, and these added to the single player fun. The areas for the Plants and for the Zombies had a lot of things in common, with a portal to access Multiplayer activities, a Quest board with objectives to be fulfilled, a Customisation Room with options for making your character your own, and finally a Sticker Shop where your hard earned coins could be turned into new characters and accessories. In the Backyard Battleground mode, there was a hub available to explore, with an area for Plants, an area for Zombies, and a sort of unclaimed no manвЂ™s land in the middle. While the first game focussed mainly on PvP activities, Garden Warfare 2 delivered more of an acknowledgment that sometimes people just wanted to run around as a Plant, or as a Zombie. Each character not only has different dress up options, but could have variants unlocked, and with the retention of the eight existing characters from the first game, there was never a shortage of options when it came to choosing an avatar.

The Zombies werenвЂ™t left behind either, with the aforementioned Imp and his giant mech (including weird variants like a Prawn!), Super Brainz, a superhero zombie with a ring of power, Captain Deadbeard, with his dual purpose gun (sniper or shotgun, depending on the distance to the enemies) and his parrot drone, and HoverGoat 3000, which was exactly as strange as it sounds. On the Plants team there was Rose, who was, at launch, completely OP with her homing projectiles, Citron, an orange with a laser and a shield, Kernal Corn, with minigun-style weapons and a nifty line in aerial manoeuvres, and finally Torchwood, an enormous tree-like plant that could not only soak up a lot of punishment, but dish it out too. The main difference between the two games was found in the new characters that were added in. However, standing still would have served no-one well, so what was added to the game made quite a difference. Luckily, the progress I had made in the first game was not in vain, as the Plants and Zombie variants I had unlocked were able to be played in the sequel a nice touch. Luckily, it appears that PopCap Games are fans of the вЂњif it ainвЂ™t broke, donвЂ™t fix itвЂќ school of developing, as the gameplay was immediately familiar, playing out pretty much the same as the first game. Running across town in my lunchbreak to the nearest branch of GAME, picking up my copy of the shiny new game, and then having to sit through the rest of the afternoon with the box on my desk, taunting me вЂ“ never has 4 hours seemed so long! Anyway, having pedalled home as fast as I could, I put the disc in my Xbox One and sat back to lose myself in the world of Crazy Dave, Dr Zomboss and as much shooting as I could manage. I remember immediately putting finger to keyboard (doesnвЂ™t have the same ring as вЂњpen to paperвЂќ by hey-ho) and gleefully writing up an impressions piece for a website I wrote for at the time, and then feverishly waited for PopCap and EA to get their collective fingers out and let me play it.ДЄnd boy was I in for a treat when February 23rd, 2016 rolled around. Seeing new characters, including the Zombie Imp, which was clearly inspired by Titanfall, calling in a mech from orbit that proceeded to land on its head, the Citron, a cool looking orange, the Corn on the Cob guy and more, I may have been bouncing up and down by the end of it. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 game was trailed in the Microsoft segment, rather than at the EA event, but I have to say it looked awesome.

Fast forward to 2015, and as I was eagerly watching the E3 coverage, a familiar-looking presence appeared on the screen.

Plant vs zombie garden warfare 2