Strategy Informer was offered an in-depth look at co-op gameplay on the Plants side in an extended demo. The game takes inspiration from EA shooter Battlefield 4, with mission briefings and sweeping camera movement parodying the game, and Crazy Dave returns as the dispatcher.
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Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare retains the look of Plants Vs. Zombies, albeit in full 3D using the Frostbite 3 engine, with bright colours and expressive, cartoony characters. Even as the violence rages around the lawn, the game retains a light humorous touch.
During the co-op mission, four player-controlled plant classes were shown off. All of the plants have three abilities, with additional abilities when 'rooted'. That is, plants are free-moving, but should the player decide to immobilize them in the ground, they gain more powerful abilities that are balanced by the fact that the plant is exposed and still.
The Pea Shooter, for example, is a basic unit that fires peas, just like in the original game. An additional ability is to toss out an explosive Chili Bean, which is more or less a timed grenade, giggling just before it explodes. When the Pea Shooter roots itself, it becomes the more powerful Gatling Gun that veteran PvZ players are familiar with.
Meanwhile, the Chomper is a melee unit. In the original game, it would swallow zombies whole - it does that here. However, it also has the ability to burrow underground and snack on zombies from below, as well as chomp on them while above them too. It also has the ability to lay booby traps as well as spit goo on zombies to slow them down.
The Sunflower in the original game gathers sunlight as currency to add plants to the field. In Garden Warfare, it becomes a healing unit in almost the exact way as the Medic in Team Fortress 2. The Sunflower isn't helpless, though, as it has its own ranged attack, and when it's rooted, it blasts a powerful sun beam laser.
The other class shown off at the extended gameplay demo is the Catcus, which is the sniper of the group, firing quills from far away. It also has the ability to lay down Wall Nuts to block zombies and lay Potato Mines. The Catcus can also deploy a Garlic Drone, much like the drone found in Battlefield, and rain popcorn death from the sky.
Some of the tower defence feel of the original game can be found when you place special plants down that act like turrets. The Chomper can, for example, plant a Scaredy Shroom, while the Sunflower can plant a Marigold, which shoots sunbeams at zombies.
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Of course, the zombies come with their special classes as well, such as the Disco Zombie, who not only has his dancing entourage, but has a wild spin attack, swinging a disco ball on a rope to damage and knock enemy plants back. The Gargantaur and its imp companion is just as fearsome as it is in the original game, able to take massive damage and deal it with its improvised club.
Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will be hitting Xbox 360 and Xbox One first in Spring 2014, with PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions following not long after.
Most Anticipated Moment: Being a Chomper and gulping down zombies whole looks like it'll be a blast. It will also be interesting to see the playable zombie classes later when they're revealed.
