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Case in point: I wasn’t aware that I could hit left trigger with the melee-focused Super Brainz to fire off a hand-lazer until the trailer told me. That’s one big problem that’s never overcome – there’s a lot going on in matches and in the Backyard Battleground at all times to the point that it’s easily overwhelming. I’ve played for countless hours, and really didn’t clue into the fact that the Zombies “won”, or that Rose was from the past and Citron, the future. I’ve also included the above trailer because it gives a better picture of Garden Warfare 2’s overall story than the game ever does. You can check out all new character classes – moving the game from 8 to 14 in total – above. You might find you’ve already unlocked some characters’ variants an import feature will let you take most unlocked characters from Garden Warfare and use them immediately within Garden Warfare 2. Sticker packs can be purchased with real-world cash or in-game coins (which, thankfully, are fairly plentiful and easy to earn) and contain consumables, vanity items and can unlock new characters. His alternates are equally as cool there are Cosmic, Electric and Toxic variants, all waiting to be unlocked through sticker packs.
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His base character is cool enough on its own, complete with a lazer blast, fists of fury, a hadouken, super kick and spinning attack. On the Zombies side, I took a quick liking to Super Brainz, a Superman-style hero. There are lots of them - 100+ in fact, each with their own special attributes and weapons. Each new character – and there are a lot – gets its own quest line to shed light on its skills and variants. There’s a surprising amount of single-player content available, with myriad quest lines that help you better understand the game and the players within it. From here, players can swap from Plant to Zombie, initiate quests, earn coins and enter into solo and multiplayer battles.
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This iteration of the tower defence game-cum-shooter starts players off in an area called the Backyard Battleground – a quasi-open world that also serves as a replacement for most menu systems. PopCap’s newest retains the franchise’s amazing sense of humour and elevates the rewarding combat that surprised most of us when the original Garden Warfare first came on the scene. Simply put, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a better MOBA than the likes of SMITE could ever hope to be.
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