Plant v Zombies 2: Garden Warfare - PS4/Xbox One Review

PopCap Games - £39.99

Some franchises grow and blossom the older they get and that's certainly looking to be the case with this superb third-person shooter. The game's developers have heaped the fruits of their imagination over the root of the debut's basic family-friendly formula, and in doing so they have produced - as the game's own tagline suggests - something that really is bigger and better.

There is a familiarity to the game for anyone who has played the original and that's a good thing. Garden Warfare, in moving the PvZ franchise from the popular mobile series of Tower Defense games, showed itself to be a gamble worth taking. The fast, smooth multiplayer shooter was laugh-out-loud hilarious, planting class-based combat between 24 players into a bright and zany environment and sprinkling it with lots of fun modes.

With the sequel, the game's developers have added new characters, more playable classes, and maps while switching things around a bit. The new Graveyard Ops puts the zombies on the run and there's a new hub world called Battleyard Battleground which replaces the menu system and has lots of collectibles and quests, bringing everything together extremely well.

As before, it's bright, bubbly and positive - the perfect antidote to more hard-core shooters - and in the week or so that we've really got to grips with it, the game is showing no signs of wearing thin. We love that they've retained the most-loved modes of the first game, from Team Vanquish to Gnome Bomb. We also welcome Vanquish Confirmed, which was added in the Tactical Taco Party DLC pack of the debut.

Some modes bring together older ones to produce something new. Turf Takeover, for instance, mixes Gardens & Graveyards and Herbal Assault and has players looking to smash the zombies using every ounce of tactical nuance at their disposal. But arguably the biggest addition has been a proper single-player play mode.

While it admittedly falls short of what it could be – it's repetitive, fetch quest or defence-orientated stuff and lacks real substance – it is, at least, great for getting some practice in and working out how things work properly without embarrassing yourself in front of your friends. More importantly, it doesn't detract from the overall package.

For there is plenty to keep you busy. There are an extra three plants and three more zombies and this makes a difference, especially since they all have their own unique attributes. Zombies to defend as well as attack is a great move on the part of the developers. It ensures that Garden Warfare 2 feels less like another add-on pack and more like a new Spring.