If I wrote this review in like late 2017 or early 2018, I would’ve said that PVZ 2 was superior to the original. Granted, there were microtransactions and the new map system introduced early on into the game’s updated life really fucked over the postgame content, but its positives really outweighed the negatives. The graphical upgrade was incredibly nice and gave some of the older plants nice redesigns, all the worlds felt really memorable and distinct, there were some nice quality of life features like the fast forward button and cosmetics for the plants, the soundtrack was a banger just like the first game, the harder difficulty was a nice step up from the first game that never felt too bullshitty (For the most part, there definitely were/are bullshit difficult levels, and Big Wave Beach and Dark Ages’ latter half are massive difficulty spikes compared to the rest of the game), and I really liked how despite there being plants and upgrades locked behind paywalls, the game never felt P2W. You could easily beat the main campaign without shilling a single dollar and even if did buy the Premium/Gemium plants they only made the game slightly easier. So, what made my opinion change?

Well, to put it bluntly, starting around 2018, the game became too pay-to-win and grindy thanks to things like the poorly implemented and OP leveling system, Mints, and Seedium plants, as well as a shit ton of new Premium/Seedium/Gemium plants that are noticeably more overpowered than pretty much all of the free plants and even most, if not all of the Premium/Gemium plants that came before. We also got half-baked gamemodes like Battlez/Arena and Penny’s Pursuit that were heavily biased towards those who had the Premium/Gemium/Seedium plants. And these features took up a ton of room, meaning that older content that was really fun had to be cut like Epic Quests, harder postgame levels for specific worlds, and like half of the OST.

PVZ2 nowadays is just like any other mobile game thanks to EA’s poor handling of it: Repetitive, P2W, cheap, grindy, and filled with half-baked gamemodes. I feel really bad for this game, there was a time when it was genuinely fun and I considered it unironically better than the first game. But now, I simply can’t muster the strength to even replay it, knowing how much EA has completely fucked it over. PVZ2 may not be the worst game I have ever player, but it has become one of my biggest disappointments in all of gaming.

What an uninspired, cashgrabbing, unfair, unbalanced and disappointing mess that tries to proclaim itself as an honorable continuation of what I consider a masterpiece. It's truly saddening to see Popcap's downfall after the EA acquirement but not much we can do.

However, I have to give credit where credit's due. The visual and design departments of the game are stunning and rich, a major glow up from probably the only aspect of the original I don't fully like; as well as the soundtrack which never disappoints, rivals the original in quality!

In summary, it isn't utterly worthless but not worth your time or NONE of your money.

Also, ehhhhhh, yeah I'd say the Pepperpult is pretty damn hot... and yeah, it's literally so fucking hot it melts ice just by staying nearby so don't come close to that motherfucker ever.

Purely in terms of level-design and plant-design, I feel like PvZ2 wins over the first game easily. However, literally all the elements of this game are undermined by the fact that the game is made much harder if you try and ignore the micro-transactions, and made much easier if you either invest a lot of time into grinding bonuses, or pay up. Sad!

And I do feel sorry for this game, as it feels like Popcap made a really good follow-up to Plants vs. Zombies, and halfway through development EA made them glue stupid pay2win mechanics to the sequel and made it worse for it. I think that scores like 0.5 or even 3 stars are overexaggerating how bad this game is, but I don't blame anyone for being insulted by how this game treated them. Again, sad. Very.

Soulless Cashgrab

Edit: Having a look at this one more time it actually isn't as soulless as I initially thought. There's a lot of cool new things in here, with a cool variety of zombies, plants and game mechanics. Unfortunately the game can still feel very grindy and repetitive at times, it no longer gives you a new thing at the end of every level so the progression is a lot slower which is a big killer. The biggest problem however is that all the passion put into it is ruined by all of the predatory mobile game mechanics we are very familiar with by now.