Plants Vs. Zombies 2: The Sequel That Outshines The Original? (Review)

I said what I said, and I firmly stand by it. PVZ2 is better than PVZ1, despite its many shortcomings. I would say that this is easily the game that any new fan of the franchise should try first. It's got problems, but then again, every game does. It's still a lot of fun!
Also, before we get into the regular description here, these are the people that I used some footage from: @ArcadeGo @ZackScottGames
______________________________________
If you guys liked this video, be sure to like the video and share it to people you know!
Here’s all of my socials to keep up to date on what I’ve been doing:
My Shorts Channel: www.youtube.com/@sylviathesec...
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@sylviaysi?_t=...
Instagram: / sylviaysi
Twitch: / sylviaysi
If you guys want to, you can also join the Floral Federation discord, link is here! / discord
And finally, you can support my channel directly if you become a YT member, and you’ll get a lot of perks for it!
I can’t wait to see you guys in my next video, and you’re all awesome! Thank you!
(Profile picture used in the thumbnail is made my @Hotlegs101_art, check out her Twitter here: / hotlegs101_art )
______________________________________
Time Stamps:
0:00 - Introduction
2:04 - The Story
3:23 - The Gameplay
13:23 - The Extras
17:55 - The Gameplay / Completion
19:51 - Conclusion & Outro

[@PeChips]

The issue of the leveling system is that you can’t ignore it (what you can do with micro-transactions) ; I’ve finished the game and want to replay some adventure levels but because I’ve leveled most of my plants to level 4 or 5 it’s impossible to enjoy them anymore

[@dinopuppet8721]

SAME

[@Hohhot]

Just don’t spend the coins to level them up

[@Justcommentinhere]

THEN WHY DID YOU LEVELED THEM??????

[@PeChips]

@@Justcommentinhere because it was 7 years ago and I just had one thing in mind which was to get the best plants possible

[@PeChips]

@@Justcommentinhere and it would be great if we could have an option to level them back down

[@Selfiethesunflower]

Love how most of this video is you talking about how good it is, it's fresh to see someone not endlessly complain about it

[@SylviaYSI]

Well, I try to bring a fresh perspective into these types of videos! (I also can’t hide my bias for this game, I really do love it)

[@awesome1336]

I can admit I'm biased for this game but I can also admit some zombies are more bs than others but aside from that I think it teaches you well and the plant diversity makes sure you can have all different playstyles and have a fun time no matter what. What I wish there were was more than just 3 modes

[@malfeasancewithornament7573]

The powercrept is also a big problem of this game. I'm still hoping on the adventure mode having something were we could choose the difficulty (and where levels doesn't matter)

[@TwilightChomperEnthusiast]

This. The only world plants that actually have relevance are only Threepeater, Blover, Primal Potato Mine, Primal Wall Nut, and Sun Shroom or Primal Sunflower, depending on who you ask. Pretty much every other plant is either plain useless, or redundant because there’s an infinitely better version of it that you have to grind for. Why use Bonk Choy if you could use Headbutter Lettuce? Why use Chili Bean if Imp Pear essentially does the same thing but better and cheaper?

[@antynomity]

I just wish I could choose the level I want to use for my plant that I have leveled up, it's impossible to keep the campaign levels fun while also trying to have levels to be able to play arena.

[@Cool_Kid95]

Someone’s finally making a review of the modern versions, and what it sounds like from where I am in the premiere is that he’s praising the modern versions too. I wanted to do this back in the day, I really did, I just didn’t know how to do it well.

[@Cool_Kid95]

@@trus_tingI reviewed someone’s mod? What was it?

[@Cool_Kid95]

@@trus_ting I have never played it, I made have commented on a video about it, but I don't remember.

[@Cool_Kid95]

@@trus_ting I don't have to play anyone's mod if I don't want to

[@_V.Va_]

I think the criticisms for PvZ2 are fair but it gets a lot of undue hate. Both the first and second are great games which you don't need to spend a dime on either to beat, but I just prefer PVZ2.

[@Chilli_bean]

When i were playing this game,i really felt that pvz2 is the pvz gameplay i really wanted,levels are not very long but still challenging, plants and zombies are good,alot of bossfights,and, alot of gimmicks,this kind of gameplay i like, it's chaotic short,and enjoyable,for free mobile game pvz2 is way to good

[@TwilightChomperEnthusiast]

Modern PvZ2 is super unpolished. The dips in quality began with Buttercup, but it was pretty decent. And then we got Tiger Grass, which has a super smooth idle animation but OH MY GOD THE RETURNING ANIMATION. Not to mention for the later stages (especially PF) look like cardboard cutouts. Eventually, stiff animation became a normal thing, with the exception of MGP since they only ripped assets from the Peashooter mode. And whoever is in charge of art really needs to take some notes. Most of the new plants look out of place (blockoli, Scaredy-Shroom) have stiff/bad animation (Meteor Flower, Scaredy-Shroom), or look straight-up ugly (Tomb Tangler, Sundew Tangler, Sacredy-Shroom). All of the small changes that weren’t needed also went a long way to downgrade the looks of the game. For example, the new seed packet sprite for basic plants was most likely supposed to make the game look more streamlined, but to me it looks like another “oversimplified logo,” except with seed packets. The plants shown in it look like they’re in front of a green screen instead of actually being on a seed packet. The new almanac I was quite happy about, since you’d have to scroll a lot before. However they couldn’t do that correctly either! Every plant now has text chopped off somewhere, and a lot of the new plants had grammatical errors within the text. Even the preview texts they couldn’t get right with Chilly Pepper. “Chilly Pepper’s explosion is as destructive as he is frigid.” Excuse me? And this is supposed to go with “Shoots peas at the enemy,” and “Explodes in a medium area.” See what I mean? The new font is also stupid since it’s inconsistent with the other fonts. Anyways, if you’ve read this entire thing start to finish, I heartily suggest for you to go outside for a while :)

[@TwilightChomperEnthusiast]

Lmao I may have went off the end a bit for this, for I genuinely love this game, but my points still stand. What I was ranting about only applies to the more recent changes, and most of the old stuff remains unchanged :D

[@SylviaYSI]

Yeah, the newer stuff is definitely unpolished as it stands. It’s a bummer, since the true dip really did start to happen only recently, with all of these unnecessary changes they’ve made. Luckily, it doesn’t affect most of the game, so it’s not as bad as it could be

[@TwilightChomperEnthusiast]

@@SylviaYSI Well I’ve heard that the team has barely anyone working on it anymore, since all of the original people left. You can really tell the difference they made, though. The issue is that all you can really do in the game after adventure is Penny’s Pursuit or Arena, which are the things that they’re currently screwing up. I can’t even play some of the harder adventure levels because they keep nerfing the harder ones. Recently they made it so fishermen can’t drag plants into the water, which basically kills the purpose of them. And there was a level in Pirate Seas where the flowers were moved back so much that now they might as well not be there :/

[@GNVS300]

I despise the new font, what a load of shit

[@CyleJoshuaReyes]

Apparently, about the leveling up plants, if you play PvZ2 for the first time, you will start playing Adventure mode with level 1 or 2 plants. Once you finished that mode, you can freely play Arena and Penny's pursuit and level up plants to encounter difficult and tougher zombies in those modes. I think that's how Popcap designed the game. Probably more in the future? I wouldn't mind tho. I still love the game 😊

[@TwilightChomperEnthusiast]

The issue is that once your plants go past a certain level, there’s no point in playing any of the adventure levels since you’ll demolish them with no effort.

[@terminalfeeting]

Glad to see an actual unbiased review of the game. People seriously need to stop hating on the game just because EA's name is slapped on to it.

[@benjrobrt9029]

The mods for pvz2 are so good, also the leveling up system isn't that broken, I played through the game but I could barely upgrade them it takes lots of grinding and coins to upgrade and I didn't see much change when I upgraded them, it was still really hard. But my God, mints are so broken spear mint in too overpowered what the hell

[@Smith-fg1qb]

If you want to talk about a broken leveling system, look no further than the Chinese version of pvz 2

[@benjrobrt9029]

@@Smith-fg1qb oh yeah that's uh, just no

[@yayamonday2770]

Pvz 2 is a game that im mostly fine with (yes, I'm fine with the level up stuff), though there are ... certain things I would adjust (looks at all the money plants and the removed harder levels and the new scaredy shroom design) and some things I would add, made an entire concept on it on my twitter

[@BenAvraham]

Regardless of what other people say, I love this game. My cousin taught me to play PvZ1 around mid-2013 and got addicted to it. And when PvZ Adventures and PvZ2 came out, I was really excited. These days, I played PvZ2 since July 2022 and I unlocked most plants except the ones with money sadly. In my opinion, no matter the design and ability and strength, I like every single plants in PvZ2 and they're all unique and cool, and yet more plants are still coming, which is crazy. It may take more years or decades to end plant updates, which makes me like this game more. Don't you dare! 🌿✌️ No bashing! It's for fun! Of course!

[@GNVS300]

Unless I'm not mistaken the 'It's About Time' was dropped from the title a couple of years after release

[@SylviaYSI]

That’s something I found out pretty much as soon as the video was ready to go public… rip lol

[@dezookits]

this review was great! it was concise, informative, and a nice blend of objective and subjective points from someone who clearly appreciates this series. keep up the great work :>

[@a_white3195]

I play pvz 1 for survival endless and the minigames and for easy fun, I play pvz 2 for chaotic fun of the later worlds 9 - 11 and survival endless and Neon Mixtape world Tour, I the garden warfares for everything in those games (seriously there both perfect well except for gw1's quest that gives you the abilities and stuff like that idk I didn't get to far in the game), I even play pvz Heroes and battle for neighborville for both of there single player, then there's pvz 3....

[@StressHaze]

This video basically covered just about everything there was. Very entertaining and worth the watch !

[@treymoney1019]

Huh, yknow with how good your vids are, you should be getting more views. Then again.. pvz... sigh... also your vids got me to play bfn again. It's more fun than I remember now not yearning over gw

[@austiethewastie]

good vid but modern day was such a bad finale because they had trash level design and didnt even use protals that often

[@autismandgaming4532]

Crazy dave wants to go Back In Time To just a few moments ago To eat his taco a second time. That’s right, he wants to go Back In Time To just a few moments ago To eat his taco a second time

[@lazylucy2661]

I understand because of the microtransactions and ads many don't like PVZ2. But I always liked PVZ2 more than PVZ. Maybe because it is one of my 1st games I really liked to play in my childhood. But I do use a mod of PVZ2 which helps me to access premium plants and I have unlimited diamonds and coins. Because of that I love to play PVZ2, level up my plants and try new combinations. And obviously the design is way better than the original. And without spending money PVZ2 can still me really good. I ahve played like because I didn't have the mod that time. But an OG is an OG. I completly understand why people love PVZ.

[@duade2]

8:10 iceburg lettuce for torch guy because of stopping him with ice put out his torch

[@Healion123]

It's not often to see PvZ2 getting praised in a video. A great sight to see. I agree with alotta the points here! Still wish the final Zomboss fight was instead a huge combination of all the previous zombots shaped like the PvZ1 zombot. Woulda fit Modern Day's themes way more & been a much more epic way to conclude the game

[@dylbill56remixes28]

At the end of the day, while I don't really play this game anymore nowadays, I still think it's pretty good and worth giving a shot if you haven't yet.

[@Duppling]

The one thing that really pisses me off is how cramped the game feels nowadays. With hundreds of plants, some of which essentially just being better/alternate versions of already existinge ones, and most notably... Random performance issues! There was a period where the music would sometimes get extremely choppy and distorted, and in the next update, they decided to literally remove certain music from the game entirely. Although it was temporary, it all just feels really sloppy. I'm still surprised how much I otherwise enjoy the game though. So its moments like these that make me think overly negatively of the game as a whole.

[@mikaelllll]

I really appreciate the fact that there is no “ea is the spawn of satan” parts,thank you

[@Dr_Dan_]

17:59 man i will never recover from this. i mean, i still liked modern day, but i really expected "pvz 1 but in pvz2!" type of deal. well, i felt the same when the first zomboss battle was added, i really expected something similar to pvz1 design wise

[@omengames0439]

i remember watching zackscottgames when i was like 5 yo and he has 1122 episodes on pvz2 he has played garden warfare 1 and 2, and hes still going on the pvz 2 episodes

[@superdndanielchristensen4022]

7:59 swap Boncho with ice breg letteus

[@lanithecomputer9956]

Sylvia: * compares iceberg lettuce to potato mine* Ice shroom: bitch what am I a roach

[@fabrizeantonio4425]

I think at its current state, PVZ2 is on par, maybe slightly worse, than PVZ1 I think the scope and content itself is worth the entire game as a whole, and if it stayed like that I'd probably put it over PVZ1 even with the presence of microtransactions. As much as people like to rag on the powercreep and leveling system I personally don't feel _too_ bothered by it, but it does makes things too easy at some point; unfortunately, my current save file predates the linear world progression system they have in place, and I think making it linear drags down the experience slightly as well. Overall, I'd probably say I enjoy it slightly more than PVZ1 because of the variety, scale, and scope, but PVZ1 is just the more balanced and focused game (which is saying a lot considering the existence of Gloom Shroom). It's also the more skillful one because you don't need to handicap yourself from doing any leveling or remove like, _virtually every post Adventure sun producer from the roster_ for a challenging experience. I think what would make the experience better for powered plants is an optional NG+ where after each playthrough zombies get stronger in level increments of 1 or 2, and slightly longer and more aggressive levels each time, so leveling players (like me) can get their fill while non-leveling players can simply stay with the regular version of Adventure

[@RoyalTheCheeseSergal]

Did anybody else see the cat in the intro?

[@Da.Liar-Pig]

11:00 cattail in pvz 2 china: am i a joke to you Also yes ik cattail got back in pvz 2 reflourished mod but i only talked about the vanilla version

[@flightyavian4580]

reflourished cattail is just, depressing. cattail can target all 5 lanes yes but it has a short activation range which just really changes the plant for the worse- you can't really put cattails anywhere but the front, otherwise they simply won't do anything- but they're too valuable (seedpacket recharge is a pain) for that

[@InsertFunnyThingHere]

So true bestie

[@Azurethewolf168]

You guys know each other?

[@InsertFunnyThingHere]

@@Azurethewolf168 no but saying so true bestie is funny

[@Azurethewolf168]

@@InsertFunnyThingHere oh 😂

[@awesome1336]

Fun fact pvz2 was released on my birthday of August 15th and pvz came out on my friends birthday of May 5th

[@duade2]

I liked pvz2 but i have the major problems At first this levels with restriction, it kinda cheap way to complicate levels, and i won some of them with zen garden or power ups and this is not how game design for this game should work in my opinion At second of course microtransactions I am so wanna play the "right" version of the game, i mean less annoying levels, more balancing, and some extras and it will be perfect pvz sequel

[@duade2]

Wait gem plant just for 100 gems???????? When i last time played all gem plant have different cost and minimum was 400 I surprised that they down prize of all of them

[@LyricMoak]

W vid

[@greysonevans3949]

W i love homing thistle ❤

[@baonamnguyen7304]

gaming

[@hansaakurasa4377]

Check the travel log bro

[@AverageHedgehog]

Chilly pepper has bad choppy animation that looks like flash

[@lokispore5742]

Ironically enough. PvZ 2 animations themselves were (and are still) made in Flash.

[@Someguy1472]

pvz1 is my personal favorite. there is no changing that.

[@Pinapl94390]

People say ea ruined pvz, but we dont know if the game would be the same without ea, not only that, its 2023 , people complain about hypotheticals that either are unlikely to happen or wont happen, like them using money bought plants, like you said earlier

[@commenterthe3rd]

I love your vids

[@SylviaYSI]

Thank you, I appreciate the support!

[@commenterthe3rd]

@@SylviaYSI also happy birthday

[@Underkirby-is-a-goddess]

it would be better, if endless was like in pvz1

[@StressHaze]

I swear , as of right now youtube is bone dry when it comes to good pvz 2 videos. Ive literally watched the latest video from 660jn 13 times by now and I'd watch creeps20 but his voice is so slurried i cant focus.

[@alexik15502]

Personally i enjoyed pvz2 way more than pvz1. I get that it's flawed, but gameplay wise I'll always say it's top tier and very fun to play.

[@scottishclive7987]

One of the best games ever (pvz2)

[@JoseViktor4099]

Think what you want about who is better , PvZ1 or PvZ2 . For me PvZ1 🤜🤛 PvZ2 >> PvZ3

[@sheenalopatynski4217]

Here during premiere ❤❤

[@angela.martinez1133]

Pvz2 after dark ages feels like the game just wants to have a lot of leves just to give you more ads

[@Rayan2190_Gameing]

I know I this is a little late but I wanana say if you liked PvZ 1 you will probably like pvz2 also people should play pvz1 first because I will make PvZ 2 make more sense and as someone who somehow 100% pvz1 the day before PvZ 2 play it if you can’t afford the plants that cost money then don’t get them instead in joy the game when I first saw a micro transactions I left the game for 2 years disappointed in popcap but then I remamberd EA bought popcap so I remembered ea is a greedy company

[@Cherry_coke_pop]

Personally I just never cared that much about pvz 2 because for me pvz1 was just some game I liked that I’d play through and hop back into from time to time then pvz 2 was just something that I never played as much because the scale was too big so I could never finish care enough to finish it plus I’m not that good at the game and without micro transactions I would never be able too if I did care (also there’s was another pvz title with 2 in the name that’s my favourite game of all time so)

[@keiios291]

BONK CHOY BEING BAD????

[@SylviaYSI]

He’s kinda outclassed by a lot of close range Plants, especially stuff like Pokra

[@GNVS300]

@@SylviaYSI that's kind of an unfair comparison given Pokra is a seed packet plant you likely won't unlock until after completing adventure. The only adventure plant that really compares to Bonk Choy is Snapdragon but I've always thought Bonk was considerably better

[@flightyavian4580]

@@GNVS300Bonk is considerably worse than snapdragon simply because of the activation range and lack of pierce. In all scenarios, Snapdragon will outdps bonk choy simply because it has three lanes and can attack zombies from slightly more than two tiles, allowing you to put two snapdragons behind a wall or three snapdragons in a line all adding damage. Bonk choys in comparison...

[@ConeHead_Zombie]

I hate homing thistle

[@pancake204]

Arena mode sucks ngl.

[@Coolgamerawsomeepic]

Tiktok

[@atwig5872]

the reason i hate pvz2 is mostly because of the balancing and unfun levels. here are some plants i think are op, or at least outclass something, not even encluding premiums/seediums: thyme warp primal potato mine primal peashooter primal wallnut red stinger dusk lobber fire peashooter winter melon shrinking violet ghost pepper here is why i hate the worlds i hate the most: frostbite caves: frostwinds are basically designed to discourage strategy. they make it so you basically have to use one plant for every level, and on top of that it has 0 interesting zombies, which is a problem for almost all worlds though jurassic marsh: i have 1 good thing to say about this world, and that's TWO of the dinosaurs, that being velociraptor and pterodactyl. all the other dinosaurs can just be stopped by simply planting. almost all of the plants outclass something entirely, there is actually no zombies, and the music sucks in my opinion, but that's entirely just an opinion. here are all the other issues: - the levels are extremely repetitive, alot just consist of conehead and an objective half the time - alot of the zombies either discourage strategy (worst case is jester) or do basically nothing (worst case is fire imp) - the plant food is completely broken, basically making you have 8 instants at once, in other words tanky zombies don't exist anymore so they had to include the most epic zombie ever (gargantuar) in every world, making it not cool anymore, and garg still just gets shredded by plant food - the level objectives are mostly awful (looking at you produce X sun)

[@schling0]

you said bonk choy is bad, disliked

[@DanG88]

This game sucks. The 1st is better.

[@davestilldave6657]

anything after pvz 1 era is bad

[@davestilldave6657]

I disagree pvz2 sucks, because microtransactions

[@mr.productions327]

Please tell me that was a joke.

[@hpthepea]

I agree pvz2 is the worst thing ever made

[@mr.productions327]

@@hpthepea worse than PvZ3?

[@Plofferfish]

​@@hpthepeaskill issue 👏

[@hpthepea]

@@Plofferfish Pvz 2 is actually my favorite game

[@Selfiethesunflower]

Love how most of this video is you talking about how good it is, it's fresh to see someone not endlessly complain about it