Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, the newest game in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, just came out on February 23rd and it is already receiving a content update that includes balance fixes, new modes, and even a brand new map. Take a look at the list below (provided to the public by EA) and the trailer they provided for the so-called: Graveyard Variety Pack!
New Features
- Added new co-op/team vanquish map “Aqua Center” which may seem familiar, yet completely different!
- Added night version of the Great White North map to the Turf Takeover Playlist
- Added Hide n’ Find missions to Backyard Battleground
- Added Bot & Pot Missions to Backyard Battleground
- Added unique character variant images to group HUD
- World Options now shows all friends playing the game, not just the joinable ones
- Added classic setting in options to change primary fire button (PS4 Only)
- Added Aim Sensitivity slider to now allow more precise control over aim speed (for PC this is broken up into both mouse and gamepad sensitivity)
- Added ability to select between hold button to aim or toggle button to Aim
- Added kick player option to the in-game scoreboard for easy access (player hosted modes only)
- Added difficulty to Pause Menu for some game modes
- Game Now defaults to common chat in Private Matches
- Added ability to view scoreboard while vanquished
Critical Fixes
- Reduced length of round timer between rounds in Multiplayer matches
- Imp now properly earns XP when in Mech
- Players can now see other players’ Backyard customizations when visiting their Backyard
- Players can now see stats on other players stats boards when visiting their Backyard
- Improved audio for garlic drone primary weapon
- Setting HUD to “Light” now also hides XP Meter
- Major improvements to hit reaction “flinching” animations
- A plethora of quality & bug fixes
Tuning/Balance Notes
Overall
- Improved regeneration upgrade for all characters
- Re-tuned all hit reactions for both players and AI to reduce the flinching effect even more
Rose:
- Completely re-tuned Rose class, bringing her back into playing as a support role
- Reduced Rose’s health
- Major changes to her homing abilities, ineffective at range, requires player to lead target in order to land more hits
- Slightly reduced rate of fire for Magic Thistles
- Significantly reduced length a victim is trapped in Time Snare
- Changed how Goatify ability works so that damage does not break Goatify, creating a more predictable and less jarring experience, and lowered time as a goat
- Slowed down rose variants (Fire, Ice) when charging their weapons to make them more vulnerable
Citron:
- Slightly decreased the Party Citron laser damage
Corn:
- We needed to improve Corn’s ability to be a front-line fighter so we increased his health and also improved his long range damage
- Reduced Party Corn’s damage output
Chomper:
- Decreased the digestion time after a chomp escape (i.e. your victim got away using anti-chomp ability like jackhammer)
- Brought Chompers regeneration delay to parity with all other playable characters
- Fixed a bug where Chomp Thing’s health regeneration didn’t match his weapon description. He now regenerates health slightly sooner and faster than default
- Increased Unicorn Chomper’s Rainbow Warp cooldown time
- Increased goop cooldown so it couldn’t be spammed quite as much
Cactus:
- Zen Cactus was too damaging and needed some damage and reload adjustments
Imp:
- Imps tuning focused on ensuring he had a bit more survivability outside of his mech, and also improved his primary weapon slightly
- Increased Imp health
- Fixed a bug where the Imp couldn’t receive damage while he is making his Z-Mech phone call (he’s now only invulnerable when the beam of light appears)
- Reduced Party Imp’s damage output
Super Brainz:
- Slight cooldown reduction to Super Ultra Ball and Super Multi Ball abilities
- Minor speed improvement to Turbo Twister but at the cost of decreased his armor while in Turbo Twister
- Removed the decay from Toxic Brainz legendary meter to make it more useful
- Damage reduction to Party Brainz
Captain Deadbeard:
- We wanted to bring Captain Deadbeard closer to damage parity with Cactus, but just slightly below since he also benefits from his close range scatter shot
- Made some movement speed improvements to his barrel when unlit
- Made some damage reductions to Captain Partyman
