GAMEPLAY

Garden Warfare is a team-based third-person shooter where players take control of the Plants or the Zombies in either a cooperative or competitive multiplayer environment. The game features eight classes, four for either faction. The Peashooter and the Foot Soldier act as general ground characters; the Sunflower, Scientist, and Engineer act as support characters; the Chomper and the All-Star are characters that engage in close-up combat, and the Cacti are snipers. In addition to normal third-person shooting, each class has three special abilities. For instance, the Peashooters can deploy a Chili Bean Bomb to launch an area of effect attack, while the Chomper can burrow underground and ambush a zombie from below. As an added compliment to combat, most maps have scattered "Flower Pots" and "Bone Piles"; from these, the Plants can place stationary defensive plants while the Zombies can spawn lesser undead that roam the map on their own. This adds a player versus environment element to most game modes, which are otherwise player-versus-player. These units are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) and are consumed upon use. Players earn coins, a form of currency in the game, by completing objectives, reviving teammates or killing enemies.

To progress in the game, players must complete unique challenges to each class. Once completed, these challenges level up the player character, allowing access to upgrades, new character variants, or cosmetic items. In-game items such as character outfits and accessories, weapon upgrades, and spawnable units are obtained from sticker packs. These packs are bought using coins from an in-game shop that contains random items. There are multiple packs available, such as cheap ones that contain only AI units, or more expensive ones that contain items of greater rarity. As for unlocking character variants, once a player has collected five stickers to make a completed picture of the variant in question, it is unlocked for use. In a post-launch update, PopCap introduced microtransactions, which enable players to unlock sticker packs using real-life currency. Variants have different weapons, stats, or an elemental effects compared to their base version. For example, Commando Pea, a variant of Peashooter, uses a fully automatic weapon but cannot deal splash damage, while Cricket Star can inflict additional fire damage to enemies. All unlocked items can be viewed in a sticker book.

Gameplay modes

The game features a cooperative mode and several competitive multiplayer modes. Garden Ops has up to four players take control the Plants defending a garden through ten zombie waves, with some waves being boss waves in which a slot machine would spawn different boss characters or reward players with coins. After the last wave, the plants must run to an extraction point and survive until they are evacuated. In Boss Mode, player can take the role of Dr. Zomboss or Crazy Dave (for the Zombies and Plants, respectively) who circle high above the battlefield in a flying contraption and send support to players in the ground by activating radar scans, healing, resurrecting fallen teammates and launching air strikes. This mode is available for Xbox SmartGlass and Kinect users. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players also have access to a split screen cooperative mode, in which two players engage in combat against endless waves of zombies.

Up to 24 players can compete with each other in various multiplayer modes. Team Vanquish is a team deathmatch variant which ends when one of the two teams knock out 50 opponents. In Gardens and Graveyards, players either capture (as the Zombies) or defend (as the Plants) various objectives in an expanding map. The last objective on the map is unique for each map. Suburbination (released as part of the Suburbination Pack free DLC) is a classic back and forth zone capture game mode in which teams must compete for control of three different zones, with each zone held granting the team points based on how long the zone is held. Securing all three zones at once will trigger "Suburbination", where point production is greatly increased and players on the team with suburbination active are granted additional coin bonuses. The first team to reach 100 suburbination points wins the game. There is also Gnome Bomb, (released as part of the Garden Variety Pack free DLC), in which both factions attempt to take a respawning objective, the Gnome Bomb, to the opposition camp's base and then detonate it, and Taco Bandits, (released as part of the Legends of the Lawn free DLC) where the Zombies attempt to steal three tacos from Crazy Dave's taco stand and deliver them to Dr Zomboss' mothership tractor beam, while the Plants attempt to defend the tacos at all costs. The game mode Welcome Mat pits newcomers to the game against each other, serving as a mode for them to learn the game's controls and systems. Each consecutive death in Welcome Mat after three deaths in a row will cause the player to spawn with increased health