r/PlantsVSZombies

I’ve seen a lot of hype surrounding PvZ2C’s newest world, Moon Base Z. And I’m going to be honest, I think the hype is entirely undeserved. If you can see value in this world, Good for you! But I wan’t to explain why I personally think this world is going to he an absolute shit fest.

First of all, So far we have FIVE Gimmicks. In One World. I think to most people, that would sound absolutely absurd. Most PvZ2 worlds have one to two gimmicks at the absolute most. The most apparent design philosophy when it comes to the game is ‘Less is more’, and this world so far is completely throwing that out of the window. And one of said gimmicks is an entirely new resource system that replaces sun. And that’s where the first of these problems arises.

Essentially; instead of sun, you have a new resource called Power (I’m not sure what it’s actually called). You have a limited number of power that you can exceed, and each plant adds a certain number of power. But once you exceed it, you can just keep planting. Making the lawn go into two states. One slows the plants down, and one just disables them all. And also you can increase the power limit by collecting crystals. And you need to use a little robot helper that you drag and drop to mine those crystals.
I hope you see the problem with this entire system. Not only is this excessively convoluted, and replaces a well established simple to understand, and engaging system that is the basis for a strategic and fun gameplay loop.. But the new system just sucks. Beyond the tons of fluff they put with all the bells and whistles, This system just removes depth from the entirety of the game. Instead of managing your space, sun, and seed slots with sun producers, You’re just doing “Don’t place more than x plants” But you can increase the number of plants you have. It is detrimental to PvZ as a franchises strengths. Replacing it with something just not satisfying or fun.

But oh, that’s not even the end of it. On TOP of the fuel system, you also have a Lily Pad stand-in that you need to place plants in the first place in the form of Cosmoss! You also get a new category of plants that don’t need Cosmoss! And they also bypass the power system!
Do I need to explain why this is absolutely horrible design? I’ll explain it anyway, though. This falls into the same pitfall that Frostbite Caves does. The most infamous PvZ2 world. The one most people would say is pretty trash design wise. Not only do you have a system that replaces sun, and a tool plant you need to get going on TOP of that, but you have a set of plants that just ignores all of that. So you either have to choose an extremely boring energy system, or use the same plants constantly.

And we still haven’t gone over the three other gimmicks this world has

The next one of these is the rocket ships. Which are overcomplicated in their own right. Each cosmic plant grants a different effect when you plant inside them. Alongside zombies also being able to go inside them. The question here is… Why not just plant in the rockets before zombies can reach them? There’s nothing stopping you, and the positive effects don’t require any exact conditions. So yet again, another complicated gimmick that essentially amounts to nothing

Next are the teleportation stations. I’m not even sure if these should count as a gimmick, but 2C themselves did, So I shall as well. Basically, some zombies will have teleporters that let them revive a set amount of times. This is admittedly less egregious, But it feels like an unnessecary fluff addition, and also very annoying for no reason. The same can be said about the final gimmick revealed so far. The meteors. These are basically just ambushes that spawn tiles that buff zombies and hurt plants.

My overall point with this is that all 5 of these gimmicks create the most disharmonious world you could possibly design. You have all this stuff that doesn’t mix well together in any sort of cohesive way. No established gameplay loop. It feels like a bunch of ideas were thrown around depending on what was cool and space-y, without any further thought. And Did I mention space plant food? Yeah! I lied! there’s not five gimmicks! There’s SIX. they also replaced plant food with a new system thats just you gaining plant food overtime through the level. Which just. Sucks.

This isn’t even mentioning stuff like how the amount of plants, the aesthetic that can’t seem to pick a lane and just ends up being too similar to Far Future, and fact they’re trying to cater to heroes fans while fucking up the designs. And I haven’t even looked into the designs of the plants and zombies. Analyzing 5 gimmicks was enough of a chore. (And also, the world isn’t out yet.) Maybe when it does release, I’ll make a follow-up post analyzing the world more indepth.

Obviously, no shade to anyone at TalkWeb. they clearly put a ton of effort into their work. I just wanted to voice my opinion on how this world is being handled. I love PvZ2. I love how worlds are (or have the potential to be) designed. And I want to see improvement in this.. What I consider to be art. This criticism doesn’t come from a place of vitriol. It comes from a place of love for this game and community.

Just looking for pvz 2 CONTENT mods.