Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare is one of the best multiplayer shooters ever in that it appeals to people that don't normally play multiplayer shooters. You don't have to be a dudebro to enjoy it. You don't have to be "hardcore". You don't have to worry about your K/D ratio. Players of all ages and skill levels can jump in and have fun and contribute to their team's success, which you absolutely cannot say about most online multiplayer games. They screwed up the sequel for sure, but they really had nowhere to go but down considering they got the first game pretty much perfect from the start. Read all about it right here.
Between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions I have logged 200+ hours into Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 1. I just freaking love the game. It is perfectly balanced and fun to play and the maps are just about perfect. It doesn't have as many features as GW2, and you can't play with bots which is a pretty big deal, but the core online multiplayer gameplay is so balanced and so fun you won't really feel the need to escape offline to get away from the toxicity of other players. And this is coming from someone who generally hates playing online, but I love Garden Warfare 1.
I will be the first to admit that part of the reason why I like Garden Warfare is because the skill level of opponents isn't usually especially high. A lot of casual gamers and kids play Garden Warfare and it's just easier to actually have fun. Because the game is class-based, you can also contribute in lots of different ways besides just getting the most kills. When you put all of that together there is very little of the pressure you feel in other games to play well and justify your spot on the team. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to get dozens of kills. You don't have to run around all over. You can just do what you are comfortable with and have fun. I love that.
I also love that it is a competitive online shooter that is actually family friendly. Kids can play this and be competitive and have fun and the content is cartoony and unrealistic and not overly violent or graphic. Most people don't use mics, either, so you don't have to worry about kids hearing bad stuff from other players. Back in the last days of working at About.com I had to make a list of "Family Friendly" Xbox games and I included Garden Warfare on it. My editor fought with me and said "No, this is a shooter. It's not appropriate" and I had to make my case that it was actually a family game. I won that battle, by the way.
For this video I kind of kicked butt. I was a zombie engineer and was the 4th highest scoring player in the game even though I only had a handful of kills. My undeniable skill led our ragtag team of zombies to victory. Seriously, we wouldn't have won if I didn't score 3 out of 5 points in the final part of Wall Nut Hills (you need 5 zombies to enter the mansion to win). It was all me, baby.
