Garden Warfare, maps, and you
After discussing the maps of the two Garden Warfare games I ruminated over that discussion and then after playing the first game in addition to GW2 recently I wanted to run down my opinion on the maps here so others could see them all here together and get the community’s thoughts. I do this kind of thing mostly to get the community involved in the franchise’s future and so the devs can see what people like and dislike and want to see in the next game.
First I’ll list them out, separated by game:
GW1 Maps:
- Wall-Nut Hills
- Main Street
- Cactus Canyon
- Driftwood Shores
- Zomboss Estate
- Garden Center
- Suburban Flats
- Jewel Junction
- Sharkbite Shores
- Crash Course
- Port Scallywag
- Chomp Town
GW2 maps:
- Great White North
- Seeds of Time
- Zomburbia
- Zombopolis
- Moonbase Z
- Z-Tech Factory
- Lunar Landing
- Time Park
- Frontline Flats
- Frosty Creek
- Colizeum
- Sandy Sands
- Aqua Center
- Zen Peak
- Boney Island
I put the TT maps first in both lists; followed by the smaller general use maps and I didn’t count the night versions separately. The first thing I noticed was that GW1 has 12 maps and GW2 has 15. Now like many people I think the overall average of how much I the maps is a bit higher in GW1 but I personally don’t dislike any maps, the closest is Time Park in multiplayer matches due to its nature with the cool but choke point inspiring portals and even then I don’t actually dislike it, just find it less than ideal for most matches there although fine for Ops.
I think part of the issue some have based on the FB group and posters here have with the new vs. the old maps is that the themes of many of the new ones don’t fit in as well. Most of the maps in GW1 felt like suburbs and urban areas, places zombies would appear at and attack due to the population density, whereas in GW2 we fight over several different maps that are part of a theme park, zombie controlled cityscapes, a frozen logging camp, and the moon. The first game had a couple of outliers like Port Scallywag and Sharkbite shores but they weren’t that far off the main theme and were the minority. The maps felt connected without being directly so like Seeds of Time is with Time Park, Colizeum, Sandy Sands, Zen Peak, and Boney Island. So many areas that felt like they were part of the theme park and the general ambivalence and downright dislike of the theme park areas have certainly been seen among the players.
For myself I don’t mind the theme park areas at all and some are quite good tactically. The main issue is the 2 G&G maps in GW2 just don’t have the same feel as the original 4 G&G maps and the 3 herbal assault maps just seem to play better (once some adjusted were made) than the new G&G maps. While the ruining of the graduation party at Zomburbia lacks the threat of the tactical cuke in Main Street from GW1, it played well and I love that map. Zombopolis is a visual delight and Moonbase Z’s end game is one of my favorites to date and both Zombopolis and Moonbase Z have an existential threat to the plants so much better incentive than the zombies taking Rose’s castle.
That being said I don’t want to see the creativity in this series getting hit by a ‘reality hammer’ as I think the complaints that GW2 is ‘too silly’ compared to GW1 seem odd when even in the first game we were stealing tacos and absconding with them into a UFO (I still love Taco Bandits to this day), pushing a giant golf ball into a secret lab under a minigolf course, and sneaking zombies into Dave’s house. PvZ has always been lighthearted and fun and we don’t want to lose that. With the idea of time travel from the gnomes and PvZ2 which I play consistently on my phone, we can have a mix of suburbia and zomburbia in the maps for the new game. The last map added to GW2; Frontline Flats is one of the best from either game and it really reminds me of GW1 while fitting the ascendant zombie theme of GW2 well.
So while I personally want to see all the old maps make a return in GW3 or whatever the new PvZ shoter turns out to be (throw us a bone here Popcap!), and they can use the gnomiverse or other time travel aspects from games like PvZ2 to justify them all, what do you guys here all think about the maps? Got any favorites or ones you really dislike? Do you miss the old haunts like Port Scallywag and Main Street? Or are you set on Moonbase Z and Frosty Creek?
