Re: 6 years of Garden Warfare 2!
@Iron_Guard8Early gw2 had its problems but it was still such a fun time exploring the new maps and all the new content of the pve hub.
The biggest improvement over gw1 by far was the addition of pve as now you could explore your own little world and experience multiplayer with bot allies/enemies of your choosing (I didn't have Xbox live until after spooky squash so I spent all that time playing solo matches).
There was also the new mode and setting of herbal assualt which finally put plants on the offensive. Graveyard ops allowed the zombie defense to shine. The plants now had an offensive army and zombies got a defensive one that thankfully do not play 100% identically to their counterpart. There were also all the new bosses and minions to the series.
All the new classes took some getting used to but they were all fun and helped compliment their respective teams without feeling like they stepping on each other toes too much.
I think gw was ahead of the curve as it came out during the gray ultra edgy era of shooters arguably started by the rise of call of duty that finally died down in the end of 2015 when that series declined. Gw did its stylized and colorful cartoony style far before Overwatch or paladins looked back at tf2 and saw that it was a potential goldmine genre. Even gw2 got out before overwatch was really getting close to completion.
The only thing I have to complain about is popcap's handling of gw2 at the end of its life. The lackluster job done on walnut hills and the mystery portal having over 3/4 of its modes being cut out with no chance of return is sad.
I really hope that if we ever get a new shooter it builds upon gw2 by expanding on the content and ideas provided by it. Easily my favorite pvz alongside the original.