Plants vs Zombies 2 - Death by sequel
Those of you who're playing Plants vs Zombies 2 on iOS, what's your feedback?
Personally, my wife and I are disappointed with the game which we were so excited for because of our continued love of the first game. I'm trying to write this in a style so that it can be applied to game development but please forgive any rants or personal reviews.
Making a sequel, in most cases, is challenging because unlike a new title there is a massive amount of expectation. Fans want more of the same game; most want to see improvements or features that were "missing" in the first title; there's a style and a mechanic that people loved in the first game that's now considered sacrosanct.
The best example of a reaction can be seen in 2K's FPS XCOM (now The Bureau: XCOM Declassified) where they took a strategy game and, from the first gameplay trailers, turned it into a squad based Call of Duty; then the huge sighs of relief when Firaxis announced their remake and the game looked a lot more like the original.
For Plants vs Zombies 2, the art style and micro transaction pushing make the game feel like it's gone backwards from a PC game to a Flash-based Facebook game.
Don't let me make you think I hate everything about the new game. I like the addition of the Plant Growth mechanic and I see space for the Power Ups; but the break from gaining new plants as you go through the levels to, now, certain plants (as far as I can tell) can only be bought via micro-transaction (and not even with in-game currency), really feels like it breaks with the franchise. I also think the keys you have to find to unlock the "branching" progression path was also something that shouldn't have been implemented.
Plants vs Zombies 2 really highlights for me the importance of artwork. The new art style feels like cheap, stuck together, vector graphics that belongs in a Facebook game rushed to milk the franchise; where the original game felt like there was some love put in.
I'm going to stop writing now because I want to put some more thoughts into what breaks a sequel; but I'd like to know your feedback on the game and how far you can go making changes in a sequel before it breaks with the franchise.
Personally, my wife and I are disappointed with the game which we were so excited for because of our continued love of the first game. I'm trying to write this in a style so that it can be applied to game development but please forgive any rants or personal reviews.
Making a sequel, in most cases, is challenging because unlike a new title there is a massive amount of expectation. Fans want more of the same game; most want to see improvements or features that were "missing" in the first title; there's a style and a mechanic that people loved in the first game that's now considered sacrosanct.
The best example of a reaction can be seen in 2K's FPS XCOM (now The Bureau: XCOM Declassified) where they took a strategy game and, from the first gameplay trailers, turned it into a squad based Call of Duty; then the huge sighs of relief when Firaxis announced their remake and the game looked a lot more like the original.
For Plants vs Zombies 2, the art style and micro transaction pushing make the game feel like it's gone backwards from a PC game to a Flash-based Facebook game.
Don't let me make you think I hate everything about the new game. I like the addition of the Plant Growth mechanic and I see space for the Power Ups; but the break from gaining new plants as you go through the levels to, now, certain plants (as far as I can tell) can only be bought via micro-transaction (and not even with in-game currency), really feels like it breaks with the franchise. I also think the keys you have to find to unlock the "branching" progression path was also something that shouldn't have been implemented.
Plants vs Zombies 2 really highlights for me the importance of artwork. The new art style feels like cheap, stuck together, vector graphics that belongs in a Facebook game rushed to milk the franchise; where the original game felt like there was some love put in.
I'm going to stop writing now because I want to put some more thoughts into what breaks a sequel; but I'd like to know your feedback on the game and how far you can go making changes in a sequel before it breaks with the franchise.
Comments
I haven't played PVZ 2 yet (just downloaded it cos it was free) but I really did like the first one. The problem I'm having with it is that I keep hearing about IAPs, and that makes me wary. And also while the first was a fun game, I just didn't see what it could do to make me really feel like I'm not playing the same game again. Your info here kinda backs up my inner predictions :P
I'll give it a go a bit later :)
Most of the time I'll only really go for sequels if
1) It adds something different (ironic? Yeah)
2) It advances the story (Assassin's Creed got me on that for a while)
3) It adds multiplayer to what wasn't and makes it interesting (kinda like 1), then. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood did this very well for me)
4) I haven't played the originals and everyone is raving about the sequel, ie, it's a good game (MGS4)
The monetisation stuff bugs the hell out of me. I really liked the overworld map thing at first because it looked so rich, but then it turned into a place I couldn't interact with and became nothing but a series of micotransaction-holders. Blech. I'm also really not sure how I feel about the plants that are only there if you buy them... I like the feel of some of the new plants, it's neat trying new stuff in a game like this, but they're not as meticulously designed as the original PvZ plants. I haven't gotten all of the free ones yet, but I suspect that if I ever do buy anything in PvZ2, it'll be plants.
Fuck keys. Fuck the time travel thing too... Or rather, fuck how tacked-on it feels. You wanted pirate zombies? Okay! PvZ could have handled that normally! Egyptian zombies! Sure, why the hell not? Just make there be different zombie leaders, who theme their zombie minions accordingly. Why am I trying to defend all these places that I'll never live in anyway? For a taco and so that we can have a new wacky character that's a bit like gladOs? Erm.
Anyway, I played the crap out of PvZ. You wanna know what happens when your tree of wisdom hit 5000m? Nothing. So I don't care that it's grindy - I'll play grindy. I just don't like playing cheap.
I'd have loved to buy this game up front and have it leave out all the arb keys and monetisation stuff... The powerups feel so terrible, because they remind you that the game just wants your money. The plant food is okay, but not as interesting as the night time levels in the first game.
Would have loved if they'd done stuff about the feeling of degenerate openings in PvZ - my builds right now are very similar, except I apparently have double-sunflowers super early for no good reason.
I finally got to the door for the next stage only to be informed I needed more stars for it to open. The game then took control of the camera and moved back to the first couple of levels and added 3 stars (a la Angry Birds and every other game) and requires me to replay these levels to earn the stars to unlock the next stage.
Playing the 1st level again they add some modifiers and give you a specific challenge to beat; but they leave you in no doubt that you must REPLAY old levels i.e. go backwards to go forwards.
It always feels like a kak move because you used to look over your level map and see you've completed all the levels and now it looks like I haven't even started! Worse, it says the level is complete but I earned zero stars from it i.e. I'm a bad player who's just pushing through.
(sorry)
If PvZ2 was unbearably awful then that number would be a bit lower, but all they needed was a functional sequel and to make it free to get those figures.
I haven't played PvZ2 yet. So I'm not commenting on its quality... just I hate the that business journalists write stories that because a game is downloading well it means the game in question is a brilliant play experience (which is a weak assumption when there are more significant factors).
(I saw probably the same article about how well PvZ2 is doing and I felt that was definitely the subtext)
Though 25 million hours is fairly low for 16 million downloads actually.
I get @fengol's argument about being set back instead of feeling like you're moving forward. I understand @rustybroomhandle's disappointment with a passion project's sequel having very obvious "design by committee" elements. And I also get the general distaste with the game being measured by it's number of downloads.
But despite all this.. my wife and I are still having a ton of fun playing it. PvZ was the only game she ever completed twice, simply because she enjoyed the gameplay and challenges that much. The new approach of having you play through at least some levels three times with new challenges actually suits her in that regard. It definitely feels grindy, but then the first one also felt pretty grindy to me (I only finished it once :P)
Don't get me wrong, there are certain elements I think were a total mistake-the powerups feel tacked-on, the split between keys, stars and coins is confusing- but there are also a lot of elements I'm really enjoying. There are some interesting new zombies and plants, the new settings (as whacky and impersonal as they may seem compared to your own back yard) fit the game nicely and choosing which plants (and side paths) you want to unlock with your keys was a great idea. On that last one in particular, I've already found my play style has diverged from my wife's based on that. I even initially felt selling individual plants for dollar prices was unreasonable-but given they can be unlocked through play over time, and that's the way I'd prefer to play anyway, I'm actually ok with that.
As for the downloads metric, that's a realistic measure of the game's business success. The sorts of websites touting these numbers are the ones interested in that. They're not implying it's a measure of how good the game is. There are games out there that are arguably brilliant but have seen no financial success, and that's sad. PvZ1, and now 2, have in my opinion done a really good job of being both fun and polished, and also of supporting their publisher and developer financially. That's a really hard line to walk.
But I haven't ground enough to say one way or another :) Because, well, grinding.
@Tuism yeah I have no idea. I suppose one test would be to see if replaying a completed star redrops a key, or if you get keys in the pyramid of doom- I can't see how a limited key set would work if that was the case.
To play devils advocate myself: A successful game now can still mean the gradual decline of a successful property. They could get 16 million downloads and still harm EA's future success with the franchise. Surely, when regarding business success, the sustainability of the franchise is important. 16 million downloads is a lot of exposure, but it speaks nothing of the effect of that exposure.
Though I do hear you. It's not fair to criticize business journalists for not taking an interest in the things that don't interest them.
From the sounds of it, you're not as far in the game as I am: Just got to the 3rd world, there appears to be a fourth space/future themed one after the wild west. Wild west's mechanic difference is vertical rails that you can slide a single plant up or down on, so you essentially lose an entire row for the ability to respond to new waves with 1 single high investment plant. It seems nice at first, but actually feels like it messes with the slow growing nature of PvZ. To illustrate what I mean, the wild west also introduces back-line reverse attacker zombies for the first time, much like the diggers in PvZ1. Except this time around they have to move to the back much, much faster because you can respond to them so easily - they're not a thing to notice and build around, they're a threat you have to slide that backwards firing plant around for, obviously. Much of PvZ2 actually feels like that - the game has gained immediacy and response instead of slowing planning and positioning. Response stuff was only needed in PvZ1 waaaaay later on in the endless modes when you were trying to save as much as possible for expensive plants mid-game. Now you have to do it all the time.
@Tuism: Keys are probably weighted random. I've earned multiple keys in one map before. I've also earned keys in maps I was revisiting to chase the yeti. You can only earn keys of each world type in that world - I've continued earning keys in the egyptian world even after I've unlocked everything there anyway, so random is probably how it goes.