[iOS] Plants vs. Zombies 2

N

Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
Came out yesterday. There was a lot of talk about this jumping the shark since it's free to play, but I played it for 4 hrs last night and you really only have to pay if you're impatient. The majority of the game is unlockable via playing rather than IAPs. For example, you can pay like five bucks to unlock the Wild West level after you play through the main path in the Ancient Egypt level, but the other way to unlock it is to get 15 stars. It's kinda like Super Mario 64 where you go back to previous levels and do it in a slightly different way to get additional stars.

They brought along old plants as IAPs -- you can buy torchwood, imitator, snow pea, jalapeno as soon you launch the game. Poking around online, I'm not sure if you can get them through playing, but there's enough new and interesting plants (so far) that I'm not missing them.

There's new power ups that cost in-game coins that let you insta-kill zombies by pinching/flicking/etc, but they're expensive and not needed if you play well. To that end, it is more challenging than the first (I've had to restart a few times because I didn't have a good set up early enough), so I could see someone less patient using power ups and then dropping cash for coins. But I don't think anyone in this community would go there.

Anyways, it's free and pretty well tuned, so go check it out
 
A

Azziane_sl

shitlord
541
1
Can I pay $5 and unlock everything? Because $3.99 per plant is a fucking racket unless I misread the itunes top in app purchase page.

**edit

Top 4 comments/reviews on the itunes page. Not psyched atm. Looks like extra plants are IAP only, unless itunes commenters are idiots (hehe).

Fun is over-shadowed by expensive IAPs.

by Craig Colbert

Upgrades/Premium Plants range between $2.99 and $3.99. That's insane! I could buy 20-30 new apps with the money I would spend on all the upgrades/plants! Lower the prices, and maybe I'll consider a purchase.

Too much IAP! Wish I could pay a single price!

by ShortyShorty96

Prefer the original. More for the money.

F*** EA and their In-App purchase model

by Wadatah

I'd rather pay ONCE for a quality game than get screwed over with a bunch of microtransactions. Twelve bucks for the first couple "special" plants, another four bucks for a seed slot.

EA needs to burn.
Click to expand...
 
N

Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
Azziane_sl said:
Can I pay $5 and unlock everything? Because $3.99 per plant is a fucking racket unless I misread the itunes top in app purchase page.

**edit

Top 4 comments/reviews on the itunes page. Not psyched atm. Looks like extra plants are IAP only, unless itunes commenters are idiots (hehe).
Click to expand...
I'm thinking they're just idiots. The Kotaku review I linked talks about how you don't have to pay and how everything's unlockable, etc etc. And after playing through the first stage, I believe it. There's a lot of replay value, but it's actually entertaining and challenging (I was up until 3am playing...)

More for the money? You're getting pretty much the entire game for free.
 
C

Cor_sl

shitlord
487
0
I've put in 5 hours into the game so far and I haven't once felt the need to reach into my pocket to pay for anything. I'm thinking of buying Snow Pea just to give some sort of monetary contribution to Popcap.

Really enjoying the game so far, though. It feels like a worth successor.
 
F

Fazana_sl

shitlord
1,071
0
Vaclav_sl said:
So ridiculous that they're not doing PC or Android yet.
Click to expand...
From their perspective it's really not. The PC version will *probably* (admittedly could be wrong) be a one off purchase cost but the IAP version on IOS will make them a fuckton more money. If you've never read up on the Puzzle & Dragons and Candy Crush Saga type stuff, P&D was making $30m a month in January in Japan and quite a few games have made $10m a month or more in IAP in the appstore in the North America/European markets.

Hit the right notes in the IOS/Android marketplace and you'll make a fuckton more money than on the PC. It pisses me off as well now I don't have an ipad anymore, it would be dead fucking easy to make pc clients of most ios puzzle/card games etc but they simply don't bother and bluestacks runs like shit most of the time.
 
A

Azziane_sl

shitlord
541
1
Neph_sl said:
I'm thinking they're just idiots. The Kotaku review I linked talks about how you don't have to pay and how everything's unlockable, etc etc. And after playing through the first stage, I believe it. There's a lot of replay value, but it's actually entertaining and challenging (I was up until 3am playing...)

More for the money? You're getting pretty much the entire game for free.
Click to expand...
Ok so only 1 plant cannot be unlocked via playing (snow pea). Sounding much better already. Unlocking shit as you play is half the game for most TD games I play. I do not do IAP though. Maybe I'll just buy the snow pea right of the bat and that will be my game price.

Thanks for the clarifications!
 
N

njorls_sl

shitlord
10
0
I finished the story part of the Wild Wild West and didn't see any way of unlocking the store plants.

There was a Yeti event that dropped a random item but all I got was a key.

There's also a Survival at the end of each chapter but I haven't gotten very far with that yet.

I haven't spent a cent so far, it's a fun game without paying the PT Barnum tax. I'm tempted not to pay any money for the challenge though its worth a couple of bucks.
 
Vaclav

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
Fazana_sl said:
From their perspective it's really not. The PC version will *probably* (admittedly could be wrong) be a one off purchase cost but the IAP version on IOS will make them a fuckton more money. If you've never read up on the Puzzle & Dragons and Candy Crush Saga type stuff, P&D was making $30m a month in January in Japan and quite a few games have made $10m a month or more in IAP in the appstore in the North America/European markets.

Hit the right notes in the IOS/Android marketplace and you'll make a fuckton more money than on the PC. It pisses me off as well now I don't have an ipad anymore, it would be dead fucking easy to make pc clients of most ios puzzle/card games etc but they simply don't bother and bluestacks runs like shit most of the time.
Click to expand...
Thus the "or Android" part of my quote... And you can certainly nickle and dime PC stuff as well - it's just not as "push friendly" where its just a simple click away. (Hell, look at Solforge and the like...)

Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth when the primary form of something is sacrificed for it's following incarnations - it was a PC title first, now it's becoming a PC title second or third. (And if they half-ass it like many companies - the control scheme on PC will suffer for it - consolitis v2.0)
 
N

Neph_sl

shitlord
1,635
0
Considering the first PvZ is on pretty much every platform available (PC, iOS, Android, and DS), it's only a matter of time before it's released elsewhere. Plus, if I were a mobile developer and I wanted to get my game out to a large audience that's known for bending over to IAPs, you bet I'd release on iOS first.
 
Vaclav

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
Nod it makes sense from a $$ standpoint - just annoying as one of the earlier fans of the product to be hosed on the second for a while because of greed however. (Since I'm a huge anti-Apple person)
 
Hateyou

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
16,265
42,262
Just buy her one. Only thing we've bought in the last couple years that holds her attention other than a kindle.
 
Dandai

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,907
4,482
I saw a lot of people bitching about p2w in the comments but I've not felt like I've hit a pay wall (admittedly I'm only in the first few levels of the pirate area).

For the last unlock area of the egypt part (Last Stands 1, 2, and 3) I did end up using gold currency on power ups (currency I had acquired through playing, not through $$). I had to do 2 and 3 a couple times to iron out a strat and even then there would be small leaks that forced me to use a power up or risk losing a lawn mower. This gave me sour grapes the first time it happened (thinking, "PAY WALL!?!?!"), but then I realized I had over 10k gold from just playing and wtf else was I supposed to spend it on if not power ups and feed.
 
C

Cor_sl

shitlord
487
0
You don't need to use powerups to pass the last stand levels in Egypt. I didn't use any and I breezed through them.

Come to think of it, I haven't used any of the powerups on any of the levels so far. I've been ignoring them since I think they'd make this game way too easy (and it's hardly challenging as it is).
 
N

njorls_sl

shitlord
10
0
I 100% finished the game without spending money. It became a personal challenge... To see how far I could go for free.

Though the Kotaku article saying you could unlock all plants but 1 was wrong, the only way to get the premium plants is to pay at the moment.
 
Intropy

Intropy

Shit Gamer
358
60
How many plants are premium vs non-premium? Also I loved the original PvZ and so did my gf, but we aren't iOS users, is this ever coming out for PC or Android?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.