Plants vs Zombies 2 video shows new features

PopCap has released a Plants vs Zombies 2 video highlighting the new features present in the long-awaited sequel to its brilliant tower defence title. The game builds on 2009’s original Plants vs Zombies with fresh visuals, plants and zombies, various worlds in which to play (beginning with Ancient Egypt, Pirate Seas and Wild West), and plant food, which lets players supercharge their turrets.

Perhaps most importantly, PopCap and publisher EA will release the game as a free-to-play title supported by microtransactions. According to artist Mark Barrett: “The game is absolutely free to play, everything you see on the map you can get to through gameplay.” Michael Fromwiller adds: “We want to give the player tons of content, tons of really cool things, and not really gate them with money or with recruiting friends or with anything like that, just let them enjoy the game and when they find something they really like they can grab it.”

PopCap confirmed last month that Plants vs. Zombies 2 would miss its original release date of July 18 on iOS devices. It will now be released “later in the summer”. We recently caught up with Allen Murray, senior producer on Plants vs. Zombies 2, to chat about the game and why it took so damn long to make it.