Plants vs. Zombies™ Garden Warfare 2: Deluxe Edition

A 2016 cartoon shooter that, looking back from 2026, is still the steadiest of the series' shooters

The original Garden Warfare 2 launched in February 2016, and the Deluxe Edition arrived on Steam in May 2022. Looking back today, its place in the Plants vs. Zombies shooter branch only gets clearer. The series went on to make Garden Warfare 3 and Battle for Neighborville, yet plenty of veterans still hold that for sheer content and steady reputation, this entry is the most rock-solid of the lot. An 82 on Metacritic, an 81 on OpenCritic, a 90 percent Steam rating — three numbers that have barely slipped in years, which is its own kind of longevity certification.

Its success proves one thing: a cute shooter that leans on no gore, no realism, and no hardcore esports can still build depth and a long tail. It chased none of the trends of the moment. It simply took "all-ages blasting fun" and did it about as well as anyone in the genre, then walked beside its players for years on a steady stream of free updates.

Look back at the shooters that launched alongside it chasing realistic military combat or hardcore esports — plenty have already gone dark, servers off, matchmaking shut down — while Garden Warfare 2 lives comfortably on a design that does not gatekeep, does not nag you to pay, and does not spill blood, which is proof enough the path it picked was right.

Who will love it, and who should walk straight past

Let us start with who should buy it. If you want to log on and mess around with friends and with your kids, if you love the blast-everything aesthetic of cartoons, and if you can stomach the grind of slowly unlocking characters with coins, this game is all but tailored for you. Especially families who want a gore-free, all-ages shooter to hand a child — or a couch game two people can split-screen — because that configuration is honestly hard to find in today's shooter market, and Garden Warfare 2 is one of the few that still holds onto it.

Now for who should walk past. If you only want a single-player campaign with a beginning, middle, and end, and you do not care for multiplayer, there is almost nothing here for you — its solo enjoyment is built entirely on grinding and collecting, with no story. If you are a hardcore shooter player chasing esports-grade balance and competitive depth, the balance issues OpenCritic named will rub you wrong, and you will probably be happier in something like Overwatch. And if you cannot stand the slog of "grind coins, gamble packs, unlock characters," that rhythm will turn you off too.

The version to get is simply the Deluxe Edition on Steam

A clean purchasing call to finish. On PC, what you can buy is the Deluxe Edition on Steam. It contains all the base content plus the extra character variants, cosmetics, and upgrade packs the Deluxe version throws in. It is the standard way to get into Garden Warfare 2, with no other edition to agonize over.

Taken as a whole, we score it 8.0. Its gameplay, content, and graphics all stand firmly at the 8.5 mark, dragged down only by that near-zero story. This is a game with a razor-clear identity: it does not try to out-esports Overwatch or out-veteran Team Fortress, it goes for all-ages, laugh-together blasting fun, and within that lane it became one of the genre's standout cute shooters. Two people sitting in front of the same TV, a controller each, blasting waves of AI together — that plainest form of shared play is the value it holds onto most. Work out whether that is what you are after, and the answer comes easy — and for the right player, it is one of the easiest yeses in the genre.