Despite being absolutely done with it after my first review for some reason I couldn't help myself but try seeing the games adventure mode to the end and completing nearly every achievement. After beating it I can absolutely say it is NOT worth it.

The later worlds of Jurassic Marsh, Big Wave Beach, and Modern Day have some of if not all the most unfun and tedious both mechanics and levels in the entire game. On top of being barraged with ads every time I beat or fail a level the games later half was just a painful slog I wished would end. Where PVZ1 ended with a bang with the mech fight and ending song this game goes out with a whimper as the final boss is just 3 copy pasted bosses from previous worlds in a random order and then that's it. No credits roll or song, no fanfare whatsoever. The only other content is live service slop that is nowhere near worth sticking around for.

If you want to play PvZ play the original or the fan PvZ2 reflourished mod. DO NOT play this live service garbage!!

After 100% completing the original PvZ just recently it felt appropriate to play this game, after all I had played 2 back when it launched and did quite enjoy it. I knew the game had gone to microtransaction hell but I never really knew to what extent. And unfortunately I was not prepared for just how egregious this game has become.

But before I get into the bad I really do want to bring light to the bit of stuff I really enjoyed. The games visual style is a great upgrade from the original, from plants having more expressive animations and zombies acting far more zombie like is really nice! The game also made some design changes to the original cast that I really enjoy, and the new plants for the early story mode really feel at home with the series like the Bonk Choy and Bloomerang. I also think the new plant food mechanic is really fun and can be used in so many strategic ways, you are basically activating the plants final smash attack and its nice to know that almost every plant in the game besides for instant activations like the Cherry Bomb all have them. I really enjoyed some of the challenges from the first 4 story mode worlds, with quite a lot of the original games feel and design of "Here's a new plant, and here's a new obstacle to use that plant for.". The gimmicks each world have are really cool to play around, graves that appear and block your plants attacks, minecarts that you can plant stuff on and then drag around freely to create mobile attackers and defenders, arrows the zombies follow to switch which lane they walk on. Some levels really get you thinking, and strategies can be far more varied than they ever were in the original.

But now for the bad, and sadly all of the bad for this game was all deliberately and slowly done post launch to milk the game for everything its worth.
Where the first game is as simple as progressing through levels and earning new plants with occasional checks to the zen garden and shop the second one forces you head first into it's micromanaging nightmare. It doesn't waste any time to show you all the new ways you can spend money to get an advantage, from power ups, plant rentals, to extra seed slots that all cost coins to a gacha system for actually levelling up your plants giving them permanently increased stats. The levelling mechanic motivates you to use the same few plants each level as you are actively making the game harder on yourself by using lesser leveled ones. And for a game about adding new challenges and then giving you new plants as the solution having a system limiting who you want to use is terrible. And while I never had a moment in the 6 main story worlds I played where I felt a challenge was too hard for what I had, the games other modes it so badly wants you to participate in are far more demanding. The Penny's Pursuit boss battle is seemingly impossible for me, even on easy mode with boosted plants I couldn't take it down in the time limit. The game also has an online arena, which is just there to be an unfun chore and remind you that there are always players with far more exclusive and higher level plants.

The game makes sure you can't do anything without it being unreasonably slow, the UI is horrible and really bad to control on my phone, loading times for simple menu's or game mode switches are long. Just going to the almanac before a level starts to upgrade plants or see their stats needs 2 loading screens and a level intro replay before you are back to picking your plants??? Every level requires an ad break between them, and an ad to restart the level as well, and of course ads to get seed packets or gacha draws to level up plants, ads for coins, ads for gems, even one of the DAILY CHALLENGES is to watch an ad. And no not just play the game and encounter one naturally, you have to go out of your way to watch an unskippable ad for that challenge. Its so desperate it's actually histerical.

And while a lot of the game is ad-walled and grind-walled, some of it is just unapologetically paywalled with no way around it. I couldn't believe that staples like the Ice Pea, Cactus, and even Chomper all from PvZ 1 are now exclusively locked behind 7$ paywalls EACH. The game even gives you dedicated story mode levels where you have to use them and get to utilize their strengths just for them to be taken away the next level.

I'd really love to rate this game higher for its actually pretty good gameplay at times, but EA did the most EA job imaginable. They made sure their greed reached every crevice of a once great game.

TLDR: Game is designed entirely to waste your time and suck you dry. Even if you enjoy PvZ 1 this game is not easily recommended for its uneeded daily grind, gacha system, ads, paywalls, and so many anti-player systems I couldn't begin to count.