A Chinese edition of Plants vs. Zombies 2 has been criticized for being too tough, forcing users to buy in-game items to get to the next level.
PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, released a special edition of the iOS game last week that's specifically targeted for the Chinese market. But days after its release, the game has received overwhelmingly bad reviews on Apple's iTunes store. As of Wednesday, the game had collected over 35,000 one-star reviews, out of a total of 49,000, awarding it an aggregate of two-stars.
The poor reviews are a departure from the previous Plants vs. Zombie games, which received strong praise in China. The game was so popular that last year PopCap estimated downloads of official and pirated versions of it had reached between 120 million and 150 million in China alone.
PopCap's new Chinese edition of Plants vs. Zombies 2, however, is facing a harsh reception, despite being free-to-play. This is because the game is significantly harder than the English edition, giving users little choice but to resort to buying in-game items in order to advance, said Xue Yongfeng, an analyst with research firm Analysys International.
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