Alright, It's been out for a while now but I've been wanting to get it for ages. And now I have it. And now I'm reviewing it.
Plants vs. Zombies is quite a difficult game for me to review. This is because the enjoyment you get from this game depends on what you look for in a game. If your idea of a good game is a developed storyline then look elsewhere. This isn't a game for storytelling this is a game for cracking a smile. For those of you that don't know, Plants vs. Zombies is a game released by Popcap, perhaps most well known for releasing casual games such as Peggle. Plants vs. Zombies is a warped form of a Tower Defence Game. Zombies are coming to, what else, eat your brains and your only means of defence are your gardening skills. You plant various plants that attack the zombies in a variety of different ways, ultimately saving your brains. The onslaught is also accompanied by a lovely soundtrack and bright Cartoony graphics.
This central gameplay mechanic works well, for the most part. The most important plant in your arsenal is the Sunflower. When planted the Sunflower generates sun, which you click on to collect. You need this sun to plant more plants so it is crucial that you plant a decent number of sunflowers. The Zombies, however, refuse to wait for you to plant a good number of sunflowers which often means you are stuck desperately hoping that a sunflower will spit out some solar power so can you halt the advance of the zombies. As you continue on through the main adventure you collect seed packets, allowing you to plant different and more powerful plants, which the final zombie to die on each level ultimately drops. Eventually you'll have so many plants that you have to pick a small number of them to take with you on each mission. This is where the strategy comes in to the game as you have to decide which plants to take. Each plant has different skills which are effective against different zombies, so it is important to think hard about which plants you'll take with you before starting a mission. The skills that these plants bring differ wildly. Some plants merely spit ordinary Peas at the zombies while others act as walls or even eat enemies whole.
Alongside new plants you'll also encounter new zombies, all of whom are determined to raid your house. The zombies start off being your everyday Brain-Eater but eventually they'll start adapting. This adaption takes the form of Cones or Buckets perched on their heads. Eventually you'll get zombies that can even drive vehicles or vault over your plants. By bringing in zombies with different skills it forces you to adopt a lot of different styles of play. An example of this was when I had built up a line of 'Wall-nuts', which, as their names suggest, are walls that slows zombies down. This tactic worked for a few levels, as it took the zombies quite a bit of time to chew through my Wall-nuts, but eventually zombies began appearing that could use their Poles to vault over them, which meant my defence was no longer adequate. This keeps things interesting as you adapt your style of play to meet the challenges thrown at you. Although I have to say putting in a zombie that can smash through any plant in one hit rather defeats the object. The zombies will also attempt different ways to get to your brains. First of all they will attack your front garden in the daylight and then at night. At night you have to use a variety of mushrooms to generate sun and attack enemies. In later levels they'll attack your back garden, which requires aquatic plants to defend your swimming pool and then they'll somehow climb onto your roof, which requires flower pots. There are different plants that are suited to each type of fight, so it is important to know your stuff.
This tactic worked for about three levels, before a new enemy came along that shattered it.
The main feature of this game is its humour, which was the main selling point of the game for me. The whole concept of the game makes me smile as you imagine someone holding off a zombie onslaught by gardening. The humour in the game itself appeals to all ranges. There's the more Slapstick humour, which takes the form of the only other human you see, called 'Crazy Dave' (he wears a saucepan on his head, go figure), who sells you upgrades for your plants and garden, and various zombies such as the 'Dancing Zombie', which you will understand when you see it. The main humour for me came from the Almanac of Zombies and Plants, which offers humorous descriptions of the Zombies and interviews with the plants. Perhaps the most memorable quote, for me, was the description of the Buckethead Zombie, which is "Buckethead Zombie always wore a bucket. Part of it was to assert his uniqueness in an uncaring world. Mostly he just forgot it was there in the first place." The Zombies also write you (badly misspelled) letters, attempting to persuade you to give up. This culminates in the final battle and, without wanting to spoil anything, the wonderful music video at the end. Most of my time playing this game was spent with an idiotic smile on my face as I watched my garden attacking a horde of shuffling zombies.
Now let me just drop in a warning here. Like many of Popcap's games, Plants vs. Zombies is massively addicting. I played it on and off for two days, which was the time it took for me to complete the main campaign. Even after the campaign there are various modes, such as a puzzle mode, a survival mode and minigames to play when you're done. However I think that this is where the problems with the game come in. The Puzzle mode, for example, only has two types of Puzzle. One where you break vases, which either release plants or zombies, which isn't that great if I'm honest, or the puzzle where you control zombies to eat cardboard cut-out plants. That had the potential to be an interesting reversal of the campaign but instead all you do is release zombies to eat their way through cardboard plants, trying not to run out of sun. Therefore the enjoyment of the puzzle mode fast runs out. The survival mode isn't up to scratch with me either. After completing the campaign all I wanted to do was go on an endless survival mode to try and build up the perfect defence. However the game won't let you do an endless survival, not at the start, you have to do a series of tedious smaller survival modes to unlock them. This is frustrating as I felt that after defending myself through the whole of the campaign I should've been able to put what I learned into proper practice. Another little feature is the Zen Garden, where you can grow your own plants, but these often require a lot of effort and produce only small rewards.
Another issue with the game is that it can get quite repetitive after a time. The constant clicking on sunflowers gets tedious after a while, not to mention causing some serious pain in your wrist. Many of the levels are reduced to hurriedly planting three sunflowers before the zombies start coming and then placing down lines of Peashooters, that can fend off most of the early zombies. This tactic got me through the majority of the levels in one go, with only the occasional zombie breaking through, which had to be fended off with a lawnmower. Things get better every five levels or so, where you play a little mini-game, such as Wall-Nut bowling, to fend off the zombies, which does break up the monotony somewhat. I think the main cause of the problems with Plants vs. Zombies is that it is proudly labelled as a 'Casual' game. This means it has to be easy and simple enough for people to play it for an hour or so. This means that the campaign is not only quite short but also quite easy. I managed to complete most of the campaign missions in one try, only failing the later levels once or twice. Ideally I would've made each mission longer, as I often completed missions before I'd built up the defence I wanted to.
So, To sum up:
Pros
Addicting
Good Gameplay
Funny
Lovely Soundtrack
Cons
Repetitive
The various modes unlocked after the Campaign fall short of their potential
Quite Easy
Recommendation:
I would recommend Plants vs. Zombies to people that just want to kill a few hours, with a smile on their face, but anyone looking for a truly absorbing game experience should look elsewhere.
Plants vs. Zombies is quite a difficult game for me to review. This is because the enjoyment you get from this game depends on what you look for in a game. If your idea of a good game is a developed storyline then look elsewhere. This isn't a game for storytelling this is a game for cracking a smile. For those of you that don't know, Plants vs. Zombies is a game released by Popcap, perhaps most well known for releasing casual games such as Peggle. Plants vs. Zombies is a warped form of a Tower Defence Game. Zombies are coming to, what else, eat your brains and your only means of defence are your gardening skills. You plant various plants that attack the zombies in a variety of different ways, ultimately saving your brains. The onslaught is also accompanied by a lovely soundtrack and bright Cartoony graphics.
This central gameplay mechanic works well, for the most part. The most important plant in your arsenal is the Sunflower. When planted the Sunflower generates sun, which you click on to collect. You need this sun to plant more plants so it is crucial that you plant a decent number of sunflowers. The Zombies, however, refuse to wait for you to plant a good number of sunflowers which often means you are stuck desperately hoping that a sunflower will spit out some solar power so can you halt the advance of the zombies. As you continue on through the main adventure you collect seed packets, allowing you to plant different and more powerful plants, which the final zombie to die on each level ultimately drops. Eventually you'll have so many plants that you have to pick a small number of them to take with you on each mission. This is where the strategy comes in to the game as you have to decide which plants to take. Each plant has different skills which are effective against different zombies, so it is important to think hard about which plants you'll take with you before starting a mission. The skills that these plants bring differ wildly. Some plants merely spit ordinary Peas at the zombies while others act as walls or even eat enemies whole.
Alongside new plants you'll also encounter new zombies, all of whom are determined to raid your house. The zombies start off being your everyday Brain-Eater but eventually they'll start adapting. This adaption takes the form of Cones or Buckets perched on their heads. Eventually you'll get zombies that can even drive vehicles or vault over your plants. By bringing in zombies with different skills it forces you to adopt a lot of different styles of play. An example of this was when I had built up a line of 'Wall-nuts', which, as their names suggest, are walls that slows zombies down. This tactic worked for a few levels, as it took the zombies quite a bit of time to chew through my Wall-nuts, but eventually zombies began appearing that could use their Poles to vault over them, which meant my defence was no longer adequate. This keeps things interesting as you adapt your style of play to meet the challenges thrown at you. Although I have to say putting in a zombie that can smash through any plant in one hit rather defeats the object. The zombies will also attempt different ways to get to your brains. First of all they will attack your front garden in the daylight and then at night. At night you have to use a variety of mushrooms to generate sun and attack enemies. In later levels they'll attack your back garden, which requires aquatic plants to defend your swimming pool and then they'll somehow climb onto your roof, which requires flower pots. There are different plants that are suited to each type of fight, so it is important to know your stuff.
This tactic worked for about three levels, before a new enemy came along that shattered it.
The main feature of this game is its humour, which was the main selling point of the game for me. The whole concept of the game makes me smile as you imagine someone holding off a zombie onslaught by gardening. The humour in the game itself appeals to all ranges. There's the more Slapstick humour, which takes the form of the only other human you see, called 'Crazy Dave' (he wears a saucepan on his head, go figure), who sells you upgrades for your plants and garden, and various zombies such as the 'Dancing Zombie', which you will understand when you see it. The main humour for me came from the Almanac of Zombies and Plants, which offers humorous descriptions of the Zombies and interviews with the plants. Perhaps the most memorable quote, for me, was the description of the Buckethead Zombie, which is "Buckethead Zombie always wore a bucket. Part of it was to assert his uniqueness in an uncaring world. Mostly he just forgot it was there in the first place." The Zombies also write you (badly misspelled) letters, attempting to persuade you to give up. This culminates in the final battle and, without wanting to spoil anything, the wonderful music video at the end. Most of my time playing this game was spent with an idiotic smile on my face as I watched my garden attacking a horde of shuffling zombies.
Now let me just drop in a warning here. Like many of Popcap's games, Plants vs. Zombies is massively addicting. I played it on and off for two days, which was the time it took for me to complete the main campaign. Even after the campaign there are various modes, such as a puzzle mode, a survival mode and minigames to play when you're done. However I think that this is where the problems with the game come in. The Puzzle mode, for example, only has two types of Puzzle. One where you break vases, which either release plants or zombies, which isn't that great if I'm honest, or the puzzle where you control zombies to eat cardboard cut-out plants. That had the potential to be an interesting reversal of the campaign but instead all you do is release zombies to eat their way through cardboard plants, trying not to run out of sun. Therefore the enjoyment of the puzzle mode fast runs out. The survival mode isn't up to scratch with me either. After completing the campaign all I wanted to do was go on an endless survival mode to try and build up the perfect defence. However the game won't let you do an endless survival, not at the start, you have to do a series of tedious smaller survival modes to unlock them. This is frustrating as I felt that after defending myself through the whole of the campaign I should've been able to put what I learned into proper practice. Another little feature is the Zen Garden, where you can grow your own plants, but these often require a lot of effort and produce only small rewards.
Another issue with the game is that it can get quite repetitive after a time. The constant clicking on sunflowers gets tedious after a while, not to mention causing some serious pain in your wrist. Many of the levels are reduced to hurriedly planting three sunflowers before the zombies start coming and then placing down lines of Peashooters, that can fend off most of the early zombies. This tactic got me through the majority of the levels in one go, with only the occasional zombie breaking through, which had to be fended off with a lawnmower. Things get better every five levels or so, where you play a little mini-game, such as Wall-Nut bowling, to fend off the zombies, which does break up the monotony somewhat. I think the main cause of the problems with Plants vs. Zombies is that it is proudly labelled as a 'Casual' game. This means it has to be easy and simple enough for people to play it for an hour or so. This means that the campaign is not only quite short but also quite easy. I managed to complete most of the campaign missions in one try, only failing the later levels once or twice. Ideally I would've made each mission longer, as I often completed missions before I'd built up the defence I wanted to.
So, To sum up:
Pros
Addicting
Good Gameplay
Funny
Lovely Soundtrack
Cons
Repetitive
The various modes unlocked after the Campaign fall short of their potential
Quite Easy
Recommendation:
I would recommend Plants vs. Zombies to people that just want to kill a few hours, with a smile on their face, but anyone looking for a truly absorbing game experience should look elsewhere.
