Plants Vs Zombies: In a Nutshell

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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[HEADING=3]A Stranger Presents...[/HEADING]
[HEADING=1]Plants Vs Zombies[/HEADING]

Most of you must wonder why I churn out these reviews at an astonishing pace, it's because I enjoy doing this. I want to refine this from it's present mess to an art form, I'm like a dog fucking the stuffing out of a new toy, so to speak. I enjoy it when people are glad that they read one of my reviews, I enjoy it when I find a way to improve on what I have done before. So imagine my intense joy when this lettle gem decided to enter my life, I am of course talking about Plants Vs Zombies.

Plants Vs Zombies can most easily be described as a mix between classic tower defence games, chess and a twisted imagination. The basic premise is that you have a grid of 6 lanes that the Zombies attack from and you must defend these lanes by planting defences. Unlike most tower defence games where you place your 'towers' at the side of the path in Plants Vs Zombies you must plant your Plants directly in the path of the zombies and if the Zombies get too close then your Plant will be eaten. When the Zombies reach your house, it's all over.


Whoever is playing here is retarded at this game

There are a huge variety of Plants as well as Zombies and you are introduced to a new Plant after every level, this really helps you to understand how to use each one and therefore which ones you want to use for the next level. You start out with the Peashooter, the standard tower which is relatively cheap and fires peas (I know it surprised me too) at the Zombies. Next you are introduced to Sunflowers, at first glance these Plants don't actually do anything, they don't attack Zombies or even block them at all. Instead they produce Sunlight at regular intervals and it is this Sunlight that you use to create more Plants, so obviously it is vital to have a large amount of these Sunflowers. You then go on to obtain various other plants, (there are 40 in total) all of which do their own special thing such as acting as a barrier or blowing up.

The amount of Zombies is equally as staggering, in the 26 variations you will find anything from your standard Conehead Zombie to an entire Zombie Bobsled team. They do more than merely stagger towards your house to, some of them act as suicide bombers, others hurl themselves over the first Plant and attack the next while a few even fly! But all of them are done in a comical manner that makes you wonder what exactly is going to come next, in a good way.

If you purchase this game for PC you will receive 50 levels, a mini game mode and survival mode. Now what mini game mode does is let you play Plants Vs Zombies but it a different way, e.g there is a mode where you do not collect Sunlight, instead you are given a new Plant every few seconds, or there is one where you bowl walnuts at the Zombies to kill them. These modes are all experienced in various points throughout the 'campaign', but don't worry you'll mostly be playing the classic Sunlight collecting mode. However, if you get the iPod version then you will only get the campaign, so I strongly suggest getting it for PC unless you want to play it on the bus etc.

The difficulty of this game increases throughout the campaign as new Zombies are introduced and can be pretty intense at times. However, I have come across a general method that takes nearly all the skill out of the game. I call the method 'Whore the Sunflowers' because that is what you do, at the beginning of the level you only create Sunflowers and only create a Peashooter until the very last minute. Two rows of Sunflowers is more than enough to supply you with enough Sunlight to create dozens of the more expensive Plants. However, even after discovering this I continued to play the game, but no longer for the gameplay. Just because of the sheer craziness of it all. Along with the wackiness of the Plants and Zombies themselves you have the small things like the Bios for each of them giving us a brief back story of the Plant/Zombie in question or even the help menu which is a crudely drawn letter saying that 'The aim of the game is to sit back and do nothing, when the Zombies reach your house you win. -the Zombies'.

Plants Vs Zombies is a great game, what it lacks in difficulty it easily makes up for in charm. It's something to waste away the small spaces of free time you have. But at 15 pounds there is definitely a reason for giving it a miss. Or you could stick it to the man and pirate it but then that's illegal so I won't tell you to do that. Y'hear?

-Nobody

As usual any feedback is welcome.
 

Thyunda

New member
May 4, 2009
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Thanks for reviewing this. I'd heard how good it was, but I'd always been too lazy to actually find out why it was so good.

Nice review in all. =)
 

Mozza444

New member
Nov 19, 2009
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Great review.

Personally i don't like the game, i'm not too sure why..

But for some reason this review makes me wan't to play it again.

So for that, congratulations.
 

Armored Prayer

New member
Mar 10, 2009
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Nice review overall.

I have the iPhone version and its a blast to play.

And I don't whore the sunflowers, I whore that other flower that produces money.
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
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Armored Prayer said:
Nice review overall.

I have the iPhone version and its a blast to play.

And I don't whore the sunflowers, I whore that other flower that produces money.
Isn't that a mushroom? So you can only use it when it's dark, but when it is dark they're the better choice (or so I'm told).

Mozza444 said:
Great review.

Personally i don't like the game, i'm not too sure why..

But for some reason this review makes me wan't to play it again.

So for that, congratulations.
Thanks, if you have the mini games then try them out, I didn't cover them in the review as I hadn't really explored them properly but there are loads of them (25 I think but don't quote me) and all the ones I've unlocked have been different. Plus you earn a lot of money while doing it so you can buy more slots etc.
 

ReverseEngineered

Raving Lunatic
Apr 30, 2008
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I haven't finished playing Plants vs. Zombies, but what I have played so far I have loved. The wide variety of plants and zombies results in plenty of challenge and the zany art style and the pun-tastic names add a healthy dose of comedy.

Strange, I thought the review was great, except the very last part. It's good to let us know that it's possible to "solve" the game and easily overcome all of the challenges, but I wouldn't recommend telling everybody about it, at least without some spoiler tags.

Overall, though, it's a great game and a good review. Thanks Stranger!
 

Stranger of Sorts

Individual #472
Aug 23, 2009
1,227
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ReverseEngineered said:
I haven't finished playing Plants vs. Zombies, but what I have played so far I have loved. The wide variety of plants and zombies results in plenty of challenge and the zany art style and the pun-tastic names add a healthy dose of comedy.

Strange, I thought the review was great, except the very last part. It's good to let us know that it's possible to "solve" the game and easily overcome all of the challenges, but I wouldn't recommend telling everybody about it, at least without some spoiler tags.

Overall, though, it's a great game and a good review. Thanks Stranger!
Your welcome. Since you've bought this review back from the dead I thought I'd look at how much I've changed as a reviewer. Which isn't a lot, all I can see so far is that the flow of my writing has improved. But I'll take that as a sign I have at least improved a bit.