Plants Vs. Zombies Review

Plants vs. Zombies - the latest in a long line of successful games from PopCap - is a curious game that succeeded in catching my eye immediately. I would in fact be surprised if somebody didn't have a raised eyebrow upon the sight of singing sunflowers, peashooters and zombies with traffic cones on their heads. It might all sound silly, and in truth it is, but that is what makes this game stand out from the crowd. Whereas most casual games won't appeal to the average mouse-twitching gamer, I cordially invite everyone to take a time-out and read about an accessible and truly fun game.

The basic principle of Plants vs. Zombies - PvZ for short - primarily involves planting different types of flora to defend your house against waves of zombies, mildly akin to a tower defence game. Plants are "bought" using suns, a resource which periodically falls from the sky during the day, or it can be generated by planting sunflowers. During night time sieges you will need to rely on cheaper but less effective nocturnal mushrooms, resulting in a slightly different play style. The game area is comprised of up to six rows with Zombies moving in straight lanes, meaning you need to plan ahead and have a type of plant which can effectively combat each type of zombie.  

Both plant and zombie come in wonderfully surplus varieties. A great amount of imagination has been shown by developers PopCap, both visually and in function. In total there are 40 plants and 26 zombie types to keep you dynamically thinking. Each has an amusing description and I had a keen enthusiasm to see what new plants I would be able to play with, how I could make my setting-up process more efficient and what sort of brain obsessed zombie would come knocking on my door next. Highlights include the "Thriller" zombie who dances his way across your lawn dressed in red leather, while I took an instant liking to the Potato Mine, a defensive plant who takes a while to pop up out of the ground - as he is "too busy thinking about his investment strategy" - who on contact with an unfortunate zombie obliterates them with potato.

Graphically PvZ could fit in the era when 1994 classic Beneath a Steel Sky was cutting edge. However, the caricature style, slick animation and vivid colours combine to form a cute and effectual graphical style. The sound effects are also basic but again effective, with the plants and zombies promoting quirky characteristics via the use of sound. There isn't enough variation in the music though, so the already catchy tunes become repetitive and eventually annoying.

Above all that, PvZ boasts an excellent selection of ways to play. To begin with there is a fifty-level adventure mode which superbly gets you into the swing of things, even if you have no prior experience of defending your house from zombies with plants. The adventure is split into five areas, ranging from your basic front lawn to a pool in the back garden. There are also twenty mini-games to experience, ranging from bowling with wall-nuts to PopCap spin-offs Beghouled and even Beghouled Twist. There is also a Survival mode: twenty long levels featuring hordes of zombies that soon, and rather sadly, felt like a chore to complete.

Further to this there are two sets of puzzles to complete, with ten levels to progress through in each. One is a dull vase breaking exercise, while the other sees you deploying zombies against carefully placed plants, albeit cardboard cut-outs of plants to avoid hurting the real thing. Alternatively, if you fancy some time-out from hordes of hungry zombies, there is a Zen Garden to dip in and out of. In this garden you can buy, water and grow plants Harvest Moon style, though in a far more basic fashion. The cash you require to upgrade your plants and bring your Zen garden to life is often dropped by zombies, or it can be earned by conquering a level in each of the game modes, and is all spent in Crazy Dave's somewhat ominous looking car-boot sale.

This may sound all well and good, however the majority of the abovementioned game modes are not unlocked until you have completed all fifty of the adventure levels, yet sadly I found my interest waning by the 31st level. Each level takes around 5-10mins to complete and these adventure levels essentially involve the same routine of planting similar, if not the same defence of plants, with a little variation in plants and zombies not enough to shatter the layer of boredom which inevitably sets in.

One major contributing factor to this problem was the game difficulty. Rarely did a zombie manage to get through the first line of my intricate plant set-up and eat my brains. Never getting close to losing meant the challenge factor was gone and I just couldn't play for more than an ironic 90 minutes in one sitting. PvZ is touted as a casual game which may explain the easier ride, however PvZ is more than a casual game - it's a cute action adventure strategy game, and as such it borders on being addictive fun. I just believe that if the various mini-games and puzzles were implanted in-between the adventure levels more than they were, then the game would feel as varied as it actually is.

Fortunately I soon got through this tedious phase and completed the adventure mode, which ended in a rather entertaining final boss fight. The brilliant ending credits song "Zombies on your Lawn" which follows, easily rivals the "I'm Still Alive" song from Portal for pure hilarity. The fifty-level adventure mode is then reset and made a littler harder, but still not enough to give me the willpower to battle on past the third level. Some of the mini-games are hard enough to result in a tasty snack for team zombie, yet I found myself unusually angered by this, presumably because I wasn't used to losing.  

I think it's clear that a lot of love and care has been put into PvZ by developers PopCap. The gameplay is accessible by anyone and is, for the most part, a lot fun to play. There are moments when the same planting routine becomes a laborious process, with the recurring music and generally low difficulty not helping. That all said, PvZ is definitely a worthwhile purchase because of the amount of fun which can be extracted from a budget game price. A continuous stream of new plant and zombie types, a plethora of game modes, relaxed humour and "jump-in" mentality all mounts up to a game which could keep you hooked for weeks. Currently available on Steam for £6.99, its time to get green fingered for the sake of plant-kind.