Plants vs. Zombies – Game Review

We all know a bout Pop Cap, the little indie game company that gave the world such cell phone games as bejeweled, and the widely popular Peggle. Well the masters of bored housewives games have now struck gold with their newest game, Plants vs. Zombies, a tower defense game that takes the new hottest villians on the block, zombies, and faces them against cuddly looking plant life. (Seriously, zombies have been coming up a lot recently. Not complaining :3) Tower defense games mostly populate the internet browser world of flash games, and consist of the user building an army of different types to defeat another army of different types, and to otherwise keep that secondary army from passing your defenses. Simple enough concept that Pop Cap has taken to a completely different level.

You thought it was going to just be a simple day. The sun is shining, your grass is cleanly cut, oh and a horde of zombies are calmly waiting to eat your brains across the street. Guess it’s time to do some gardening! Plants vs. Zombies makes you think quick on your feet as you choose between 48 different zombie fighting plants to face off against the crafty 26 types of zombies. Each new level in Adventure mode brings a new plant to your arsenal and a different variation of zombies to kill. With 50 levels in the adventure mode and multiple mini-games, puzzle modes, and survivor stages, you’ll never stop planting.

Something about this game just pulls you toward it’s creativity. First off I just love the zombies (and if you know me then you know I just love zombies.) Their are so many different shapes and forms that they come invading on your lawn in. From the normal zombies, to the traffic cone zombie, to the pogo zombie, and others like the bungee zombie. It just adds so many different levels of challenges to this game, but with those challenges come the different types of plants like the sunflower, the peashooter, and the repeater. It’s just a downright fun game that’ll have you enjoying every new add-on you get. Endless puzzle mode, survivor mode and the great Zen garden all help give this game longevity even after you’ve unlocked everything else.

I haven’t even mentioned one of the funniest parts of the game. Your good buddy throughout this entire ordeal, Crazy Dave. Dave will who up right from the start stating the obvious zombie invasion and just starts off with the craziest lines you could think of. When it finally comes down to defending your lawn, the best tip I could give you is to keep your sunflowers protected. Earning sun is the only way you can win against the undead intruders. Each plant has some amount of sun before they can be planted. The sunflower costs 50, the basic peashooter costs 100, the frozen peashooter costs 175, the walnut costs 50, the tallnut (n_n best character) costs 125, and it goes on and on. When you unlock the night mode and pool mode in adventure you get two plants that cost no sun, since during these events sunlight doesn’t naturally fall.

Alright, now to move on the few flaws. It’s a Pop Cap game so you know that it will have a repetitive nature to it (if you stick by it’s sense of humor and cute characters or not…) If you can stick by this game until the end you’ll find that the difficulty really doesn’t rise up at all. Sure the last boss can be a bit difficult the first time around, but he’ll be easy once you know all of his moves. Certain mini-games can be a bit challenging as well, but nothing that can’t be handled. You can also play the adventure mode over again with a harder difficulty, but if you’ve unlocked all the plants and have learned the basics of the game you still won’t find it to be difficult. I’m not going to knock it though, this game is unbelievably fun and with just those two flaws I really don’t see why you wouldn’t pay ten bucks on Steam to own it.

Plants vs Zombies Music Video that follows the credits of the game. It’s similar to last years hit title Portal’s ending song and is just as enjoyable. n_n

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Rating: 4/5

Pros: Great Humor. Best Tower Defense Game I’ve ever played. Lovable Characters. Thriller Zombies. :3

Cons: Can be repetitive if that bothers you. On the easy side.