PopCap Games brings us the latest craze of pestilence and plague comes in the form of brain-munching zombies. This time, it’s not up to you and your trusty twelve-gauge to stop them – you’ve enlisted the zombies’ mortal enemy to defend your home. Garden Plants!!! You’d better hope you have a green thumb if you’re going to make it through this zombie apocalypse…
The idea of Plants vs. Zombies is more than a little hilarious. Basically, by collecting sunshine (via the sun, or SUN-flowers) and planting awesomely destructive green vegetation in your steadily expanding lawn, you can hold back wave after wave of zombie invasion. With each success, you’re awarded some new pack of seeds or other important tool that aid you in your quest to end the un-dead plague.
Cherry Bombs and Potato Mines are certainly fun to use for a bit of fireworks, but Peashooters and their evolutions are the basic artilery for the early stages Sunflowers are crucial for increasing your sun intake, and defensive Walnuts run interference while you build up more defenses. You also improve your chances for survival by collecting coins throughout the level. Your “penny-pinching” will come in handy at the shop, where you can buy a few tricks to have up your sleeve such as a rake to trip up the gangly ghouls, or a machine gun upgrade to pump up your Peashooters.
As your garden grows, later including a pool, your plants develop ever-more-interesting abilities, but these feisty greens aren’t the only things that get tougher as the war over your lawn wages. Some zombies get faster, some can swim, and some even drive vehicles. A handy Almanac records your encounter with each new zombie and plant, including their game plan and tips to beat it. Good strategy can decide your fate from the very beginning; once you have enough seeds, you can only take a few types into battle. If you choose incorrectly, those brain-munchers might just plow right over you. Going into battle prepared is one of the few advantages you have in the war against the undead, so select your weapons carefully. If you get overwhelmed, each lane in your garden has one last line of defense against the zombies, so if they get the better of you all is not lost.As tempting as it is to celebrate once a wave of the undead is negated, your garden doesn’t reset until the end of that level, so be warned.
Even so, the game is pretty fast-paced, as you race to salvage enough sun for that one plant that just might save your house. The rush of adrenaline received from trying to keep your line of offensive defense intact is addicting, if a tad stressful. Of course, if you needed a break from the surviving the undead plague mid-level, there’s absolutely no problem. The game will save itself, so there’s no loss of progress, and then you have time to go play one of the mini games which are just as fun and just as challenging, if not more so, than the levels in the game itself.
The graphics, might I add, are excellent and easy on just about any PC on the market. Those adorably destructive plants and the ridiculously silly infected, not to mention the charming music, with its hint of haunted that adds just the right spice of terror, the game looks as fun as it really is. Every level was thoroughly different from the last, not because of the level design itself, but because of the challenges that come from confronting new enemies every level while at the same time trying to maximize your seed inventory. Exciting action and challenging levels work hand-in-hand to create a really great game.
Plants vs. Zombies: 8 out of 10
Popularity: 28% [?]
