Probably the most popular genre at this point, at least in terms of number of games being released, is the “Tower Defense” genre. With so many coming out and being so popular, and with them being quick to pick up and play, it was only a matter of time before Pop Cap Games decided to get in on it. Enter Plants vs. Zombies for the PC. Instead of towers, you plant different plants in a garden to strategically place them to ward off zombies from entering your house. Is this twist enough to keep you playing?
Love them or hate them, Pop Cap Games know how to make addictive “casual” games that many people lose many hours into. They didn’t just slap something together, this is a Pop Cap game through and through with their usual addictive gameplay and multiple game modes. Graphics are very cartoony in style which definitely makes this a much more lighthearted affair than other zombie games out there, but considering this is from Pop Cap I think that should be expected. Everything looks and runs smooth and this allows it to run great on a wide variety of computers.
The gameplay, as I mentioned, puts the players in the role of planting to ward off zombies. Instead of the usual tower defense “paths” that the enemies take, you’re dealing with just a yard of a house. If the zombies get to the house, you lose, but they only go in a straight line across 5 “rows” of the lawn (or pool or roof depending on the level). To plant most plants you will need “sun power” that will come randomly throughout the day levels (later levels take place at night for added challenge) or by planting sunflowers to produce more. Besides the sunflowers you have access to a variety of offensive and defensive plants such as the pea shooter or the wallnut (in case you can’t tell, this game is full of horrible puns). Enemies come in “Waves” and you just fend them off until you’ve taken all of them out. As you progress in the game you will collect money that can be used to buy more weapons, powerups, or even another slot (you have to pick which plants you take with you into battle, you cannot have all of them at once). The levels have a nice progression to them in terms of what is available to you and what extra you need to learn about the game to survive. At the end of each level (which consists of multiple stages) you then get a mini-game to play. After you beat the mini game it is available to play from the main menu with its own group of stages to complete. Money earned in any mode is collective so you can play some mini games for a while to earn money to get a power up to help you in the story mode.
This game has a ton of replay value. These mini games that I mentioned add quite a bit to the game, and there are more mini games than what you come across in the story mode. Once completing the game you can also go through again with all plants that you’ve unlocked. The catch the next time around though is that multiple slots will be taken up with plants that the game with require you to use to beat the level. I have gone through twice already and I’m working on my 3rd time and I still have yet to unlock everything. I have also beat most of the mini-games, but there are still those few more left to beat. Even once I have everything beat and unlocked, there are also survival modes that you can go for high scores to keep you going. Unfortunately there are no online leaderboards (but I can always add them to my site’s leaderboard section). Finally, the last mode one can play is the Zen Garden which I found rather boring, but played anyway since it can provide some extra cash as needed. The Zen Garden allows you to grow and take care of plants found in the story mode. You water and feed them, among other things, and they will eventually grow to produce lots of money for you if you sit there and wait for it. The only way I could get myself to play was to play it while watching TV as it was boring to just watch plants grow.
In the end, will this change your mind on tower defense games? Probably not. Some people that actually like a good strategic tower defense game may not like this simplified version of the genre either, but there is definitely a large portion of people out there that will like it. I got the game the day it came out and I still find myself playing it daily and having a great time with it, and I will continue to do so for quite some time.
Right now it is available on PC, but an XBLA version is going to be coming out and I will definitely update the review then to compare. The fact that all these months later I am still playing the PC version, I will welcome a 360 version with any additions. If nothing is added, it will still be good for achievements. The game has hit retail stores finally, but can also be downloaded through the various digital distribution outlets. I personally got it through Steam where it is currently $9.99.
4/5 stars – Yet another tower defense game, but fun and addictive anyway. Will run on most PCs since it is not demanding and appeals to a wide range of people.
