Plants and Zombies: A Match Made in Heaven
My review may very well be a little skewed. I've never really played any tower defense style games, so if you're coming to this review wondering if it's that "one more time" tower defense game, I can't really help you. What I can do is assure you that, one way or another, PopCap's latest Plants vs. Zombies is an unmistakably brilliant game, crammed with a surprising amount of charm and content.
The premise behind PvZ is that, in typical view of the future, Zombies have overrun the Earth and are out hunting for brains. From the comfort of your home on the left side of the screen, you oversee the planting and production of various flora to stave off the oncoming hordes for a fixed amount of time. In typical PopCap fasion, that's about the entire premise, and it's very simple to understand. But the game slowly takes you deeper and deeper with new mechanics, ultimately making this one of the developer's most complex game to date. One of the things they do right is slowly unveil new units and items to you one at a time, as a reward for finishing a level, letting you get used to them all as you need to.
You have a wide array of weapons to use to defend against the undead. Since you need sunlight as your resource to plant new.. erm... plants... the first one you'll likely use is the Sunflower. On top of picking up the sunlight that they pop out, an occaisional orb will fall from the sky to give you a little boost. From there it's all about choosing which plants you want to fill up your tray with (which you can by expansions for with money as the game progresses), and setting up your yard as quick as possible. The zombies will trickle in one at a time until predetermined hordes of zombies come all in at once, usually during the finale, and sometimes once or twice beforehand.
Where the game get's especially tricky, as well as stays fresh, is when things turn to night. No longer do you have the sunshine falling from above, and now you have certain night-only plants (generally mushrooms) at your disposal. The trade off is that they generally cost less, or in some cases are even free, but you have to definitly change up your strategy to keep up with the pace.
The zombies themselves keep changing to keep you on your toes. Whether they are guarded with a screen door shield, making them only vulnerable to bubble-shooting mushrooms, or riding a zombonie (zambonie but with a zombie, of course) in an attempt to wreck your whole lawn. You will of course have various ways to combat these new threats, and having to balance all of these factors out helps make the game feel more strategic than just planting the same 6 plants in the same order every round.
And even mixed into all of that are various bonus missions between rounds. These varry from the game slowly handing you different seeds to plant freely, but having to keep up with a steady stream of zombies to having to break open vases that may either contain plants or zombies. All in all they just serve to keep you from getting to tired to the main game but they always feel fun. What's more is after completing the main quest, you unlock a bunch more of similar puzzle and mini-game modes that really turn this game into a much bigger package than you might think you're getting.
The writing is clever. The only real character you interact with is Crazy Dave, your pan-wearing neighbor. He gives you "helpful" hints and sells you random items out of the back of his van. Between him and a few notes left by the zombies, what little dialogue you do get is generally "chuckleworthy" at least. On a similar note, the music in this game is incredibly catchy. It has this very dark comedic style to it that really fits the whole "Plants vs. Zombies" aesthetic. You'll understand it when you see it.
In the end, what makes this game so great is that it can be played a level or two at a time while your waiting for your friends to show up, or go at it all at once, endurance style, and it never feels old. For the price they're asking, I can't possibly recommend this game enough to anybody out there, even if you don't really like games that much and you just want to kill time during lunch breaks.
