Introduction
Plants Vs Zombies is a light strategy offering from PopCap. For those who might not have heard of PopCap, they produce small, cheap games which often turn out to be remarkably fun. Available on Steam, the game is quick to download and costs a mere £6.
Gameplay
The first comparison most people will probably make on starting to play PVZ is with Tower Defence, the point of the game being to prevent zombies crossing your lawn and eating your brains. This is done by placing various plants which will all contribute in different ways to stopping them. The similarities are fundemental, but the gameplay is sufficiently different to set PVZ apart. The game is played out on a chessboard-style grid of lawn, with your plants being placed in the squares. Later on you move around locations, into the back garden and then the roof. The playing fields retain sufficient variations as to keep you on your toes, with obstacles and environments restricting what plants you can use. On top of this, a different plant (and zombie) almost every level, a mini-game every ten or so levels, and lots of bonus games to unlock, prevent the game from ever getting monotonous.
Sights and Sounds
The cartoon graphics look like a Flash game, and indeed probably are. It doesn't matter though. The zombies are cute in a mindless flesh-eating corpse kind of way, and the plants are colourful and bold. Visually it all comes together nicely. The sound is quite low-key, with only a quiet tinkly background music and the infrequent moans of the dead. The whole package feels unassuming and professional, neither wowing or disappointing.
Stuff that sucks
PVZ may eventually suffer from lack of replayability. Most of the games are ultimately challenges that can be completed, and so once all those are done there's nothing left to play. There's still a huge number of different games to play, and a few of the modes can be played on unlimited survival mode where the objective is to survive for as many rounds as possible, but it isn't really enough to have you going back for weeks. Another small annoyance is the lack of any instructions in some of the mini-games. It's not a huge problem as they're pretty easy to work out generally, but it can sometimes seem very daunting to have a wave of zombies coming at you and no idea what you're supposed to be doing.
Conclusion
Plants Vs Zombies is immensely entertaining. It's fun, funny, and never gets tiresome. For the price I've rarely played such a compelling game, in fact I've played far worse full-price titles. Gardening's never been so much fun.
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