Review: Plants vs. Zombies (PC)

It's taken me a long time to get around to Plants vs. Zombies: when I first played the demo many moons ago, I dismissed the game as too easy and targeting a casual audience that I wasn't a part of. Fortunately, I picked it up on a Steam sale and see that the demo doesn't really give the game a fair shake.

For those who've been buried under a tombstone for the last two years, Plants vs. Zombies is from casual gaming studio extrodinaire, PopCap. It's a tower defence game where you have to defend your house from zombies approaching from across your garden (and in later levels, your roof). Defending each row (lane) of the garden, you can place a number of plants by spending Sun. Some plants, like the Sunflower, earn you more Sun over time; others attack the zombies in various way, like the simple Pea Shooter; and others have more specialized uses, like Garlic which diverts zombies to an adjacent lane. If zombies reach your plants, they'll start eating them, until they've cleared a way through to your house. Each level is won by defeating all the zombies that attack before any get inside your house to EAT YOUR BRAINS!

Daytime Zombie Attack!

The main portion of the game is the Adventure mode consisting of 50 levels across five environments, Day, Night, Fog, Pool and Roof. New levels introduce new plant and zombie types, and occassionaly a mini-game such as Walnut Bowling. Much of the interest comes from the fact that you can only choose a limited number of plant types each level. Choosing plants that can deal with all the different zombie types and environmental factors in the level is crucial.

Nighttime Zombie Attack!

While fun, the Adventure mode never goes above easy difficulty. I failed a total of three levels in my playthrough, and each was to a new zombie type whose unique abilities I had yet to learn. Once you've established a basic winning strategy in the early levels of each environment, it can be straightforwardly adapted to deal with the new zombie types that are introduced in later levels.

Beghouled!

As you play, however, you unlock various new game modes including plenty of (mostly easy) mini-games, like an adaptation of one of PopCap's other great successes, Bejeweled, called Beghouled. The Puzzle and Survival modes are the best as the higher levels of each type really challenge all those skills you were learning in Adventure mode.

Full defences built for the final assault on Survival mode

Despite all the variety, the game can get a bit repetitive (and don't get me started on the "watching paint dry"-boring Zen Garden mode). But it is the kind of game that's easy to just play a level or two, maybe while waiting for your WoW raid to start. With all the different game modes available, you're bound to find one that's fun and challenging for you.

Final Score: 7 / 10 - Fun casual game with plenty of extra game modes to keep you interested.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed