Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Chris Miller

Did you ever notice how many of those “For Dummies” books there are?  At this point, I think they’ve created one of the for damn near everything under the sun.  Football for Dummies, Taxes for Dummies, Yoga for Dummies, AOL for Dummies, the ever-redundant Macs for Dummies (sorry, couldn’t resist), and the list goes on and on.  True story:  when my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, he even came home with the Prostate Cancer for Dummies book.  That one confirmed my suspicion that there is truly nothing else that they can create one of these books for.

“What does this have to do with Plants vs. Zombies?”, you may be wondering.  After spending about a dozen hours with PvZ, I’m convinced that the “For Dummies” folks contracted PopCap to create a Tower Defense for Dummies game, and PvZ was the result.  And for those of us who have never really been able to get into that particular RTS sub-genre, it is a godsend.  It simplifies the standard tower defense formula, and puts it in a well-produced, easy to learn, and highly amusing game that nearly every gamer will enjoy.

The overall premise is pretty basic, yet completely insane.  You are protecting your house from an invasion of the undead, and your only weapons are...well…plants.  Not just any plants, mind you, but plants that wield an entire arsenal of both destructive and protective capabilities.  Pea Shooters that shoot actual peas, Cherry Bombs that explode in violent bursts, Squash that literally squash zombies flat, and many, many others.  Each level provides you with a new plant you can use to thwart the zombie hordes, and learning when and how to deploy them against the shambling minions will challenge even the most seasoned tower defense pros.

Each stage is broken up into 10 sub-levels, each one with increasingly tougher zombie foes.  The stages take place in different areas of your yard, starting with the very basic (your back lawn) and throwing in more tweaks as you progress (i.e. swimming pools, rooftops, etc).  The playing field is divided into 6 individual rows, and the undead will slowly make their way up these rows from the street to your house.  Each row has 9 columns (think of it as a giant Excel sheet), and you can place a plant in each ‘cell’ on the grid.  If a zombie gets through all your defenses and makes it to your house, it’s game over and you have to restart the level.

You can’t just place plants willy-nilly, however.  Your arsenal requires sunlight in order to grow, and each plant will require a different amount.  The basic pea-shooters (which do a small amount of damage) only require 100 sunlight, but the more devastating plants (such as plants that shoot multiple projectiles or flaming bullets) will require much larger amounts of sunlight.   Thankfully, you are given sunflowers or mushrooms that generate sunlight as you go, so you’ll be required to balance resource generation with your overall defensive strategy.  This is pretty easy at early levels, but gets far more difficult once you cross the halfway point of the game.  Zombies start coming faster and are much tougher to kill, so you’ll need to make some tough decisions on exactly how many sunlight generators you can afford to plant before throwing down those powerful defensive plants.

The design of the zombie enemies is nothing short of brilliant.  Not content to just throw mindless shamblers your way, PvZ pulls out all the stops and will send a hilarious array of zombie minions after you.  Snorkeling zombies will submerge underwater to avoid damage from your pea shooters.  Pole vaulting zombies will be able to spring over your first line of defense.  Zombies will be equipped with screen doors, pots on their heads, or football helmets to lessen the damage they take.  Grandpa zombies will move slowly up the row reading their newspapers, and suddenly begin a violent angry charge once their paper is destroyed.  There’s even a Thriller-eque Michael Jackson zombie (oh, how appropriate that is) that brings along dancing friends as back-up.  If you’re not cracking up at the huge variety of zombies, you seriously need to get your funny bone checked.  An almanac gives full descriptions for each one, which should be required reading as you play.

The levels themselves also present tougher challenges as you get further along.  Gravestones will begin to take up planting spots, swimming pools require you to drop down a lily pad before planting, fog will obscure the view of both zombies and plants, and nighttime levels will require you to generate additional sunlight.  Some of the later levels combine a number of these obstacles and require some very serious strategery to work your way around them.  This can add a whole new level of complexity that will tax your brain cells to the limit lest they become a zombie’s lunch.

PvZ uses a cartoonish graphic style that fits the humorous style of the game perfectly.  This isn’t Left 4 Dead, so you won’t see any blood and guts, although the zombies will drop off heads, arms, and other body parts as they take damage.  The animations for both your plants and the zombies are hilarious, and while it basically amounts to a glorified Flash game, there is so much personality that I can guarantee you won’t mind a bit.

In addition to the 10 stage campaign, there are a huge number of mini-games, puzzle levels, and even an endless survival mode that are unlocked as you progress.  While this may be considered a “casual game”, it is one that will keep gamers busy for a long, long time.  It is a completists dream, since the game keeps track of every plant and zombie you encounter, as well as a number of stats from the different mini-games and gameplay modes.  You can’t help but develop a “got to catch ‘em all” mentality as you play, and I found myself playing through frustrating levels over and over again just to unlock that next plant or zombie in the almanac. 

It’s not all quite roses (or sunflowers) however.  As with most tower defense games, the later levels require you to practically read the developers minds on how to place a very specific variety of plants in order to succeed.  While this turned me off somewhat, I’m sure veteran puzzle or RTS gamers will enjoy the steep challenge this provides.  Thankfully, I never found myself stuck for too long, and careful plant deployment with a little bit of foresight will get you through most of the stages.  The huge variety of plants can get a bit overwhelming, especially since you can only take a certain amount with you on each level.  Bring the wrong mix of plants for that level, and you’ll be quickly reaching for the restart button.

PvZ succeeds masterfully at simplifying the tower defense genre into a game that nearly everyone can enjoy.  Don’t be fooled by the hilarious and cartoony presentation, this is one seriously tough strategy game.  Thankfully, it is designed in such a way that anyone – from kids to the hardcore grognards – will have an absolute blast mowing down waves and waves of zombies with their vegetarian army.  It’s one of the few games that I would consider a must-play title, regardless of whether or not you typically enjoy strategy games.  Just go buy it, you’ll thank me later.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I seem to have some zombies on my lawn.  And we don’t want zombies on our lawns.

Gaming Trend Score

92

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 86
3. Controls: 92
4. Gameplay: 93
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:92