Plants vs zombies are not exactly what you did call natural enemies, given the
latter's single minded hunger for brains and the former's complete lack
there of. Despite being brainless, plants apparently appreciate the hand that waters them, so when zombie hordes come to eat your brains, it's Plants vs. Zombies. To protect your own gray matter, you create defensive fortifications around your house by
cultivating a wide variety of cute, combat-ready plants to handle the
goofy varieties of zombie attackers. Plants vs. Zombies is solidly
rooted in the tower defense genre, but it grows and branches in such a
charming, accessible way that almost anyone can pick it up and have a
lot of fun. The basic game play is pleasantly engaging, but it will take
seasoned defenders a few hours before they can play legitimately
challenging levels. Fortunately, Plants vs. Zombies rolls out new units
and environments at a good pace, and the mini games, puzzles, and
Survival mode offer some clever and challenging diversions. It's a
delightful game that is both addictive and accessible, and you will never
look at your garden the same way again.
The
core action is quite simple. Your lawn is divided into a grid, and each
square can hold one plant. Zombies shamble up the rows of the grid
toward your house, and if they get past your defenses, well, you know.
At the top of the screen there are a number of slots that house the
various plants at your disposal. Setting a plant down in a square costs sunlight, a resource that falls intermittently from the sky.
However, you need more sunlight than is freely available, so you have
to plant sunflowers to generate more sunlight. During the first minutes
of a level, it's a measured balancing act between building your
sunflower ranks and laying down defenses to deal with the first few
zombies. Your basic attack units shoot peas down the row that they are
planted in, so you'll need one in each row before too long. As the
zombies become more numerous, you bolster your botanical battalion with a
growing variety of projectile launchers, defensive barriers, attack
amplifiers, and one-use weapons of zombie destruction. After you've
survived the final wave of zombies, you're rewarded with a new minigame,
a new type of plant, or perhaps just a hastily scrawled note from your
would-be assailants.
Variety
and creativity take this basic mission structure and turn it into
something special. Just when you've gotten your daytime defense strategy
down, the zombies decide to attack at night and you have a whole new
set of plants to manage. When you've taken care of the nocturnal
nasties, it's back to the daytime, only now a few of your rows are taken
up by your backyard pool (there are snorkel zombies). New units come
along that fit the new environments, and this steady trickle of new
elements helps keep the gentle difficulty curve from becoming dull.
Still, tower defense veterans will have to endure a lot of simple,
familiar action in order to find a real challenge, and the wait may
prove too long for some. Fortunately, all of the units are cleverly
realized and adorably animated. Happy sunflowers bob merrily as they
fuel your defense efforts, and pole-vaulting zombies jog toward your
house with gangly athleticism. From angry jalapenos to spacy wall-nuts,
each unit has a great sense of personality, and the first time you watch
a dancing zombie moonwalk onto your lawn and summon his garishly
dressed backup dancers, you'll likely chuckle with amusement. The visual
charm makes the game a pleasure to look at, and it helps keep things
feeling fresh.
Once
you've completed the main adventure and unlocked most of the units, the
Survival mode offers a number of stages in which you can seek a tougher
challenge. Each Survival stage is basically a bunch of increasingly
difficult levels strung together. In both Adventure and Survival mode,
you get a preview of the zombie
types to expect, so you can array your defenses accordingly. Certain
zombies can bypass certain defenses; for example, the balloon zombie
floats over normal projectiles, but you can plant a cactus to shoot him
down. In Survival mode, adjusting for these mid stage changes might mean
that you have to uproot some of your plants to make room for
strategically crucial ones, or just push your established perimeter out
further toward the zombie invaders. Unlike in the Adventure mode, your
defenses are persistent throughout each level and you get the chance to
change your plant loadout periodically. Building on established defenses
is an interesting tactical twist and is a great opportunity to use some
of the more exotic species that you may not have used in your Adventure
mode strategy. This all adds up to make Survival mode surprisingly
rewarding. It offers new tactical challenges and a reason to play beyond
the main adventure.
There
are some other fun reasons to continue playing after completing
Adventure mode, namely puzzles and mini games. There are two types of
puzzle game: Vase breaker and I, Zombie. In the first, you are given a
lawn with a number of nondescript vases on it. You have to break them
all to win, but you never know what will pop out. It might be a zombie,
or it might be a helpful plant. You have to dispatch all of the zombies
to survive, and doing so with improvised defenses is fun and hectic. I,
Zombie turns the tables and lets you deploy the zombies. Busting through
each row of plant defenses requires that you use your strategic
knowledge for evil; and, in a delightfully morbid twist, you'll actually
enjoy the sound of zombies chewing on plants. The mini games are a wacky
assortment of one-off challenges that further play with the basic
dynamics of Plants vs. Zombies. Some games pit you against modified
enemies (zombies with plants for heads; invisible zombies), whereas
others mess with your planting strategy (planting entire columns at
once; mysterious portals that redirect your projectiles). With 20 levels
of puzzles and 20 different mini games, Plants vs. Zombies offers a lot
of entertaining ways to keep playing.
Of
course, satisfaction for a well-defended lawn isn't your only reward.
You can earn money throughout every mode, which you can then spend on a
variety of items offered by your crazy neighbor, who sells things out of
the back of his car. Items range from defensive boosts, to upgrades for
your existing plants, to a wide variety of gardening implements to help
you cultivate your Zen gardens. These areas are simple greenhouses in
which you can grow your exotic plants in a zombie-free environment. The
music helps set the Zen vibe and is quite good across the board. It
generally consists of lighthearted, progressive loops that bop along at a
good pace and set a great tone for the action.
Screenshots
