Plants vs Zombies (Review)
Wow. So I actually completed Plants vs Zombies two days ago. I just kinda didn't notice cause there was so much more to do after the game that I kinda kept playing. Luckily my alarm told me to go to bed.
So the adventure mode is actually a little longer than I expected. Still a pretty short game overall but for those of us with lives, that means it might take a week or two of playing for an hour or so after work to complete, which is a nice pace.
While I've already explained this in a prior post, I'll summarize quickly. The game is about a hoard of zombies attempting to attacking your home. You decide this is no bueno and setup gardens in your front yard to fight off the zombies. Classic Tower Defense with a Twist! At its most basic you have two different kind of plants. Sunflower and Peashooter. Sunflower generates sunlight for you. And peashooter shoots peas and zombies. You need sunlight to purchase more plants, and you need peashooters to kill zombies. Zombies tend to attack in row formation, as if they're from some European country. Which means you have five rows to protect against zombies as they march along as their very slow pace. You buy a few sun flowers, a few pea shooters, and let the zombies slaughter themselves. Ah! But if you don't manage to kill off a zombie before it reaches your plants, it eats your plant! Yes, these zombies good little boys and girls and eat their vegetables before dessert. Dessert being your brains.
Obviously (or perhaps not so since its Pop Cap Games) the game gets more complex from there. As you play wave after wave of zombies, you gain more seeds from Bloom & Doom Co which give you access to different kinds of plants. These plants can do various things like explode, stand there to let zombies munch on them, shoot new types of peas, set things on fire, float, make zombie's feet hurt, etc. The zombies too upgrade their arsenal including head armor, football, screen doors, dance magic, lawn mowers, and even a giant robot. The game varies it up by simulating night and day. Astute readers might immediately think "now wait asecond, you need sunlight to buy plants, so if the zombies attack at night, you're doomed!" Well luckily sunflower is a nice little plan and is willing to produce sunlight for you during the night. Additionally you get access to mushrooms, which only work at night (they hate sunlight, even though you need to give them sunlight to purchase them). When a full frontal assault doesn't work, the zombies move to your backyard which introduces a whole new dynamic, the backyard pool and aquatic zombies! Plus lilly pads, algea, and aquatic mushrooms. When that fails, why the Zombies attack from the roof! Of course!! There you have to import pots full of soil in order to help fend off the zombie hoard.
Throughout the game you are assisted by your neighbor, Crazy Dave, who likes to sell you things like upgrades for hte gold coins you find in the zombie's pockets. These upgrades can be new types of plants, a rake to lay in your lawn and kill the first zombie to walk over it, etc. He also loves to give you advice and help you out. I suspect he is really a zombie himself.
Aside from the main quest there are a multitude of little things to do. There are three extra modes that are slowly unlocked as you play the adventure mode: Mini-games, Puzzle, and Survival. The mini-games use elements of plant vs zombies but are, in essence, actual mini-games. Yes this "casual game" is robust enough to spawn mini-games. Mini-games include Plant-zombies attacking, a bowling game, and a zombified version of Bejeweled called Beghouled (hehehe). The puzzle section is a far more slower paced set of mini-games, four in total, that get increasingly harder. Survival mode... I actually haven't tried yet but we can guess what it is. Most of these modes you won't have access too till half way through the game, and the majority of them you won't be able to play with till after you've beaten the adventure mode.
What I love about this game are the little details and effort that went into it. It is a supremely well designed game. For example at the start of the game you're allowed to choose what seeds you'll have access too (once you have more than 6 seeds to choose from). When you're doing this, you get a preview of the zombies that will be attacking. Its not an exact count of how many but you do get a feel for all the types and how many there will be per each other. For example you might see 5 regular zombies, 2 cone heads, and one helmet head, which means you'll mostly see regular zombies and a few cone heads, and maybe one or two helmet heads. The seed picking screen likes to off suggestions once you start getting seeds which aren't necessarily useful on certain stages (such as trying to use the mushrooms on a sunlight stage). The game also has a nice sense of humor for example the Beghould mini-game, references to Star Trek, Evil Dead, and other geeky amusing things. The game provides an almanac about half way through which details stats and mechanics about the plants you've gathered and the zombies you have faced. Each plant and zombie has a bit of flavor text that makes them very endearing. Little touches like that really make the game.
The graphics are extremely cute, and the music is highly addictive and harkens back to the old 8-bit days where repetitive music had to be good enough to listen to without being annoying. The music produced for the game is by Laura Shigihara (http://www.mybluedream.com/) is insanely catchy. There is a music video collaborating done that made me download the mp3s and play them regularly. Insanely catchy and cute.
So you play about 6 hours of game and then what? You put it away? Hardly! To begin with, like I said before most of the puzzles and mini-games, as well as survival mode unlock after you've beaten the adventure mode once. So you have plenty of interesting and varied play to try out. Each of these things gives you more coins and more trophies, which unlock more stuff. Your first play through the game will not give you enough money to purchase everything in the store, plus more items appear in the store after the game is over so playing the mini-games is a quick way to earn money. Then there is also your zen garden. This is by far the most attractive element for me. At the end of the game you're given a gift by Crazy Dave of two potted plants which you put in your garden. After a small while they ask for water and you dutifully water them, which gives you a few coins. Repeat this enough and they'll ask for food (easily bought at Crazy Dave's store). Once they receive food they grow up into a flower and give you a hundred coins! Wow! You start off with two plants, but there is room enough for at least twenty. Three are purchasable from Cravy Dave himself. Others can be found in the mini-game puzzles dropped by zombies randomly as gifts. In addition to watering and feeding, the plants sometimes ask for music. There is a snail that helps you pick up the coins the plants drop if you buy him, and other customizations including different zen gardens to put your plants in. So you find that you'll be wanting to find quick ways of making money, just to fill out your garden and keep all your cute little plants happy!
But wait, theres more! You can purchase a hint tree, which you feed and it gives you hints on how to increase your skills. Quick gamers will likely find the first few hints a little insulting as they're likely tactics you already picked up your first time through the game though. Also in your search for coins to help support your zen garden and buy those last few things at the store, you'll likely try out adventure mode again. This time though, Crazy Dave decides to make things just a little harder by selecting a few random seeds for you which you can't switch out, meaning you'll have to change up your strategies based upon what he has chosen, what area you are in, and what zombies you are encountering, making it yet another game. For the completionist there are also achievements to be had.
The game is $20 dollars and well worth it. There is a Steam version of the game for $10 bucks that also supports the achievement system so you cans how off to your friends. Overall it is a game well worth it, easily picked up, easy to get addicted to, and very very cute.
So the adventure mode is actually a little longer than I expected. Still a pretty short game overall but for those of us with lives, that means it might take a week or two of playing for an hour or so after work to complete, which is a nice pace.
While I've already explained this in a prior post, I'll summarize quickly. The game is about a hoard of zombies attempting to attacking your home. You decide this is no bueno and setup gardens in your front yard to fight off the zombies. Classic Tower Defense with a Twist! At its most basic you have two different kind of plants. Sunflower and Peashooter. Sunflower generates sunlight for you. And peashooter shoots peas and zombies. You need sunlight to purchase more plants, and you need peashooters to kill zombies. Zombies tend to attack in row formation, as if they're from some European country. Which means you have five rows to protect against zombies as they march along as their very slow pace. You buy a few sun flowers, a few pea shooters, and let the zombies slaughter themselves. Ah! But if you don't manage to kill off a zombie before it reaches your plants, it eats your plant! Yes, these zombies good little boys and girls and eat their vegetables before dessert. Dessert being your brains.
Obviously (or perhaps not so since its Pop Cap Games) the game gets more complex from there. As you play wave after wave of zombies, you gain more seeds from Bloom & Doom Co which give you access to different kinds of plants. These plants can do various things like explode, stand there to let zombies munch on them, shoot new types of peas, set things on fire, float, make zombie's feet hurt, etc. The zombies too upgrade their arsenal including head armor, football, screen doors, dance magic, lawn mowers, and even a giant robot. The game varies it up by simulating night and day. Astute readers might immediately think "now wait asecond, you need sunlight to buy plants, so if the zombies attack at night, you're doomed!" Well luckily sunflower is a nice little plan and is willing to produce sunlight for you during the night. Additionally you get access to mushrooms, which only work at night (they hate sunlight, even though you need to give them sunlight to purchase them). When a full frontal assault doesn't work, the zombies move to your backyard which introduces a whole new dynamic, the backyard pool and aquatic zombies! Plus lilly pads, algea, and aquatic mushrooms. When that fails, why the Zombies attack from the roof! Of course!! There you have to import pots full of soil in order to help fend off the zombie hoard.
Throughout the game you are assisted by your neighbor, Crazy Dave, who likes to sell you things like upgrades for hte gold coins you find in the zombie's pockets. These upgrades can be new types of plants, a rake to lay in your lawn and kill the first zombie to walk over it, etc. He also loves to give you advice and help you out. I suspect he is really a zombie himself.
Aside from the main quest there are a multitude of little things to do. There are three extra modes that are slowly unlocked as you play the adventure mode: Mini-games, Puzzle, and Survival. The mini-games use elements of plant vs zombies but are, in essence, actual mini-games. Yes this "casual game" is robust enough to spawn mini-games. Mini-games include Plant-zombies attacking, a bowling game, and a zombified version of Bejeweled called Beghouled (hehehe). The puzzle section is a far more slower paced set of mini-games, four in total, that get increasingly harder. Survival mode... I actually haven't tried yet but we can guess what it is. Most of these modes you won't have access too till half way through the game, and the majority of them you won't be able to play with till after you've beaten the adventure mode.
What I love about this game are the little details and effort that went into it. It is a supremely well designed game. For example at the start of the game you're allowed to choose what seeds you'll have access too (once you have more than 6 seeds to choose from). When you're doing this, you get a preview of the zombies that will be attacking. Its not an exact count of how many but you do get a feel for all the types and how many there will be per each other. For example you might see 5 regular zombies, 2 cone heads, and one helmet head, which means you'll mostly see regular zombies and a few cone heads, and maybe one or two helmet heads. The seed picking screen likes to off suggestions once you start getting seeds which aren't necessarily useful on certain stages (such as trying to use the mushrooms on a sunlight stage). The game also has a nice sense of humor for example the Beghould mini-game, references to Star Trek, Evil Dead, and other geeky amusing things. The game provides an almanac about half way through which details stats and mechanics about the plants you've gathered and the zombies you have faced. Each plant and zombie has a bit of flavor text that makes them very endearing. Little touches like that really make the game.
The graphics are extremely cute, and the music is highly addictive and harkens back to the old 8-bit days where repetitive music had to be good enough to listen to without being annoying. The music produced for the game is by Laura Shigihara (http://www.mybluedream.com/) is insanely catchy. There is a music video collaborating done that made me download the mp3s and play them regularly. Insanely catchy and cute.
So you play about 6 hours of game and then what? You put it away? Hardly! To begin with, like I said before most of the puzzles and mini-games, as well as survival mode unlock after you've beaten the adventure mode once. So you have plenty of interesting and varied play to try out. Each of these things gives you more coins and more trophies, which unlock more stuff. Your first play through the game will not give you enough money to purchase everything in the store, plus more items appear in the store after the game is over so playing the mini-games is a quick way to earn money. Then there is also your zen garden. This is by far the most attractive element for me. At the end of the game you're given a gift by Crazy Dave of two potted plants which you put in your garden. After a small while they ask for water and you dutifully water them, which gives you a few coins. Repeat this enough and they'll ask for food (easily bought at Crazy Dave's store). Once they receive food they grow up into a flower and give you a hundred coins! Wow! You start off with two plants, but there is room enough for at least twenty. Three are purchasable from Cravy Dave himself. Others can be found in the mini-game puzzles dropped by zombies randomly as gifts. In addition to watering and feeding, the plants sometimes ask for music. There is a snail that helps you pick up the coins the plants drop if you buy him, and other customizations including different zen gardens to put your plants in. So you find that you'll be wanting to find quick ways of making money, just to fill out your garden and keep all your cute little plants happy!
But wait, theres more! You can purchase a hint tree, which you feed and it gives you hints on how to increase your skills. Quick gamers will likely find the first few hints a little insulting as they're likely tactics you already picked up your first time through the game though. Also in your search for coins to help support your zen garden and buy those last few things at the store, you'll likely try out adventure mode again. This time though, Crazy Dave decides to make things just a little harder by selecting a few random seeds for you which you can't switch out, meaning you'll have to change up your strategies based upon what he has chosen, what area you are in, and what zombies you are encountering, making it yet another game. For the completionist there are also achievements to be had.
The game is $20 dollars and well worth it. There is a Steam version of the game for $10 bucks that also supports the achievement system so you cans how off to your friends. Overall it is a game well worth it, easily picked up, easy to get addicted to, and very very cute.