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Plants vs Zombies Review

Rating:

Playing Popcap\'s Plants vs. Zombies is like taking catnip for the soul. It is best described as a casual tower defence game that tickles you silly, piques your interest, then leaves you in stitches and wanting more. And it does so gently.

Full Review

Playing Popcap\'s Plants vs. Zombies is like taking catnip for the soul. It tickles you silly, piques your interest, then leaves you in stitches and wanting more. And it does so gently. Best described as a casual tower defence game, your only goal is to survive the ravening hordes of brain munching, feet dragging daisy-pushers and keep them from opening your head up like so much canned meat.

Armed with a veritable garden of vegetables from which to defend your domain, players can arrange their arsenal with a lineup of \'corn\'y plants from the quintessential Sunflower to the Peashooter, Wall-Nut and even the mighty Cob Cannon!

The zombies themselves are no pushovers. Although you only start against the garden variety shufflers, the game slowly ramps up the difficulty by slowly, but surely, introducing faster and tougher zombies, many with their own unique challenges and weaknesses. As you progress, the level of strategy employed grows too, and it is deep.

Level progression is both a joy and nail biting. As you thwart their efforts against your front lawn again and again, they begin sneaking in at night, coming at you from the backyard, and even from the rooftop! You will be kept on your toes trying to keep your plant selection just right to survive just that one more level.

All this botanical bounty however, is realized at a wonderfully measured pace, the player never being given too much, too soon. You will never be overwhelmed by plant choices, nor will you be overrun by a sudden surge of impossible odds, the developers having gone out of their way to ease the learning curve for such a content-rich game as much as possible.

But no matter the content, any game without soul would be as dead as the zombies you\'re stopping. Thankfully, this game has plenty of soul, thanks to the beautifully animated plants, the quirkily designed zombies, the catchy music and so much more. Even your certifiably insane neighbour Crazy Dave is immediately endearing, taking your hand gently and teaching you the ropes to mowing down zombies ruthlessly. The pleasantly entertaining encyclopedia even gives you an insight into each Plant and Zombie\'s motivations in life (or unlife),

And then, when you begin to tire of the standard gameplay, PvZ freshens things up again with a selection of minigames and play modes, unlocked as you go along. Many of these are a welcome distraction (and indeed, a refreshing change of pace) to the standard game, and add more appeal to the already personable plants that you keep.

Easy to pick up, addictively hard to put down, PvZ has something for just about everyone, be it those just scratching the surface or digging deep. But most of all, it\'s just plain fun.

Posted by Wong Siyuan on April 14, 2010 Comments (0)