PopCap's 2009 Plants vs. Zombies was a critical success for its imagination and addictive tower defense gameplay. The series sees its return with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare on the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC, a sequel that uproots the foundations of its predecessor in some refreshing ways. A few thorns remain, but the new direction is welcome for those of us that want a little something different from that satured genre.
One of the most significant changes to the original Plants vs. Zombies' formula is fundamentally in how it's played. Rather than organizing static defenses from on high as an invisible entity, you now directly control a powerful plant or zombie unit in co-operative and competitive modes. The change of perspective offers a more personal, frenzied and enjoyable experience for someone as jaded on the traditional tower defense model as I am. And that's achieved by a heavy amount of charm, not the least of which is expressed by the characters you play as.
There are four to choose from for either side, all with their own abilities to unlock as you complete their specific challenges. They fit into specific roles that play well off and against each other. For example, the plants' Chomper can burrow underground, moving for a short amount of time to then burst from the soil and potentially swallow an enemy whole. It's a great tactic for dispatching difficult units, but the game is well balanced that nothing is overpowered. The zombies' Foot Soldier can rocket jump out of the way, their Engineer can avoid it by riding its jackhammer, the Scientist can teleport and the ponderous football jockey All-Star can perform a quick charge.
Battles in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare's can thus oft become hilarious bouts of cat-and-mouse as players try to outwit one another in its 24-player competitive modes - Welcome Mat, Team Vanquish and Gardens & Graveyards. The latter is a BattlefieldRush-inspired mode of defense and conquest with a progression of capture points. If you'd rather not face off against human opponents, a four-player co-operative mode called Garden Ops has you battle bosses and ten waves of AI zombies as plants while attempting to defend your garden.
Despite planted mines, air strikes and foes gruesomely consuming each other, the atmosphere is rather jovial. It's difficult not to smile at all its little touches. The character models are full of such evoking detail, from the exposed crack of the Engineer to the gleeful squeals of the Peashooter as it bounces through the air. I even catch myself humming the game's wonderful tunes. It's equally nice to be playing a game with such vibrant color in stark contrast to the Call of Duty games its name is in parody of.
As you play you'll be earning coins that can be spent opening various "sticker" packs containing random personalization items and additional variants of the base eight characters that come equipped with new weapons and abilities. There's a healthy amount to earn. Thankfully, the game supplies you with a decent amount of coins per game. In a further twist, it never asks you for a single dime of real money to double your coin gain or buy packs outright.
There's satisfaction in opening packs to find tangible rewards, but PopCap does tie the coin system to certain gameplay mechanics in an unsatisfying way for at least the early portion game. Coins are required to buy the defensive units that plant and the offensive zombies you summon. There are no resources earned nor spent in a match to replenish your forces. And what you're given through the reinforcement packs are random.
You should be prepared to buy a lot of those reinforcement packs if you want to spend time playing Garden Ops and Gardens & Graveyards, too, as the potted plants that are suppose to keep your garden safe do a fairly inadequate job at the task. They seem to serve as little more than a distraction to the horde. The onus is instead on the player character to perform well, which doesn't make it a bad game. It just doesn't make for good tower defense gameplay. The result is the loss of satisfaction from executing a thoughtful design.
This has the effect of generally requiring other players to succeed. You can play the Garden Ops mode by yourself, but weak defenses and the lack of placement freedom make it all too easy to be overrun or exhausted of supplies. The same can be said of Gardens & Graveyards, where few players means one team can easily dominate until running into a wall at the very end.
Regardless of those issues, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warefare is a delight. It's a vibrant shooter with finely tuned characters that play very well off each other, providing for an almost party-like experience that should be fun for almost anyone. This new direction for the series is mostly a welcome success, but fans of traditional tower defense games or those from Dungeon Defenders and Orcs Must Die! may bemoan the lack of strong strategic placement and plotting.
8/10
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
