Game Review: Plants Vs Zombies

*All pictures can be clicked to enlarge*

System: PC
Review Submitted by: Kenneth Lee (AMCC Member)

What do you get when you throw a generous dash of humor, zombies that are adamant to eat your brains and plants that are loyal to you? Well, in Popcap’s latest game, Plants vs. Zombies, you get to find out for yourself just how wonderful the end product is!

Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) is a tower defense game that breaks from tradition. In this game, zombies of different types move from the right of the screen to the left. In order to stop them from entering your house, you plant different types of defences which will either stall them or destroy them.


While most games of its genre are based on combat of the serious kind, the developers have gone on to change the mood of this game by introducing humor, aesthetically pleasing game design and elegant game mechanics into the mix. Added upon that is the fact that there is an almost endless amount of gameplay for the people who want to milk the game for all it is worth!

The humor in the game comes from every single element. Zombies come in all shapes and sizes from football-playing zombies to snorkel zombies and even a Michael Jackson zombie! They shuffle, stumble, dance and hop their way across the screen, reacting in comical ways when they meet their end at the hands of opposing plants.

The game also mixes in some fantastic game design choices. Instead of gloomy, characterless defense towers, the developers used plants with personalities to give players a sense of connectedness and understanding of their functions by looking at them. For example, “Wall-nut” is a walnut plant that does exactly what it is supposed to do: Be a wall! Brightly-coloured Sunflowers bop about happily and produce sun power for you to plant more defenses and green peashooters fire peas to take zombies down. The combination of rich, bright colours and pleasing animations make PvZ a sight to behold.

The gameplay holds up as one of the most interesting tower defense games not because of the sheer number of units it provides (it does provide a huge number of zombie and plant units) but because of the way it challenges you to constantly adapt your style of gameplay to push back the constant waves of zombies. The game starts on a very easy difficulty with an open backyard and simple zombie types, but as you progress into the game, it throws you a curve ball by having you defend you backyard with a pool at night and even forces you to play blind with only occasional lightning flashes to let you see in the dark. It eventually moves to the roof, where the game will throw a huge number and variety of zombies at you, making you think twice about where you set down your plants. Indeed, the gameplay is intriguing and varied enough because there is no one way to win. You can use different plant combinations to win (or lose) depending on your play style, but once the environment changes, you will have to figure out new ways to defeat the never ending zombie horde!

All in all, PvZ is a great game with good design choices, appealing aesthetics and solid gameplay. Its value lies not just in the adventure mode, but in its other minigames and endless survival mode which throws endless waves of zombies your way. In the end, if you are looking for some zombie killing fun, but don’t feel like playing through a dark campaign of Left 4 Dead, you can always turn to PvZ for some hilarious and exciting zombie killing action.


Here are some Screenshots from the game:

[Picture 1] Another "helpful" note from the Zombies.

[Picture 2] Two entries from the Suburban Almanac, one from the Plants side, the other from the Zombie section.

VG Dept. Head's Comments: An Excellent review! Very Well thought out and written. I hope this review will be the first of many from you. To anyone reading this, please be inspired by Kenneth's example and start writing! - Brandon