This is my final game review of this school year, so it's only fair that I review PVZ. It's one of the first games that really got me into gaming. My dad was actually the one who discovered it, and we accidentally stayed up until 1 AM playing it the first night we had it. It was especially exciting since I was pretty young at the time, and I think it's impacted me ever since. The basic premise of Plants vs. Zombies is to defend the player's suburban home from encroaching zombies, using a variety of whimsical (and apparently sentient) plants to kill said zombies. The zombies will try to eat their way through the plants to get to the house and eat the player's brains. It's essentially a 2D, grid-based tower defense style game.
I usually start with gameplay, but I feel the need to mention right here how much I love the soundtrack to the game, especially the end credits song. It's all incredibly catchy, and the different songs fit their associated modes and minigames very well. Now, on to gameplay! The game starts off very simple, with only a single row of lawn to defend, and walks the player through. I really like this, since it keeps the game from being overwhelming at first. Once this tutorial level is done, the game starts increasing in difficulty. Players unlock more powerful and specialized plants and zombies as they progress through adventure mode (the main story), and new items become available in the shop. These new zombies have unique methods of attack and unique weakness, and the zombies types are picked somewhat at random between rounds, at the same time the player picks which plants they will use. This helps prevent the game from repetitive and means the player actually has to strategize, considering what plants are most important and where they should be placed. Overall, I think the game progression is very good. The one thing I don't like is that once the player has unlocked everything, the game starts to get a little boring. It's still entertaining, but the excitement of unlocking new things and facing new challenges dies away. I have to admit, this is a very hard problem to avoid in games with unlockable features, so I don't think it's really that big of a deal. One can always start a new save file, after all. As players move through adventure mode, they unlock new minigames, challenges, and survival mode levels. Survival mode allows the player to simply try to last through five rounds on normal difficulty (one "wave" of zombies per round) or hard difficulty (two waves per round). The player can pick between different level types: day, night, pool, fog, and roof. Day is essentially the default, while the rest have unique gameplay elements added. The one thing I feel is lacking here is that there are a few more unique level types in adventure mode that are not included in survival mode. I do feel that there could have been a little more added under survival mode, but I'm still happy with the options given. One of the other features is the "Zen Garden" that can be unlocked in the shop. This allows the player to occasionally get a gift box during adventure or survival mode, which contains a mystery plant. This can be grown in the Zen Garden, and when taken care of will give the player coins for buying more supplies in the shop, including more Zen Garden areas. The final area is the Tree of Wisdom, which gives the player cheat codes to unlock some pretty hilarious easter eggs. This is definitely a fun feature and I'm glad it was included. Overall, I think Plants vs. Zombies is a good game. It's fun, stimulating, not too complicated, and requires strategy on the player's part. The art style is delightfully cartoonish and fits the game very well, and the general feeling of whimsy in the game is really enjoyable. I'm not a huge fan of tower defense, but Plants vs. Zombies will always hold a special place in my heart.
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AuthorI'm moving on to my 4th (and final) year as a Game Art & Design student at Durham School of the Arts. I'd like to call myself an artist, but I'm a programmer at heart. Archives
February 2020
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