Sentinel Reviews

Plants vs. Zombies (PVZ) Garden warfare is the new shooter from the PVZ tower defence series.

In Garden Warfare you take the controls of either the delightfully designed Plants or the comically portrayed Zombies.

 

Each faction has different classes;

The Plants have the Peashooter (standard infantry). The Sunflower (medic), Chomper (close range) and the Cactus (sniper)

The Zombies have the Foot Soldier (standard infantry). The Scientist (medic), the All-star(fire support) and the Engineer (hard to describe….)

 

Each class has special abilities that initially require unlocking but are then available in any of the game modes.

 

There’s also Boss Mode (which is supposed to be Smartglass compatible but there are a whole load of issues with android devices) where you get a bird’s eye view of the action, you are able to call in airstrikes, drop health packets and even revive fallen team mates.

 

Characters can be upgraded and customized by purchasing “Stickers” within game currency that is readily earned during matches. The stickers will have a set amount of cards that will have random collections of stickers in each pack. I found this to be annoying especially when i desperately wanted another character skin and didn’t get the one I needed after buying 5 packs of stickers.

 

PVZ has no single player mode to speak of. The modes that are available boil down to a Team Deathmatch and the first team to 50 kills wins. A king of the hill style of Domination where Plants have to defend certain points from Zombie attack, when an area is overrun a new location is set for the dance to start over again. Zombies will have a time limit to take each point and if they are successful enough can win the game by taking control of Crazy Dave’s house.

 

The third mode and the one that I found the most fun was the Garden Ops mode. You and up to three other players have to defend your garden against waves of Zombies. Tower defence elements return in this mode and you are able to use pots to plant various plant turrets to help you get rid of those plant hating undead.

 

During these matches you will have to survive boss waves and this is where it gets interesting. The enemies that you have to clobber to death (again) will be selected from a randomly generated slot machine. When playing this I found that sometimes this mechanic would mean the Boss waves weren’t really any different from a normal wave but in others it was nigh impossible to survive.

 

There are ten waves to survive which will end with you having to make your way to an extraction zone and survive until Crazy Dave comes to get you in his flying Winnebago.

 

I was surprised to find that the mechanics of the game were really solid. I expected this to be a simple money maker for the PVZ guys but they have really gone to a lot of effort to make sure the game doesn’t feel like a lousy shooter with the PVZ name tacked on.

 

Speaking of tacked on, the local co-op features are extremely limited. You are only able to play an endless wave variant of Garden ops, that wouldn’t be too bad if you and your couch co-op could play online with another two people but you cant. Yes that’s right, if you play this split screen it is just you and player two. I have to admit that with the care that went into the rest of the game I actually got angry at how tacked on this felt. It’s a shame that PVZ falls on the very last hurdle.

 

PVZ does look great, they’ve captured the spirit of the Tower Defence Games and managed to put an entirely new spin on it.

 

During my play through I experienced no bugs to speak of. The game, while cartoony, does look fantastic. Characters are animated well and being able to actually shoot a Zombies head off with a pea is something that I think everyone can enjoy.

 

Personally I was put off Plants vs. Zombies by the half arsed attempt to incorporate split screen. I recognise that this is my own personal view and probably won’t bother the majority of people that want to play online.

 

PVZ is silly and it’s nonsensical, there’s no single player or story mode. There’s no gruff marine to swear while he blows up the enemy or chainsaws legions of subterranean sewer folk like other third person shooters but it is fun.

 

And wasn’t that why we all started playing video games?

 

PVZ is definitely worth a buy and with a few tweaks like more game modes and a few more maps could be a really great game to play.