Stepping out of my comfort zone, for the past week I have been playing Plants Vs Zombies – the fastest-selling downloadable game in Popcap’s history – and I mean constantly ! this title is seriously addictive.
Described by the publisher as an action-strategy game, Plants Vs Zombies pits you and your arsenal of plants against hordes of zombies trying to gain access to your house.
Sunflowers are the lifeblood of your defence. They provide a sun drop currency with which to purchase a variety of mutant flowers to repel the zombies. The more sunflowers you have the quicker they produce sun drops for you to increase your flower power. Before each challenge you are given a number of “slots” for which you must choose what you think is the most effective weaponry to defeat the zombies. Extra slots can be purchased as you progress through the game. There will be some essential plants such as the sunflower, lily pad (when you get to the pond level), extra flower pots (roof level) you will need to select and I always chose a wal-nut as a “blocker” to allow time to build up the plants. After that you still have a choice from a large selection (eventually totalling four dozen) of plants with which to defeat the zombies. However, since some of the challenges involve night time and fog there are plants specific to those conditions.
Throughout the game your guide will be Crazy Dave who will advise you when you begin a new challenge and will also sell you “stuff” from the back of his car. You will receive dollars when you kill some zombies (pick up the coins) or by playing the mini games and puzzles. Dave will accept this cash in exchange for extra slots in adventure mode and plants, feed, water etc. for your zen garden amongst other things.
In the main adventure mode there is a good variety of attacking zombies with varying degrees of strength. The ordinary (!) zombie will be the first to approach in each level this quickly progresses to zombies with cones or buckets on their heads, pole vaulting zombies, zombie football players, zombies driving zimbones and bob sleds etc. and in the pool they too start off relatively easy and advance to diving under your plants etc. With each level there’s a new threat and it might take a couple of attempts to find the best weaponry to deal with them. There is a big boss at the end who has some serious firepower you will have to overcome.
Away from the adventure mode there are plenty of activities – a ridiculously generous number of mini-games (which I’m still working my way through), Puzzle games – there are two different puzzle games with about ten levels each, I thought once I’d defeated the final challenge in each that would be completed but, then it starts to see how many wins in a row you can achieve, Survival mode and zen garden. You are awarded dollars in the mini games too which you can use to make purchases and grow your own plants in the zen garden. An almanac in the main menu details all the available plants and zombies qualities.
Marks out of 10
Presentation 9.5 : Gorgeous cartoon style graphics in bright appealing colours. Audio and Video both highest quality to the extend of a brilliant sing-a-long style video while the credits roll – not to be missed !
Gameplay 9.5: Excellent fun for whole family.No issues at all played on a laptop Vista os
Lifespan/ Replayability 9.5: The game seems to go on forever
now available on hard disc at Focusmultimedia
