PopCap:  they’ve been bringing shame to hardcore gamers with their simple mechanics and deeply addictive gameplay for a few years now.  Luring even the most elitist snobs in with various “one button” titles like Zuma and Bejeweled, and of course their recent smash hit, Peggle.  The problem with Peggle is that due to its reliance on a random element that can either see you fail or succeed a level, the game is doomed to be eventually hated by everyone who plays it long enough to see that chance has a greater part in their victory than their falsely perceived mastery of complex physics.  That and the fact that because of the game’s simple mechanic of shooting a ball at pegs can only stand up under so much gameplay.  Even monkeys get tired of throwing their feces at you.  Brilliant analogies aside, Peggle staled harshly.  This is not the case with PopCap’s latest creation: Plants vs. Zombies   

     Plants vs. Zombies (hereafter shortened to PvZ) is an absolute masterpiece that will devour your time with slavering greed.  Although it still adheres to PopCap’s core philosophy of “one mouse button” gameplay, it saves itself from becoming tired with a complete lack of randomness to the core levels and constantly adding new toys for players to enjoy.  The game doesn’t even really begin until you complete its impressive fifty level long main adventure mode after which you open up loads of puzzle challenges , a more difficult adventure mode and your own Zen garden where you keep and grow plants that you can sell for money.  Money is used to buy new units or useful objects to help battle the undead hordes that assault your house throughout the game.

     PvZ is a tower defense game built around the concept that if zombies were invading your house, you would plant various flora to keep them from reaching your delectable brains.  While this seems like an odd defensive strategy these plants pack serious firepower and utility.  There are forty eight plants to unlock and each one is unique.  Types include snow peas that fire freezing pellets, corn catapults that fire kernels and butter, chili peppers that light everything in a straight line ablaze, walnuts that act as barricades, kelp that drowns zombies in your backyard swimming pool, sunflowers, that produce the valuable sun points you need to deploy your plants and many, many more.  Not all types are used on every level though as different levels have different terrain elements and weather conditions like the roof’s slope or the night with its lack of sun.  In case you’re wondering if such a diversity of shrubbery is necessary to combat simple zombies, rest assured, the vegetation types aren’t the only thing this game with diversity.

     Mounting the assault on your abode are no less than twenty six types of zombies.  This is a talented and well-equipped group of undead who have outfitted themselves with everything from helmets to helium balloons to better avail themselves of your brains.  Heck, some of them even ride undead dolphins to help navigate the treacheries of your aforementioned pool.  Another favorite is a gigantic hulk of a zombie who wields a telephone line pole as a club.  That’s not his only weapon either, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.  If all this zombie talk gives you a yearning to jpin the ranks of the brain –eaters than have no fear, as an unlockable mini game allows you to do just that by putting you in control of zombies to navigate the defenses of a preset house.  Other unlockables have you doing such things as fighting invisible zombies or zombies who use portals and there is even a zombie version of bejeweled included.  The base adventure game though, is where it’s at.

 

      Gameplay involves a set up screen where you can view the different types of zombies that are going to assault your house.  You can then choose which plants you wish to use on the level.  This is limited though by using money you can open up more slots.  In the second go through on adventure mode some plants are chosen for you, increasing the challenge.  This is nice though because it lets you experiment with plants you don’t normally use, thereby diversifying your strategies.  Once plants are chosen the game begins.  The map is a grid which varies in size, depending on the level.  On the left is your house; on the right is the area where the zombies enter.  You may plant a single plant on any one grid space.  Plants are purchased using sun points.  Sun points fall from the sky and clicking on them nets you twenty five.  Also, and completely necessary are sunflowers, which periodically spawn sun points.  Once into the game a ways, you can buy plants that spawn coins to collect which give you money to use in the shop.  Each level ends with a large rush of zombies, though some levels consist of several rushes before the level ends.  A meter at the bottom of the screen lets you know how far through the level you are.  Once finished, (the first time through) the level unlocks a plant type to add to your repertoire.  In case you are wondering about the details of a new plant or zombie type, you can reference the Zombie almanac, which has a description of all types, as well as a genuinely funny write-up on the background of the unit.  Every five levels you encounter a “boss” level where the challenges range from bowling for zombies, to whac-a-zombie ala whac-a-mole:  all quite fun.

     This game is all about fun and after spending untold hours playing it, I must offer a word of warning before giving it my whole-hearted recommendation: it will consume hours and hours.  The addiction level is as high as Civilization and WoW and it’s free of load times that give you time to think if maybe you should be doing something else: like scraping your neglected and starved-to-death cat off the carpet and throwing it in the trash so it stops stinking up your house.  The crazy thing is after spending almost every waking minute of a week playing it, I am still not anywhere near sick of it.  So remember, while this game’s price on Steam is listed at ten bucks (twenty at Pop Cap , oddly enough), it has the added price of hours of your precious time and the lives of your pets and/or children.  But in the end, while I am out on the back lawn staring at the graves of the various animals I had to bury in the wake of this titanically addictive masterpiece; I am reminded that from graves come zombies and I must hurry back inside to defend my house against them!  Oh, and by the way PopCap: best ending ever.

-jr

SCORE: 8 Great