Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Love them or hate them, PopCap does publish popular games across many platforms. Plants vs. Zombies impressed gamers and critics alike two years ago when it launched on the PC. A year after that, iOS users were able to play on the go; and in 2011 Windows Phone 7 users can finally get the game as well. Having read so much about the game, I was pleased to get my hands on it and see if the praise was legitimate. While I still consider Insaniquarium to be PopCap's finest title, I can't deny what a good game Plants vs. Zombies is.

The general premise of PvZ is to place plants in your garden to defend your house from waves of brain-hungry zombies. It's a tower-defense game. Sort of. There aren't any towers, the enemies do not follow zigzag patterns and this game isn't very punishing. The entirety of PvZ is laid out in such a PopCap style of progression that I wonder if difficulty is even present. Before a new zombie is presented, the “antidote” is given to you. It's addicting unlocking the many plants available in the game, however it seemed to me that the majority of them were either useless, required or case specific. Meaning: you'll either use a particular plant always, once or never. The only time I felt the urge to experiment was when an in-game NPC forced me to use certain plants on my second playthrough.

Granted, PopCap does market much of their games towards children and casual gamers. PvZ is not a hardcore or extremely difficult game. The amount of gamers who've played the game is a monument to how absolutely casual it is. And while I found the core gameplay to be quite clever and even fun to watch, the addicting aspect were the unlockables. New plants! I had to know what reward awaited me at the end of the level, and when the shop was introduced I was taken back at the amount of content just waiting to be purchased! Or at least at first I was. By the time the first playthrough was over every level and stage had become a formulaic math puzzle. In terms of the new plants I was constantly bored and unimpressed at the stupidly thought out rate of progression.

I have a serious problem with the shop, and more specifically the Zen Garden because of it's distracting quality. If you don't know, the Zen Garden is a haven for your plants where they can be watered, entertained and sold. You unlock the garden near the end of playthrough one and acquire plants for it at random. With no real goal, the Zen Garden is solely existent for the sake of earning money to buy more useless things. For the most part anyway, amidst a bunch of crap are some of the most overpowered plants attainable. Plants vs Zombies' shop only exists to hide the true amount of content the game has to offer. Realistically, the game can be completed in a matter of hours; albeit without unlocking all of the moot content. Instead of offering me overpowered plants and time-consuming gardens, I would have preferred a longer campaign.

Of course many will argue “you forgot the mini-games!” The fun and worthwhile mini-games are as follows: Walnut Bowling, iZombie, Vase Breaker and Beghouled. The dozen other game variants are boring, frustrating and should only be played to unlock (of course) quick money. With so much filler content hindering Plants vs. Zombies, I can't help but wonder why I had never heard these complaints from other gamers. As I've said, the core gameplay is great. It's easy to learn, colorful, funny and in every way charming. Sadly whenever I think about PvZ though, my mind wanders to the random content thrown at me rather than the game I intended to play when I bought it. Plants vs. Zombies is not a mini-game collection, and should not be rewarded for below average side escapades. On the other hand, for five dollars you're definitely getting your money's worth if you enjoy the distractions.