Ever wondered what would happen if you were standing in your garden, and all of a sudden you got ambushed by some mean looking zombies stumbling towards you? Well, the time of simply planting ferocious plants spewing seeds or throwing cherry bombs is over. Electronic Arts and PopCap provide us with a new way to vent some anger in their new title "Plants versus Zombies: Garden Warfare"
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| Now is the time for war |
Not another defense game
Garden warfare throws us in a comical first person shooter, where you'll have to defend your garden from a horde of zombies who just want to eat brains. You take on the role of one of four roles.
For every side (Plants and Zombies) there's a default soldier, a brawler, a medic and heavy weapons character (as made familiar by other FPS games). These are available to you from the get go, but have to be upgraded in order to become more powerful/useful. This can be done by completing certain objectives with them, earning more stars, and thus more options. Your personal ranking is determined by the combined level of all your characters.
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| Every character has its own level and objectives |
Garden Ops
This is the classic side of the game. You chose one of your characters and get to plant a garden. Once you've chosen the spot for your garden (out of 3 possible places), the hordes of zombies are drawn to it, and it's your job to keep them away. There are 10 waves of zombies you'll have to fend off, with rounds 5 and 10 being a ZomBoss round. These rounds are randomly determined thanks to a spinner and go from easy, to defeating an über boss.
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| Two bosses AND a tombstone?? We can handle em.. |
Luckily, around your garden you can find some pots scattered about in which you can plant several other plants to aid in this mission. To pot these plants, you'll use cards that represent those objects. This means you'll have to buy new cards eventually. Although the game allows you to buy coins via micro-transactions, I've found that playing does offer you enough coins to keep on going, though playing online is much easier than playing alone. The Playstation 4, and Xbox One versions also offer a Split Screen mode in which you can compete with a friend in defeating the hordes of Zombies so you don't have to go online to find a comrade. For the other platforms, you're doomed to play using your online connection or alone. In exchange for this Split Screen, next-gen players do need a Gold, or Plus membership in order to play the Multiplayer mode.
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| Get those pots ready before they get here! |
Multiplayer
Being the bread and butter of the game, the multiplayer offers you pitched battles of 16 players in known modes like "Team Vanquish" in which you are pitched in a race to be the first to slay 50 of your opponents, or "Garden & Graveyards" where you try to dominate the map in a 'capture-the-flag'-system. A funny take on the multiplayer was the "Gnome Bomb". This version of the VIP lets you fight over the control of a Gnome with a huge bomb. Your mission is to capture that gnome and escort him to specific waypoints and blow those up. Unfortunately, those are the only 3 types of gameplay you are able to chose from, with some adaptations on the playstyle determining which weapons/characters allowed. This does limit the possibilities and on top of that, it is the only mode in which you are able to play as the Zombies. Another special mode, is the "Boss Mode" in which you fly around the map in a blimp and you collect sunlight/brains to help your allies on the field.
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| Braaaaaiiiiinnnssss.... |
Do mind, that if you start playing Garden Warfare, the game invites you to play the 'Welcome Mat', and so would I, because in some of the other playing modes all upgrades are allowed, and those can be overwhelming for new (un-upgraded)players, to downright unfair. Luckily most game modes do offer a balanced gameplay between the players.
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| Since a storyline is missing, these billboards help you along |
Upgrades, cards and stickers
As you previously read, you'll have to buy upgrades and cards for your characters to use. Those can be bought in the Sticker Shop, where you can buy those well known boosterpacks we used to buy filled with 'Magic: The Gathering' cards or some other TCG. But this time, they're filled with weapon upgrades, consumables and stickers (which combine into a new character skin). By earning coins and spending them on these booster packs, you'll quickly fill your Stickerbook which offers you an overview of your accomplishments in the game. And it's a complete overview. Going from kills per character over count of consumables to your own totals. This is of course all drenched in the known PvZ sauce from the classic games.
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| Whoop! Let's light this on fire! |
Verdict
Plants versus Zombies: Garden Warfare gives us a fun shooter from the world of PopCap. You'll easily enjoy several hours of shooting hordes or other players while getting riddled by peas yourself. Don't expect to be playing the game frequently though. It just doesn't really stand out amidst other "Team Vanquish" games, although the 'Garden Ops' and especially the Split Screen mode did keep us playing an afternoon. If you're a fan of the franchise and shooters, certainly give the game a try, if not then try it out at a friend's house first and spit seeds at eachother while chomping down some Zombies!
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| A completed game nets you 2000 coins and bonusses |
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