Gaming Review: Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare

Is it worth the wait? Well I reckon so with a complete makeover thanks to a new collaboration between Popcap and EA.

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is now no longer a tower defence game (which gave this franchise its cult status), but an all-out third person shooter and it works really well with plenty of new twists on the multi-player shooter genre.

With Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare the player takes control of their own plant and you have a choice, the pea shooter, cacti, chomper and sun flower each with different abilities and upgrades or you can be a zombie with a selection of classic zombie characters.

Of course now they are mobile and this changes everything, the graphics are superb with no lagging even when all 24 players are on screen. There are three modes available all pretty standard shooter stuff, Team vanquish (death match), gardens and graveyards which is simply an attack and defend mode and a horde like survival mode which is very similar to the original idea and the only split screen mode available.

As with the original there are plant pots situated around the maps and you can plant a variety of different types of plants depending on your strategy, the one thing I did notice about the game play is the ability to revive your team mates which deducts a point off your opposition every time, this encourages team work and works well.

Upgrades are bought via the purchase of booster packs but beware some rare plants are limited so be careful how you use them, accumulating money is easy and most of the more expensive packs can be unlocked after a few hours of play.

Gameplay is fast and frantic and with the opportunity to play as a zombie or a plant gives the game plenty of variety, the humour is still prevalent within the game and will appeal to both young and old, even though this is a shooter it’s much more child friendly than most out there so younger players will enjoy it.

With plenty of accessories available as well to customise your characters this is a really fun game.

Summary

At first I was a bit sceptical about Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare after seeing what happened when worms tried to go 3D, yet PopCap have really created something special here with some clever and imaginative twists on the standard shooter modes, plenty of humour and great graphics and with PopCap promising new maps and DLC bi-monthly it looks like another winner.

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare

Developers: PopCap

Publishers: EA

Xbox 360

Xbox One

Genre: Third person shooter

Release Date: 27th February 2014

Graphics: 5/5

Story: 3/5

Gameplay: 5/5

Overall: 5/5