Plants vs Zombies = The New Crack

PopCap is well known in the casual/social gaming world. If playing their games through "Yahoo! Games" did not kill many work hours, then these past couple years of PC and home console invasion* will no doubt wrap its icey grip around your throat. In PopCap's latest endeavor, Plants vs. Zombies, they venture into the Desktop Tower Defense genre. This seems like abig switch for PopCap considering they specialize in incredibly accessible games for people who do not regularly park themselves behind a screen that bleeps and bloops. Plants vs Zombies is a funreal-time strategy[or RTS] which has all the staplesof most of the PopCap games. It is simple, cute to look at and has an easy concept to grasp: plant stuff to stop the zombies.

Although Plants vs. Zombies is, for the most part, a surface RTS with moderate depth. There is something interesting that happens between the point of the game 'teaching the gamer', an example inthis case is the gamegiving you the basic walk through of collecting sun rays in order to plant more items. The next point would be the difficulty ramp up and how you, the gamer, will freak out by what Plants vs Zombies will throw at you in the latter points in the game. Here's why this is interesting, the game goes through a thorough walk through [which isn't heavy handed, if you want to go against the computer's advice, you totally can, but BEWARE]. After a certain point you are able to collect and acquire [it's weird to say this] 'plantible weapons' and other items which help in your zombicidal defense. In the midst of introducing these more complex elements Plants vs. Zombies becomes 'more hardcore'

At the onset of the game, you are defending your lawn. You collect sun rays in order to plant sunflowers, which also produce sun rays. With sun rays you have the ability to plant plants and mushrooms that shoot peas and fumes. It is very 'Rock-Paper-Scissors'. As the game progresses you have items that set your peas on fire, freeze zombies and fling butter in order to slow zombies down. "But what about the Zombies?" you ask. With complex items come complex zombies. There are zombies who read the paper [where the newspaper functions as a shield for a couple hits]. There are zombies who like to dance and will resurrect their fallen brothern "Thriller" style. There is even a gigantic zombie which can destroy an entire row of your plants if your yard is not properly armed.

I have no idea how Popcap went from Peggle to Plants vs. Zombies, but it is a welcomed change. Typically, RTS games require you to sink hours of gameplay in, while engaging in intense battles coupled with a fair amount of strategic weapon placement. Plants vs. Zombies has this, but the ease of dropping in and out of a game is also there as well. It is a PopCap game sothere are moments where throwing cabbage at the heads of zombies feels 'almost too easy'. The stages after those moments are usually where the difficulty ramps up and the player has to put infour seconds of thought into their actions as opposed to two.

Once you are staring at 9 slots for potential weapons and over 40 items in which to punish your 'brain-NOMing' friends; its clear thatthe average casual player of Popcap games has a decision to make. A fault of Plants vs. Zombies is that at some point this decision of thinking more in depth may not be every gamers's cup of tea. Managing a plant here and a sunflower there got you through the first couple worlds, but midway through the game you have to start thinking about how can you freeze the Football Zombie and take the pogo stick from the Pogo Zombie [hint: You want to use the magnet-mushroom].

Plants vs. Zombies is a fun, addicting game, but it comes with a barrier for entry. The barrier is covered in brain bits and cute mini-games giving you a sense of confidence, but only to a certain point. The fun times that are had can eventually turn into small intervals of panic which could turn off someone who just wants to take ten minutes out of their day to explode a couple zombies with a cherry bomb. The game is rich with items you can collect well after you have completed the main story mode. There are some tough achievements which further entices the completest-gamer to try some of the more harder methods of completing the game. There is even a zen garden!