Plants vs. Zombies

I've heard some talk around the horror blogosphere about this game and while I'm not a big gamer, I still enjoy them on occasion. Created by PopCap Games, you can download the demo and play for free. Let me just say this: I downloaded 'Plants vs. Zombies' after midnight tonight, played for over two hours straight, and was too excited that I couldn't keep from writing about it, just to share it with someone. It's that good. And keep in mind this is just the demo. As I mentioned before, you get well over two hours of game-play, which is pretty generous. Probably because the creators know exactly how addictive it is. I'm seriously tempted to shell out for the complete game, which is something that I rarely do. For twenty dollars, it's awfully tempting.

So what is the game about, you ask? Well, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Known as a "tower defense" video game, you play as an unseen homeowner during a zombie invasion trying to defend your property. The objective is to keep the zombies from entering the house, else they eat your brains and it's game over. So the first line of defense is your front yard (and backyard, later on). The plants essentially are your army. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Yes, actually, it is. But it's done so brilliantly.

By collecting light from a combination of the sun, sunflowers, and a type of mushroom specifically during the night campaigns, players utilize this energy to earn enough points to grow different plants, ranging from offensive to defensive types. Peashooters (ranged attack with peas), wall-nuts (defensive barrier), cherry bombs (ranged, one-time explosive), potato mines (stationary, one-time explosive), and snow peas (same as peashooters, but with "slow" effect) are just several in your plant arsenal against the undead. Not to mention that the zombies are just as varied as the vegetation, so there is a modest amount of quick-time strategy involved. I won't list them, save for one example, which I can summarize in three words: Jackson "Thriller" zombies. To be fair, the game was released before Michael Jackson's passing, so try not to take offense fans.

While I haven't played the complete game, 'Plants vs. Zombies' seems like an absolute winner. If I do, I'll be sure to expand on this in a second game review. For now, I give it five out of five garden-variety zombies.