WeView: Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Garden Warfare took the Plants vs. Zombies series in a whole new direction. The game, a stark contrast to the original tower defence gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies, instead has you fighting the zombies in as a third-person cooperative shooter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lgQ7CoxZo7o

I’m not a huge fan of the tower defence genre so the original Plants vs. Zombies and its sequel were never my thing. However, Garden Warfare really caught my eye and I’m hoping to pick it up at some point. What’s even more tempting is that the game is currently on sale in the PlayStation Store, but I’ll be keeping my cash in my wallet for the time being… unless this WeView proves otherwise.

Stefan reviewed Garden Warfare when it originally released on the Xbox One, scoring it 8/10. He opened “everything about the game feels like a perfect fit in the franchise”, adding the “the chirpy and cheerful music is as effusive as ever, while the ridiculously vibrant art style comes to life in the Frostbite 3 engine”.

Garden Warfare kicks off with Crazy Dave dropping “you and your three plant buddies into a map” and holding off zombie hordes whilst you create a new garden. He explained “the key is to get the four classes to work together in harmony”, with each plant offering a different tactic against the zombie hordes, but “together, the classes have all the bases covered”.

When it comes to the multiplayer “it’s when you get into Gardens & Graveyards that the competitive multiplayer sings”. This mode plays similar to “Battlefield’s Rush and Conquest modes, but it has been very much simplified from those inspirations”. Whilst “it’s cleverly constructed and there’s always plenty of action… it’s also quite constrained”. Sadly “there’s only a small selection of maps for each mode”.

He concluded:

It’s one of the unlikeliest genre shifts that I’ve seen in a long while, but Garden Warfare really does do a great job of taking the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, with that peculiar sense of humour and the catchy music intact, and wrapping it round a multiplayer action shooter which borrows and twists ideas from the rest of the industry into something distinctly PvZ.

What did you think of Garden Warfare? We’re you a fan of the drastic change in direction or do you feel it was best to keep the series in the tower defence genre. Let us know in the comments below, giving the game either a Buy It, Sale It, Plus It or Avoid It Rating. Be sure to comment by Sunday evening ready for the Verdict article on Monday.

7 Comments

  1. This is a bloody brilliant game – the most fun I’ve had for ages. A bit like Team Fortress 2, with the handful of various classes. Big 12 vs 12 games, that can last a while. The sticker book is a nice idea; loads of customisation; awkward challenges can be skipped (with consumable stickers/cards) to enable you to continue levelling up if you’re struggling with something. Maps, characters and presentation as a whole are fantastic – especially when you consider this has been converted from a 2D tower defence game into a 3rd person shooter. It’s a game that I don’t seem to ever feel cheated if I’m killed, or even the slightest bit frustrated – it’s just good fun. The in-game purchases are not even necessary. Online was very stable, never kicked from a game. Fairly easy platinum too. I guess the only draw back is that it’s predominantly an online only game, which may not appeal to some. However there is absolutely no excuse not to buy it, or even take a chance on it for the current PS+ price of £13.99. I may even buy the digital version so I can dip back into to more easily, and friends can borrow the disc.

    BUY IT….immediately.

    • I’m not into TF2 or any sort of multiplayer/competitive situation when it comes to games so I was only interested in the co-op part of the game. With that in mind, a handful of us tried it out when Origin was having a free weekend of it. It was wonderful looking but there wasn’t much of a game there when it came to co-op. Bored after the first two hours of it and returned for a bit more the following day to finalise my thinking.

      Still, I love the original Tower Defence game and think that this was a bold (and equally excellent) move on the devs part. Just don’t dive into the co-op unless you’re already enjoying the rest of the game.

      • Are you referring to Garden Ops? I would agree that is rather a weak point of the game, but I managed to enjoy competitive multiplayer with friends instead – often running with someone as a Sun Flower to keep us all nicely healed. Can understand you not enjoying it though if competitive multiplayer isn’t your bag, since that’s the main focus really. Garden Ops just needed to be a bit harder or more varied co-op modes – there was too much reliance on your player, rather than the supporting consumable plants, which seems odd since said plants were the basis of your defence in the original PvZ.

        Once thing I haven’t tried is the Boss mode in competitive multiplayer, where I believe you take control from overhead. Must try that out!

      • It was such an afterthought, fella. Was a bit disappointed but it didn’t cost me anything to try it so no financial loss.

  2. I love this game. I’m rubbish at it and constantly get my arse handed to me by children but that is fine, I can live with that.
    This is the only PS4 game I’ve played where people use the mics. Unfortunately the majority of this microphone chatter is adults who have decided to let a child in the same room play, and is giving them a step by step tutorial which everyone else can hear. People being shouted at by their other halves for having not washed the pots, or people getting really angry and effing and jeffing at the fact they keep losing, even though it is quite obvious from all the other microphone chatter that they are literally playing with a bunch of 8 year olds.
    It has a few game modes and at the end of every match you get given coins which can be used to buy sticker packs which unlock new upgrades, new looks for the characters and challenge skip stickers amongst other things.
    I would defo say BUY THIS. You can pick it up for less than £20, I do worry though that as it is online only that one day it will be a wasteland. So buy it before all the kiddies get new games for xmas and no longer wish to shout their amazement at flying a garlic drone really loudly into your ear.

  3. It’s enormous amounts of fun. While there’s only a handful of multiplayer modes and that co-op mode, and a few maps, there’s still plenty to entertain you for hours. Levelling up the 8 classes works well, forcing you to try all sorts of different tactics (or use the skip challenge stars). The different classes all have their strengths and weaknesses, with none of them really standing out as having an unfair advantage. And even if you don’t win a match, you’re still making progress to earning packs of cards or completing some challenges.

    Worth trying to get all those trophies too as extra challenges that mostly help guide you towards trying everything the game has to offer, rather than being really good at one thing or doing it some excessive number of times.

    Also, the gnome bomb is the cutest exploding thing ever.

    Unfortunately, it’s possibly a little bit overpriced. Although there are many hours of fun to be had from it. On the other hand, it’s currently only £13.99 with PS+.

    I’m not sure what that makes my verdict. Sale It, because it happens to be on sale right now? Buy It. Buy it now! Because it happens to be available for a bargain price?

    I’m leaning towards “Sale It, and do it right now if you can, but don’t feel too bad about paying full price for it either”. Which is possibly a more helpful verdict than that time “Moo!” won.

  4. It’s certainly a competent game, but the co-op and singleplayer content is very lackluster. The competitive online is the stem of the game, but even that is very similar to games you’ve played before (TF2, Lead and Gold), only with fun, new visuals.

    It’s not quite enough for me to recommend it unless it’s for sale. So I’ll naturally give it a BRAAINNS!!

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