Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (PC)
Welcome
Ladies and Gentlemen to the No Holds Barred review of PopCap Games attempted jump
into the realm of multiplayer third person shooters. I’m the Guardian, and this is Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare.
So…this
is a thing. Okay so I’m going to be honest here, I never had particularly high
hopes for this one other than as a fun multiplayer title to play with friends…but
even so the question must still be asked. Is Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare any good?
Well
for starters, if you’re expecting any kind of single player campaign you’re
fresh out of luck I’m afraid as there isn’t one. Instead we get a mode called
“Garden Op’s” that functions as a Co-Op gauntlet (that you can also play by
yourself if you wish) where you and up-to 3 other players attempt to survive as
long as possible against ever increasing hordes of zombies while also taking on
random boss zombies every 5th and 10th round curtesy of
Dr Zomboss…and yes, that is his actual name…and yes, I do think that it’s a really stupid one!
As
for how the rest of the game mode plays out. You find a place to set up your
garden, you plant classic Plants Vs Zombies plants in flowerpots around the
area, in a tower defence style, and they you fight the zombies, rebuilding your
defences as you go through the rounds. Not a particular bad idea really and
admittedly it is quite fun to start off with but sadly this fun starts to
slowly ebb away when you realize just how little there is to this game mode. So
aye, interesting concept but bad execution.
As
for the graphics of the game, the art style of Garden Warfare is…odd…to say the least. Now I can hardly call it
bad, or at least for the most part anyway, as the zombies and environments look
fine, a bit basic, but fine nonetheless. No my main problem is with the design
of the plants as it seem that PopCap, for some strange reason, have decided to make
them in a more realistic style rather than the cartoony style that everything
else is in the game seems to be made in, which just makes them all look really creepy in my personal opinion. Other
than that though, as I said before, the art style isn’t all that bad. As a
matter of fact the graphical quality of the game is fairly high as far as
textures are concerned and though there is a little bit of pop-in here and
there, the game runs pretty damn smooth for the most part, though this may also
be attributed to the fact that the game runs at 60FPS – though with V-Sync off
I did manage to get the game to 120FPS for the most part but not without one or
two graphical glitches here and there.
Sadly
though, the points this game gets for being one of the few ports that run at
60FPS on PC are all but automatically rescinded when it’s taken into count that
the field of view is locked to 70FoV as default which left me with a headache
every time I played the game until I went into the game files myself
and changed the setting as PopCap decided it would be a waste of their time and
effort to fit an FoV slider into the already sparse graphics menu. Thankfully
though the config file to change it was in an easy to reach place but that is
hardly changes the fact that the game should have had a damn FoV option in the
first place.
Moving
onto games audio. While not horrible, the games soundtrack is one of the dullest I have ever heard; ranging from
forgettable to “wait, there was a soundtrack on that map?” but the sound assets
are at least nice with the sounds matching up fairly well and even giving a bit
of character to some of the classes, such as the peashooter who will make a
little trumpet sound whenever you activate his speed up ability. Other than
that though, not much more to say really. Onto the next section…
…Which
would be the gameplay, and thankfully I have more to talk about on this one. Now;
on the face of it we see a generic third person shooter that utilizes very
little innovation but once we
scratch the surface a little bit we see that there is a little more going on
here than what initially meets the eye…even if it is still a generic third
person shooter.
First off we
have a class system that feels very much influenced by Battlefield’s, or even
Team Fortress 2’s, class system which includes the solider, the recon, the
medic and the heavy support classes, all of whom have their own weapons and
ability’s unique to them as well as their own style of play. We also get
spawnable minions in the form of the classic plants and zombies from the original…well…Plants
vs Zombies, who can ether act as defence (Plants) or charge the enemy
possession blindly (Zombies) in order to generate and opening or secure a
location (depending on which side you are playing).
Also,
while I’m on it, each class has its own unique skill sets that are unlocked as
you level each class, giving your chosen class unique ability’s that can be
utilized in battle; such as a speed increase, a short range teleport, smoke
grenades or the ability to pretend that you’re a Pokémon and use solar beam.
All of which, I should add, prove very useful during fights and add some much
needed variation to the game. I should also point out that PopCap have done a
good job at emphasising the need for team work within the game as each class is
a set role which basically means that if you wish to win; you and your fellow
players will have to work as a team or you will be severely beaten. And as for
the games map/level design, the maps are pretty well done for the most part
with interesting terrain and more than a few alternating paths throughout the
map though they are hardly the most complex of designs I’ll give PopCap this
small victory as I did enjoy the imagination that they put into some of the maps
that we got. It was also pleasant as well that they put in some small touches
here and there that made the game feel slightly less generic than it otherwise
would have been – at least in some regards. I also have to admit that I quite
like how the maps feature both zombie and ‘normal’ designs throughout as it
would have been very easy for PopCap
to just be cheap and just make a standard “generic small town” design for each
of the maps; so well done PopCap, you’ve done well…though, with that being said
however, many of the maps feel far too small at times which tends to have the
knock on effect of making some of the maps feel really quite dull…a shame
really when it’s considered how imaginative some of their aspects are.
Talking
about imaginative aspects, I suppose I should also mention the customization
options that PopCap have included in the game. Now for the most part these are simply
cosmetic options and character models that are unlocked at random via the
in-game store (more about that later) that you can use to change the look of
your plants and zombies in order to give them a unique look, adding a personal quality
to them that makes them feel your own – with plenty of option to choose from as
well I might add. But it doesn’t just end there however as the game also have
unlockable ability’s that you gain as you level each class, though don’t expect
too much choice here as, unlike games such as Battlefield & Call of Duty,
the unlockable abilities seem pretty light on the ground and fairly basic after
the initial unlock.
As
for the games multiplayer, it unfortunately suffers of the basic problems that
I had with the Co-Op mode. For starters there are only 4 main game modes and
only a small handful of maps; which leads to it getting very repetitive very
quickly. That’s not to say that I’ll write it off entirely though as I did get
some enjoyment out of it as I was researching for this review but even with
that being said, I also found it to be a very simple in terms of design with
very little to keep me invested in the long run as, at its heart, it is nothing
more than a generically simple point and shoot. All in all, an okay mode but if
PopCap really wanted to make it stick they should have given us more depth than
this diet multiplayer has to offer.
Finally
it should also be said that this game is a HORRENDOUS
port and as such has quite a few things wrong with it. For instance, never have
I come across such a shoddy port that they forgot to set up the microphone
options for PC or at least until now that is as the game automatically starts
broadcasting the moment that it detects a connected microphone, and yes; this
is just as much fun as it sounds. Now on console this is hardly a problem as
most consoles require you to plug in a microphone in order to talk, or at least
they did before the next-gen systems came out, which meant that only a few
people at a time ever talked during a game…unlike PC where next to everyone has a bloody microphone
connected or built into their system which leads to a mind-numbing cacophony of
gibberish blasting through your speakers the moment you join a bloody match.
And don’t go thinking that you can just turn on “mute all” because 1) there isn’t
a permanent setting for that and 2) it only does it to everyone in that current
match which inevitable means you have to flick to the score screen several
times a match just to make sure everybody is sufficiently muted.
Oh and then there is
my favourite part of the game, the
in-game store that seems fit to charge you money on-top of the games £30 price
tag. Dear lord I seem to spend more and more of my time these days trying to
figure out what’s going on inside the EA boardrooms; only to conclude each time
that it’s all the EA board members doing some form of tribal dance while
chanting “Fuck you give us money! Fuck you give us money!” as slave children throw
$100 bills at them. The only saving grace that the in-game store has, in my
opinion at least, is that it uses in-game currency which is very easy to rack
up simply by playing the game which, at the same time, confuses me slightly as short
of targeting the fools who will easily part with their cash, I really have no
idea what EA’s plan was for this.
And with that
rant over, I finally reach my final thoughts on Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare; and for the most part only one
key thought comes constantly to mind and that is that this game is dull, simple
as that. Yes the graphics are nice and some of the map designs are not only imaginative
but also quite enjoyable and yes at times I had fun playing the multiplayer but
beyond all of that we have a game
that has very few game modes, practically no soundtrack and very little depth
in nearly every aspect of gameplay
and on top of that it’s also massively over priced for what you get. Especially
when it’s considered that you have games such as Team Fortress 2 and Ghost
Recon: Phantoms that both play similar to Garden
Warfare but are also much better and free.
To be brutally
honest, unless you are a diehard Plant vs Zombies fan or can’t walk past a
window without trying to lick it I can barely think of any reason for anyone to
buy this game. Though...with that being said, as always I can see a glimmer of
hope for this game, or at least the IP, as the idea was an alright one but the
execution was shoddy at best (something that EA seem to be doing a fair but
lately). On top of this I also think that if PopCap took this idea back to the
drawing board, listen to what the people had to say and built up a new game
based on the few good parts of this attempt, I’d say they were onto a winner.
Whether or not they do that though is another matter entirely though.
Oh
and on one final note. For those of you who want to try this game out
yourself…or have escaped from your nurse…Plants
Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is available right now from Origin for £29.99, or
your regional equivalent.
And
with all said and done it’s time for me to give my Final Verdict. I hereby give Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare a
solid score of…
3/10
(Terrible
Game)
*******
And with that Ladies and Gentlemen, all that’s left
for me to say is a deep thank you to all of you for reading this review. I’m
the Guardian, stay safe out there and may we meet again.
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