Who knew zombies were omnivores? Plants vs. Zombies presents a cuddlier take on these murderous undead. They really want to eat your brains, but they shamble in a straight path to your house, snacking on landscaping that gets directly in their way. Thankfully, your garden fights back, with pea-shooting plants, exploding peppers, giant flytraps, and dozens more. You’ll plant these defenses to stop the zombies in a sly, simple game with compelling strategy.
Gamers will recognize that Plants vs. Zombies reshapes the “tower defense” genre, strategy games where you set up automated turrets to protect from assailants. But Plants vs. Zombies both simplifies that premise and adds a lot more depth, making it stand out in that current-fad genre.
You’ll buy new plants by harvesting sunlight icons that drift down from the sky or are generated by certain plants. At first, you’ll only have a choice of a few plants, and the same kind of zombie will keep attacking. But you’ll earn a new plant type at the end of nearly every level, and you’ll face a new zombie in the next round, eventually battling dozens. We had fun developing favorite strategies for various situations, such as using plants that freeze fast-moving zombies or positioning magnetized plants to pull off zombies’ protective bucket helmets.
Both the plants and zombies are lovingly presented, with sharp illustrations and sound effects. Some zombies wear traffic cones as helmets and are tougher to stop. Some run and pole-vault over the first item in their path. All are a joy to discover.
While the game’s premise stays the same, each zombie and level twists the situation. You’ll battle swimming zombies in a backyard pool, have your visibility hampered by fog, and even position plants in pots to protect your roof. Even the method of planting gets broken up; some levels skip the sun-collecting system and just shuffle plants along a conveyor belt. Other times, you’ll hit zombies with a mallet.
And the twists just keep coming. A virtual-pet minigame rewards you for tending sprouts daily. And puzzle-based levels take even more thought; we especially liked playing as the zombies and attacking the plants. These and many more variations keep the game engaging.
You'll smile at the clever Plants vs. Zombies animation and sound, but compelling strategy rules give it even deeper roots.
Plants vs. Zombies
COMPANY: PopCap Games
CONTACT: www.popcap.com
PRICE: $19.95
REQUIREMENTS: 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo or faster Intel processor, Mac OS 10.4.11 or later
Source: maclife.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment