You know what you're going to get with Popcap. A game that's very easy to pick up and play, even if you're not a real gamer, and very hard to put down and stop. You grow plants, and use the to fight off zombies, in standard tower defence fashion, except that the whole path-forming aspect has been stripped out and instead you get a fantastic variety of weaponry, each one with its own strengths and weakness, to combat a plethora of zombie varieties. For me it's the best Popcap has to offer, avoiding the overdepedence on luck that Peggle and Bejeweled have.
But what for me stands out is that, for a so-called "casual" game, it's actually quite deep. Nearly every plant is useful depending on the scenario, and every one is priced at the right amount of sun (the currency with which you deploy units), and as such I found myself mixing it up all the time, making no two levels the same. If you play far enough your choice of plants will eventually be restricted so you'll end up trying everything eventually even if you'd rather stick with the same weapons.
The minigames are also a hoot. There are loads of them, some maintaining the tower defence mechanics but plenty doing different things. There are minigames which are nods to other Popcap classics like Bejeweled and Insaniquarium, there's a level where you play as the zombies and have to kill the plants. And in spite of the gameplay roulette, somehow every single minigame feels fully at home in Plants versus Zombies. The fact that they feature plants and zombies is really all that is necessary.
Going quickly through the other positives: the game has a great humour; the plants and the zombies have excellent designs; the music is catchy as hell even though it's not necessarily as cheerful as you might expect; stuff like the achievements and the Zen garden will keep you playing for a long time after you've completed the campaign and the minigames; and the ending song - well, much like the rest of the game, it's cutesy, it's surreal and it flat-out rocks.
Don't play PVZ 2 though. If there was a ever a game ruined by micropayments, that was it.
Plants versus zombies
You know what you're going to get with Popcap. A game that's very easy to pick up and play, even if you're not a real gamer, and very hard to put down and stop. You grow plants, and use the to fight off zombies, in standard tower defence fashion, except that the whole path-forming aspect has been stripped out and instead you get a fantastic variety of weaponry, each one with its own strengths and weakness, to combat a plethora of zombie varieties. For me it's the best Popcap has to offer, avoiding the overdepedence on luck that Peggle and Bejeweled have.
But what for me stands out is that, for a so-called "casual" game, it's actually quite deep. Nearly every plant is useful depending on the scenario, and every one is priced at the right amount of sun (the currency with which you deploy units), and as such I found myself mixing it up all the time, making no two levels the same. If you play far enough your choice of plants will eventually be restricted so you'll end up trying everything eventually even if you'd rather stick with the same weapons.
The minigames are also a hoot. There are loads of them, some maintaining the tower defence mechanics but plenty doing different things. There are minigames which are nods to other Popcap classics like Bejeweled and Insaniquarium, there's a level where you play as the zombies and have to kill the plants. And in spite of the gameplay roulette, somehow every single minigame feels fully at home in Plants versus Zombies. The fact that they feature plants and zombies is really all that is necessary.
Going quickly through the other positives: the game has a great humour; the plants and the zombies have excellent designs; the music is catchy as hell even though it's not necessarily as cheerful as you might expect; stuff like the achievements and the Zen garden will keep you playing for a long time after you've completed the campaign and the minigames; and the ending song - well, much like the rest of the game, it's cutesy, it's surreal and it flat-out rocks.
Don't play PVZ 2 though. If there was a ever a game ruined by micropayments, that was it.