Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare - Defend your garden from the zombie hoard or try to take it over.

Written by Brandon Hofer  on September 03, 2014

Reviews: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a third person shooter set in the Plants vs. Zombies universe with all of the charm and characters you enjoy.

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Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a team based, multiplayer shooter set in the Plants vs. Zombies universe. If you choose to do so you can play some of the modes solo as well, however, this game was really designed around playing with other people. There are a plethora of different modes that you can select from that borrow from some of the most popular shooters on the market such as Call of Duty. The “campaign” in the game is Garden Ops where you can go solo or play with others as you try to defend your garden against waves of Zombies. It is essentially a horde mode with a Plants vs. Zombies twist to it. You then have your standard online multiplayer as well as your split screen in case you have a friend over at your place and you want to team up to see how long you can last against the zombie horde.

Garden Ops is a four player cooperative mode where you need to work as a team if you want to have any chance of being successful. There are eight stages to choose from here with some being better than others at being able to fortify a position or run around the map in a bit more of an open space if that is your thing. Once a game begins and you have chosen the map you are going to play on, there are a few different locations on that map where you can plant a garden. Hopefully you will be on a team that can think strategically and you’ll pick the best location that will allow to defend the garden the easiest. As you get to the later waves of enemies it can get pretty hectic and if you have selected a spot that only has a few entrances for the zombies to get in (as opposed to a more open space) then should make things a bit easier for you. The goal is to essentially survive ten waves of enemies and then once that is done Crazy Dave will head over to pick you up but you must last an additional two minutes defending the landing zone. If you can do that then you will escape and win. If everyone gets taken out then all of your hard work getting to that point will have been for nothing. Within these ten waves there will be two boss waves and if you are “lucky” you might even get a super boss wave. Teamwork is crucial here as you want at least one person on your team to be playing the sunflower class so that they can heal others when their life is getting low. If you get taken out there is also a small window of time where you can be revived or run over to your teammate and revive them. In Garden Ops if you get taken out and you don’t get revived then you are temporarily done and will only respawn if the rest of your team can successfully clear that wave. It is a lot of fun and I had a blast trying to get through Garden Ops on the harder difficulty with a great team around me.



If you want straight up competitive multiplayer then there are quite a few choices for you here as well. There is the “Welcome Mat” which is for people getting used to how Garden Warfare works and the worse you do in this mode the more health you gain in your next spawn to try and help you out. Next is Team Vanquish which is essentially a team deathmatch mode. The first side to vanquish 50 opponents will take home the victory. The next one is “Gardens & Graveyards” where zombies will try and turn the gardens that the Plants have created into graveyards in an expanding map. If you happen to lose a territory then you need to quickly fall back to the other one before that is lost too. I remember one game specifically where the team I was on was losing territories but everyone regrouped and we were able to stand our ground and come out with the victory by turning away the other team. Next is the Classic Team Vanquish where customization, unlocked characters, upgrades and things of tha nature are not allowed. This is a “pure” way to play the game and I can see it being a pretty popular mode. There is also a classic “Gardens & Graveyards” which, like the Classic Team Vanquish, doesn’t allow any modifications.

Another mode that I had a lot of fun in was Gnome Bomb. This is where the plants and zombies fight for control over a gnome bomb. If the Zombies get a hold of the Gnome bomb then they need to take it to a garden, light the fuse and then defend that area until the bomb explodes. As a plant in that scenario you need to wipe out the zombies and defuse that bomb before the timer hits zero or you lose that area. You can get a lot of fast paced, hectic action and it is definitely a lot of fun trying to secure the bomb and the territories themselves. The last one is Vanquish Confirmed which is essentially like the Kill Confirmed mode in Call of Duty. In this mode, after you eliminate your enemy, you need to collect a crazy orb (similar to how you collect a dog tag in COD) that will tallly points for your squad. If you see an ally go down in front of you, you can also grab that orb to deny them the points for the kill. I enjoy that mode in Call of Duty and I still enjoy it in Garden Warfare. It has a risk/reward factor where you need to decide whether it is worth the risk to run out and grab the orb or wait for your enemy to come and get it and then you can take them out in the process.



Your favorite Plants vs. Zombies characters make an appearances with you getting access to the Peashooter, Chomper, Sunflower and Cactus at first on the plant side and then the Foot Soldier, Engineer, Scientist and All-Star on the zombie side. Each character has different challenges that you can complete to gain stars and raise your level. As you raise your level you unlock more abilities as well as get stronger so you can have a better chance at some of the “boss” zombies. These include Gargantuans, Yeti zombies, Disco zombies and more. I did have a smile on my face as I entered a “super boss” wave and then watched the Disco zombie rise up and start showing off some disco moves.

As you progress in the game you will earn money for winning rounds, completing challenges and things of that nature. You take that money to the sticker shop in between rounds. This is where you stock up on your consumable items, unlock customization items and unlock different variations of existing characters such as the fire peashooter or the Gatling Pea. Once you do that you can go into your sticker book to see what you have acquired, what you need to get and general information on the different plants and zombies in the game.



Overall Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a really fun game to play. I didn’t have any problems with it as it seemed to run pretty flawlessly. There were a couple of times where there was a hiccup in the game but that had to do with latency another player on my team was having and it didn’t hinder my game at all. There are a decent number of modes here but I would definitely like to see some more added via DLC. If you are a fan of the Plants vs. Zombies universe then you should definitely get a kick out of this. It is a fun, third person shooter that doesn’t take itself seriously and can be a ton of fun to play, especially if you can find a great team that works together.