Plants vs. Zombies digs up zaniness in Garden Warfare

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare (Electronic Arts; Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One; rated everyone 10+)

Developed by the PopCap studio in Vancouver, Garden Warfare takes the setting and characters of Plants vs. Zombies, and throws them into a zany multiplayer madhouse that is part shooter, part tower defence, and all kinds of fun. And for the first time, players can side with the undead, not just the flora.

There are a number of different types of game to play here. In Gardens Ops, up to four players plant and defend a garden somewhere on the map, while waves of zombies try to destroy them. Team Vanquish and Gardens and Graveyards both support up to 24 players—12 plants and 12 zombies. The former is a race to get 50 kills, while the latter has plants trying to defend territory and zombies trying to take it.

A couple of features are exclusive to the Xbox One version of the game. The first is a local, split-screen cooperative mode that has you and a friend staving off the zombie horde as long as possible. The second is Boss Mode, which allows players to become either Crazy Dave or his counterpart Dr. Zomboss. While acting as a boss, players get a top-down view of the battlefield and harvest resources that can be used to heal and resurrect teammates or initiate air strikes.

Players collect coins to purchase sticker packs, which can bestow character and weapon upgrades, customization features, boosts, and minions. It’s a system that is built for transactions—purchasing PvZ coins for real money—but this is not a part of Garden Warfare at launch.

By preserving the wacky sensibility of the original game and by keeping things simple, Plants vs. Zombies survives the foray into a new genre.