Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare Is A Blast

The famous Plants vs. Zombies mobile/tablet games gets revamped into a third-person shooter with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare hitting the Xbox One and Xbox 360.

The original Plants vs. Zombies games were simple strategy games that were playable on mobile phones and tablets. All you had to do was defend your house by placing numerous plants to attack the oncoming hoards of zombies.

It became a worldwide hit which made PopCap Games revamp the series into a shooting game for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare on Xbox One and Xbox 360.

The transition to a third-person shooter has not ruined the humor and charm of the original games. The premise stays the same as the plants still need to defend a garden from getting attacked from waves of evil zombies.

The types of plants you can be vary and they all have unique powers and abilities that make the game more fun to play than your average military-based shooting game.

First of all, there is the Chomper who is a Venus flytrap. Chompers can eat their enemies, and can even borrow underground to sneak up on them stealthily. There's a Sunflower (my personal favorite) who can heal other plants as well as shoot pellets like a machine gun. The other two is a Cacti and a Peashooter.

The Cacti shoots out spikes and also has mines. The Peashooter can throw bombs and shoot out peas like a shotgun. The fact that you are playing as plants instead of humans with guns makes this game stand out and makes it more fun to play.

Graphically, the Xbox One version (the version I played) looks phenomenal. Video games are getting ever closer to looking exactly like 3D animated movies and that's a really good thing.

My mother who was watching me play loved how brightly colored and detailed the plants and the levels looked. It's a nice change of scenery from the dark and drab environments you see with most other shooting video games.

The controls are very easy to master as it plays like any other shooting game. There is no cover system in this game, although you don't really need it if the Sunflowers are around to always regenerate your health. Each plant also has three different abilities they can use as well which can be helpful during the waves that the bosses come in.

The other main mode in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is the multiplayer deathmatches you can participate in. Here, you can get the option to play as the zombies as well. The zombies have more human-like firepower as they have guns and missiles. It's still fun to play as zombies, but I always preferred to play as the plants.

If there is anything to criticize about the game, it's that it's online-only. There is no single player mode and you have to be connected to Xbox Live Gold to play the game. Even the offline co-op mode which is exclusive to the Xbox One version requires you to be online.

The only good thing about the lack of modes is that the game has a budget price. The Xbox One version is selling for $55 while the Xbox 360 version is $45. This is far cheaper than your average new release game.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare literally is a blast to play and I had a ton of fun playing this game.

I'm a noob when it comes to playing against other people online, yet I was still able to hold my own in this game. This is a must have if you're looking for a game that's just pure entertainment and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Score: 8.0 out of 10