Attention, the zombies are attacking!
Seria Plants vs. ZombiesIt originally entered the market as a tower defense game, and later became an online shooter after many years of trial and error. The rules are very simple – you start as a plant or a zombie and your main goal is to destroy your opponent. The plot focuses on the attack on the town of Neighborville by nasty, bloodthirsty zombies, and … not much else. During the game, we do not get too extensive development of the story, anyway, why does it need it, if we only came here to fight? In this case, cutting out unnecessary plot elements is good for the title, because we do not have to focus on irrelevant details. Instead, we get a large world to explore, a rich selection of skills and appearance variants, and above all, exciting PvP fights. However, this is not all what we get when the game launches – EA has already announced that it will be adding many more options. What, then, are we dealing with at the moment, and what can we expect?
To the rescue of Neighborville
At the very beginning, the player starts in a large, colorful PvE area where they can complete a short tutorial. Undoubtedly, it will be useful especially for those who do not know the Plants vs. Zombiesand will help you familiarize yourself with all the options available in production. There are a lot of them here – we have a character change panel, a small shop, a machine for gaining experience points, a shooting range, and even a huge training ground where we can practice our shooting with other players. After completing all the tasks in the tutorial, we get a lot of coins that can be spent on interesting add-ons, experience and much more. However, before we are thrown into the fight, we have to do a very short training in a separate area, during which we have the opportunity to shoot targets and a few zombies.
When we are ready, we can start the PvP game and face other players at a similar level. The game assigns us to teams randomly, so we never know if we will end up on the side of plants or zombies, so it is good to get acquainted with them before the first fights.
We can choose from five types of matches, the first of which is a typical battle for terrain, during which we have to push our car into enemy territory, or vice versa – defend our area. Another possible choice is the classic team battle, where two groups of eight must shoot each other to score as many points as possible. Next is the so-called mixed mode, similar to the regular team game, but with a few side objectives. Then we have a tower defense game in which we defend our objects, and at the end we have the “support” mode, almost identical to the 8v8 option, except that we have fewer heroes to choose from. Just before the fight, we have to decide whether we want to play in attack, defense or support, and the new work of PopCap Games offers us as many as ten different characters, each with unique skills.
How to play?
The first thing that catches the eye is the extremely colorful, fairy-tale style, which may remind you a bit of Fortnite and similar shooters. However, the similarities end there, because Battle of Neighborville offers a completely different type of gameplay and many interesting options. Over the years, PopCap Games has definitely made a step forward and significantly improved the dynamics of its productions, and the games themselves are much faster and more is happening in them. Each of the ten available characters and all game modes have a lot to offer us, so just one match is not enough to discover all the secrets of the new Plants vs. Zombies. At first, the player may feel a little overwhelmed by the dozens of different skills, options and attack types, but after a few matches, you may feel like you’ve known them for a long time. To a large extent, this is the case – Battle of Neighborville is, above all, another, refreshed game from the well-known series, which is not to surprise too much, on the contrary.
What’s new?
After a few weeks of waiting, the official version of Plants vs. Zombieswhich has a lot more to offer than the pre-release version. First of all, a new PvE area has been added – Weirding Woods, which is accessible to both zombies and plants. From it, however, you can go to the selection of new alternative character appearances, and even mini-games that will make almost every player smile. Undoubtedly, they are a fun escape from ordinary fights and allow you to relax for a while, and at the same time win many interesting prizes. In addition, the selection of classic PvP skirmishes has grown to include arena battles, in which two teams of four have to fight each other until they score the maximum number of points. There is also an option to get special seasonal trophies that allow you to get interesting bonuses. However, this is probably not the end of the attractions as it is very possible that PopCap will regularly add new types of characters, more original skills or interesting maps, which are relatively few so far. At the moment, however, the game gives a lot of entertainment and unforgettable moments.
The new production of PopCap Games will surely appeal to old enthusiasts familiar with the series, but also for newcomers there will be many pleasant surprises here. It is undoubtedly a game for long, lazy evenings where you can relax after a busy day. It is neither too demanding nor too easy, which makes it perfect for both younger and older players. It’s definitely worth checking out what Battle of Neighborville has to offer.
We would like to thank Electronic Arts for making a copy of the game available for review.
