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Videogames -
Reviews
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Written by Pixelsmith
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Plants Vs Zombies
PC
PopCap
Two major changes have taken place in the mysterious land of selling videogames. Broadband caused the first - digital distribution has become a genuine alternative to buying your games in a box from a shop, opening the doors for the likes of Xbox Live, PSN, WiiWare and Steam on PC. With the overheads of physical production and retail removed, new and established studios have been given a means of getting smaller, cheaper games to the market, and the market is all the better for it.
Secondly, games have headed squarely into the mainstream. The Wii and the DS managed to worm their way into the hands of people who wouldn't normally buy games - lure them in with Brain Training and Wii Fit and there's a fair chance some of them will pick up Mario too. Hey presto, new audience.
PopCap Games were ahead of the field in both of these trends. Their games - which include Bejeweled, Peggle and Bookworm - are small, cheap, internet-dependent and platform agnostic, with the company happy to rake the cash in through web browsers, consoles, phones, anywhere a sale can be made. They're also ludicrously mainstream, shiny simple puzzle fare at heart.
PopCap have been shoved under the carpet by the gaming press since forming in 2000, deemed a bit too populist and basic to merit much coverage, but Bejeweled won attention after hitting 25m sales. Peggle went on to woo many of those who had turned up their nose, doing very well on Xbox Live and PSN, and now Plants vs. Zombies marks the first release for which the studio has been taken almost universally seriously.
And very good it is too. It's a typically purified twist on the tower defense genre, which means enemies of increasing difficulty trying to make their way across the screen while you attempt to stop them via smart placement of a range of stationary weapons bought with a carefully rationed fund. It's fast moving and hectic, but Plants vs. Zombies replaces the standard place-things-anywhere battlefield view with a grid. Zombies shuffle on from the right while your arsenal of offensive flora are plonked in their way, making the game a war of swift resource building and increasing attrition, with the cartoon undead eating their way through any plants they reach before being shot down.
We've talked much more about the company than the game here, but that's OK when it's PopCap, because you can get a free trial version at Popcap.com and see for yourself. The full version's £15, and it's a fantastically cheerful and polished take on perhaps the most addictive sub-genre to emerge in the last couple of years.
8/10
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