Electronic Arts launches its Plants vs Zombies: Replanted remaster on Thursday, and it brought waves of nostalgia backed to me as I once again stopped the zombies from munching in my backyard.
The title debuts on October 23 on the consoles and PC for the price of $20. The zany strategy game game originally came out May 5, 2009, and it was created by just few people — George Fan and company — at PopCap Games, which was acquired years ago by EA.
Astoundingly, the PvZ franchise has sold more than 100 million copies to date. And it’s about to make some more. Based on my play, the game is just as addictive as I remembered it being.
The new game is making its way to the PC (EA app, Epic Games Store, Steam), console (Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and the Xbox One).
The game looks good, but it also looks the same, as a 4K remaster doesn’t look so different from the original 2D game. The motion is comically slow, and even the slow movement has slow motion, as that’s part of the charm.
In the game, you’ll revisit the epic backyard standoffs, but this time with exciting new levels, fresh twists, and 15 years of never-before-seen franchise history. With pea shooters, sunflowers, and brain-hungry chaos in store, players will enter a new era of ultimate garden defense and experience the backyard brawl that started a phenomenon.
The original game was created by George Fan, Devin Low, Jeremy Vanhoozer and David Paul. Fan left and made more original indie games like Octogeddon and Hard Hat Wombat.
Key Features
● HD Graphics – Experience the original Plants vs. Zombies game fully remastered with updated graphics and jaw-dropping visuals.
● Signature Defense Gameplay – Fend off waves of Zombies in the original lane-based defense mode, now with bonus levels and new content.
● Local Co-Op and PvP – Team up with a friend in local co-op mode to defend the backyard together, or battle head-to-head in local PvP mode by taking control of the Zombies.
● Exciting Minigames – Relive classic minigames like Wall-Nut Bowling, now with HD polish and even more chaotic fun!
● Brand New Game Modes – Test your skills in Cloudy Day mode, a brand new game feature where sunlight is limited and planting becomes a tactical challenge. Survive in Rest In Peace mode, a new permadeath option where one mistake could send you right back to the beginning.
● Franchise History at the Fingertips – Explore a new Art and Concept Library featuring never-before-seen pre-production sketches and pieces of game history.
I got my first look at the game in a demo at PAX West in Seattle, where executive producer Jake Neri and PopCap general manager Nicolas Reinhart showed me the game. In no time, the joy of PvZ came back to me, with the funny Zombies moving in slow motion across the lawn of Dave, who proceeds to take them out with all kinds of lethal plants.
But this remaster takes different elements from various PvZ games and remixes them into something new for players. There’s also a classic adventure mode for purists.
They played a game with conehead Zombies, bright suns, pole-vaulting Zombies, walnut blocks, pea shooters, and frozen pea shooters. The game is built in the Unity engine, rather than the old PopCap game engine.
There are harder modes where the sunflowers generate a little less sun, which is the fuel for making plant weaponry. The joy of PvZ is the depth of the options, like the Star Fruit which shoots in every direction except straight.
I always loved it when you could lob butter like artillery and make it land on the Zombies’ heads. You can slow down or speed up the pace as you wish. Every few turns there’s a comical bowling match, where you can roll walnuts or cherry bombs at faster zombies.
There’s a rest in peace mode, which is pretty hardcore with permadeath. If you die, you go back to the beginning of the game.
I can’t remember the last time I played one of these games. I also went on to play George Fan’s Octogeddon, which I believe was underappreciated.
To date, there were two mainline PvZ games, and spinoffs like two Garden Warfare games. There was also the Battle for Neighborville and PvZ Heroes and PvZ Adventures. This game will be self-contained, with no plans for DLC.
My impressions
I had no trouble picking up the game again, as I knew what to do with the Conehead Zombies and the Pole-Vaulting Zombies and the squads of undead goons. If you loved the original too, you should pick it up. And if you didn’t play before, you should pick it up.
While I’m a big fan of the franchise, I’m pretty much a solo player so I don’t expect to take advantage of the co-op mode. But I could spend many many hours playing this game, and so I should probably stay away from it. But the cool thing is that you can play it so many ways now — like on a Switch 2. It would also be fun to play on tablets, though I suspect that EA isn’t going to be that aggressive with this game, given the lack of DLC.
But it’s a long time coming, for sure. Enough time has passed for me to actually really want this remaster. We’ll see whether there are a lot of other people like me among the 100 million or so fans.
I figure it’s hard to mess up PvZ. And so I give this game a five out of five stars. But I’ll come back to this in a few months — and rescore it — and see if it really doesn’t steal my time. Now, I also gave Ghost of Yotei a 5 out of 5 review. It doesn’t seem right that this silly game is in the same class as that masterful work. But that’s gaming for you.
Disclosure: EA gave me a copy of the game for this review.