Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare (PS4) Review

Earlier this year, Xbox owners got ahold of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the 3PS multiplayer battle game from Electronic Arts and Pop Cap. Now, the title has finally arrived on PS3 and PS4. Is it a game PlayStation owners should check out? In short: yes. Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare is an unusual blend of genres that ends up being almost unique, even if it isn’t perfect.

Garden Warfare is centered on multiplayer battle arenas, where one team plays Plants and the other Zombies. One mode has zombies trying to take a series of bases, and the plants defending; a second is a free-for-all where the first to fifty kills wins; yet another challenges players to take control of a garden gnome weapon (seriously). There are also Garden Ops, where teams of players take on waves of AI controlled zombies.

Each team has four types of units, none of which fit perfectly into a standard 3PS battle archetype. Peashooters are soldiers; Sunflowers are healers; Chompers are heavys; and Cacti are engineers/munitions; but these aren’t perfect analogies. Zombies have the same basic four unit types, characterized by such things as a mad scientist and an All-Star football player. They’re all just goofy enough to make you smile, but proficient enough to let you own some face on the battlefield.

The game itself reminds me most of Team Fortress 2. Not only because it’s a hectic 3PS battle game, but because of the cartoony look and over-the-top violence the two games revel in. It is a game where giant walking sunflowers are locked in combat with zombies in full American football gear, which means that it’s hard to take Garden Warfare too seriously … though you will take it seriously when that stupid player with the Scientist Zombie frags you for the fifth time!

Really, though, Garden Warfare is a shooter you play for fun, not for blood. My kids picked the game up just as easily as I did, and we’re having fun making our own custom plants and zombies then trying to beat each other’s high kill counts in the game. The controls work well enough and the kids quickly picked up on some effective play techniques.

$40 does feel a little steep for the game, but then I realized that there is no IAP in the game. All the things you purchase are purchased with coins you earn through play, and they come at a reasonable pace if you’re even halfway decent at multiplayer mode. These “stickers”: unlock vanity items, unit upgrades, and even new kinds of units (when sets are collected), all for the purchase price of the game. That’s not bad.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is not the best game you’ll play on PlayStation this year, but it is surprisingly good. There are so may reasons why this title should not work; but it does, and I’m glad.

8 out of 10