Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

A crazy and colorful garden packed with a huge army of plants, defending their motherland against funny and fearsome zombies. PopCap Games feeds their successful IP with a fun 12v12 third person shooter totally recommendabe for casual audiences.

Outstanding fun for the first few weeks thanks to the OTT carnage but Garden Warfare trails off a little too quickly to leave a lasting impression. [Issue#109, p.76]

Plants Vs Zombies is bright, colourful, lovely to look at and fun to play - it’s the third person shooter no-one knew they wanted and may go a little way to filling the small gap before the big triple A games start to drop.

Garden Warfare on the Xbox One is visually impressive and PopCap did a great job translating the color palette and aesthetics of the mobile game to this third person shooter.

A spin-off for Microsoft systems of one of the most popular franchises out there for mobile devices, Plants Vs Zombies. A bit bland and repetitive, but nevertheless Garden Warfare is a fun multiplayer experience.

The least brown shooter ever made, with the colourful graphics and accessible controls supported by an imaginative and surprisingly well-crafted online experience.

PopCap's lovely tower defense game has been transformed into hectic action with all the features anyone can wish for in a game that can be enjoyed by both younger and older gamers. Only lack of gameplay content prevents this title from higher grades.

While it's short on modes and maps, the core game should entertain long enough for PopCap to work on expanding the game via DLC.

The game offers that experience you can expect from good shooters, but without that complexity. The thing is it is very limited, and the contents and modes are not enough to support its ideas.

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is an incredibly frustrating game to review as everything that’s here is great, but there’s simply not enough of it.

I’m glad to see a return to the franchise that doesn’t involve a free-to-play model, but as far as multiplayer shooters go this feels like a nice change of pace, rather than a long-term alternative.

Garden Warfare is a fun, polished shooter, and what it lacks in gameplay depth it more than makes up for with fun cosmetic gear you'll actually want to unlock.

While the unlockables fit right in with the whimsical spirit of the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, you're left feeling like Garden Warfare needed a little something more to make it a meal rather than a side salad. Still, it's that rare shooter whose world and characters might put a smile on your face, making it a refreshing entry in a genre that usually takes itself really seriously.

Like homemade fertiliser, it does the job, but not like the proper stuff. Also, it whiffs a bit. [May 2014, p.67]

Before the tedium set in, I had fun with Garden Warfare.

The patient build-up of plant defenses is almost entirely absent, and the zombies act just like competent human soldiers. Although Garden Warfare has some charm, most of it is borrowed from the original games.

A charming concept can only get a game so far, and Garden Warfare fails to capitalize. While there's fun to be hard, there's not much meat on the bones, and the repetitive combat ensures this will be nothing but a stopgap title until better shooters enter the market.

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is not an exceptional shooter by any means – and in the case of its progression, can be quite frustrating – but seeing its classes brought to life in a shooter so effectively, with its trademark humor intact, will win you over for at least a short while.

At the end of the day, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare delivers on all its promises: it’s loony, hugely accessible, and has plants and zombies locked in warfare.