Plants vs. Zombies

In the space of three weeks, EA is set to release two separate multiplayer-only, Xbox exclusive (well, not available on PS4 anyway) squad-based shooters. Neither are free-to-play, and amazingly neither feature nefarious microtransactions. EA's decision to unleash Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare mere weeks before the all-conquering Titanfall is a curious one indeed, but then, this is a curious game.

*ADVERTISE*

Like all sensible people, I'm naturally wary of any entertainment product that builds its own identity around a pun, but if anyone can get away with it, it's the gloriously daft bunch at PopCap. And get away with it they do, as against all logical thinking, Garden Warfare is a supremely well-constructed, balanced and engaging multiplayer shooter.

Eschewing any notion of single-player (a very wise decision), Garden Warfare splits its horticultural carnage over two distinct modes, Garden Ops, and the imaginatively titled Multiplayer. Garden Ops is probably the best way to kick things off, a four-player iteration of horde that makes thematic sense given the series' tower defence roots.

Here, four plants have to protect a garden against ten increasingly difficult waves of zombies. Standard stuff, but it's an immediate showcase for Garden Warfare's marvellously smooth and precise gunplay, and its faultless controls. The game is played in third-person but retains a first-peron control set, never dropping frames and remaining fluid and accurate no matter how many grey-skinned groaners there are on screen trying to hack your garden apart.

Garden Ops feels like an introduction to the wider game's systems. Every round is relatively short-lived, especially compared to some of Gears of War's wave-based epics. After the tenth round of onslaught, series stalwart Crazy Dave swoops in to rescue your team, marking out a landing zone on the map that you must defend for a couple of minutes before you're rescued in his dropship. It's surprisingly thrilling - much like Titanfall's signature end-of-round post-game skirmishes - and requires communication and teamwork to cope with the relentless march of the undead.

That teamwork will carry you into multiplayer, and Garden Warfare's best mode, Gardens And Graveyards. This is a splendid 15-a-side combination of Battlefield's Conquest and Rush modes, where the Zombies attempt to capture a series of Plant-defended Gardens by squatting in a marked zone before a timer runs out. Every garden the Zombies seize turns into a graveyard, until the match reaches a climactic battle that plays out differently on each map. You might see the Plants desperately defending a mega flower (complete with its own health bar) as Zombies shoot towards it in cannons, or the shamblers might need to blow up a base using explosive Z4 (sounds better when you say it like an American). These final melees are thrilling and oddly unique; a genuine innovation within familiar boundaries.

Read: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-27-plants-vs-zombies-garden-warfare