Plants VS. Zombies: Resurrection Review – Classic Strategy Returns from the Dead

The surprising one is Plants vs. Zombies. Zombies didn't attract more imitators. This charming and intuitive strategy game earned PopCap its reputation and spawned a massive franchise, including merchandise, comic books, and, interestingly, a team-based shooter that was more competitive than a strategy game. While it lends itself well to comparisons to tower defense games, its key mechanics are still largely unique to PvZ itself. Plants VS. Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted gives the original game a modern twist, and while this remaster only offers a few new bells and whistles, the game itself remains unique.

For those new to the series, or those who have only played the Garden Warfare spin-offs, the core idea of ​​Plants vs. Zombies is this: Zombies are deceptively simple. You are the owner of a house plagued by a zombie apocalypse and your only defense is an army of living plants. You collect sunlight to power your seeds, which you plant in five rows as zombies approach from the right. You can plant sunflowers to generate extra sunlight, keeping you on top of your priorities as zombies approach from other lanes. If they get to your plants, they'll eat them and you'll have to replant them, so it's best not to let them get that far. As the game goes on, it keeps adding new wrinkles, like nighttime levels where you have less exposure to sunlight and need to rely on fungi, or where you need to plant water lilies in a pool of water for other aggressive plants to sit on. At the same time, new zombie types continue to appear, requiring different plant defense configurations.

In this case, the zombies themselves pose no threat at all. They're silly and often even cute, with cartoon touches like propeller hats or disco costumes to indicate what type of zombie they are. Zombies with cones or metal barrels on their heads will take more hits before you can knock the cone down and kill it, football zombies have strong defenses and will charge at you faster, and so on.

It's a warm, inviting concept that belies its sometimes tense action, as you juggle multiple priorities to defend your house. If the zombies break through your defenses and get past the one-time emergency lawn mower defense at the edge of your lawn, they'll eat your brain and you'll have to restart the level. Guiding you through it all is Crazy Dave, a mainstay of the series as the wild apocalyptic weirdo, and it turns out he's absolutely right. He can sell you new seed packets or other upgrades, such as extra plant slots. Some of the humor in Crazy Dave doesn't feel particularly mature – it's not offensive, just a slightly embarrassing “epic bacon” style of writing. But it’s not enough to detract from the overall experience.

This Replanted remaster gives the game an HD makeover so your peashooters and sunflowers have never looked better. The characters look the same as you remember from playing the original game, but they look noticeably better than the original game, which wasn't designed for modern monitors. This makes the facelift look nice, but not as impressive (or risky) as a full-on remake with new art. The only aspect of the remake that felt half-baked was the campaign ending, where fans were treated to the adorable little Diddy from Himawari doing an elaborate zombie dance. But instead of recreating the music video, this version simply pastes the original video file into a small window within the TV screen image, making it blurry and difficult to see.

For PvZ veterans, the initial campaign is cozy but never too challenging. I've played the original several times, and what struck me on this replay is that once you lock in a strategy, you can brute-force it with a handful of reliable plants, only trading a slot or two for the specialized skills you might need. This means about half of my seed packets remain untouched. Possibly partly for this reason, the campaign feels a bit overlong, with a lot of stages that can essentially be solved in the same way. I imagine this won't be an issue for new players.

However, for players with extensive PvZ experience, there are some new challenges to contend with. The new overcast mode severely limits your sunlight and intermittently puts your sunflowers to sleep, so you'll have to be more strategic with your buildings to fend off zombies. The new “R.I.P.” permadeath mode challenges you to survive the entire campaign without dying once, and only allows one randomly placed lawnmower per stage. Additionally, there are a wealth of special modes such as Puzzle or Zen Garden to keep you busy, including co-op and PvP modes. Most modes unlock as you progress through the campaign, though, so you'll need to complete it to truly see all it has to offer.

Additionally, new and returning versions of Plants vs. Plants offer some fun Easter eggs. Zombie fan. You can toggle visual options such as retro zombies and pea shooters. One Easter egg in particular made me smile, although I don't want to spoil it.

Plants VS. Plants vs. Zombies is a beloved classic, and Replant proves that it exists for a good reason. Classic gameplay remains equally engaging, and new modes will keep seasoned gardeners on their toes. While some aspects of this remaster feel a little labor-intensive, it's nice to be able to bring a classic game back and play it in a modern setting. Now that this is so easy to do, I hope I will continue to tend my garden.