Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare

So what exactly is this surprise title from PopCap Games and EA? This is their first venture into an Action Shooter world with the Plants vs Zombies IP. More than this, they are going to offer plenty of depth, complete accessibility, and a ton of humor. For example, on the humor part. The game starts off giving you serious mission objectives and information in the lower left hand corner–similar to what you would get from a Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty. Then the line appears: “Up on that hill, over there.” It is obvious that this game doesn’t take itself seriously but playing it makes me take it very seriously as a shooter.

Crazy Dave barks out his orders. Though he is still a fry short of a Happy Meal, you still take orders from him. Your first mission is to plant a garden next to the enemy base–a haunted mansion. Why would you do something like that? Because We’re CRAAAAZY! 

You control one of several plants. During our demo time, we were first shown a pea shooter. You can also plant up to three different plants in various places all around the 3D environments. This will help you in your quest to fight off waves of “brain eating” zombies. In addition to being able to move around, each plant can also use a rooted ability to give you bonus abilities and attacks. For example, the pea shooter has the classic machine gun ability.

Next up we see the Chomper. This is yet another iconic character from the original PvZ title. The Chomper has a digging ability to hide underground and jump up to eat his foes. He is a very stealthy character and operates on surprising foes. This sorta reminds me of how a Rogue operates in a MMO… Except for that eating his enemies part!  I must say that eating the enemies is a lot of fun! These zombies taste like chicken.

The Sunflower is the next playable plant we are shown.. As the Sunflower you are the support of the group with the ability to give your allies valuable health. But you still pack plenty of punch. You can shoot sunbolts to attack enemies. This attack is like a machine gun and the Sunflower looks up to the sun after attacking and is very happy. The Sunflower also makes happy noises when looking up. You can help but smile when playing as the Sunflower.

The last plant that PopCap is showing at this E3 is the Cactus. This is the sniper of the group and is absolutely deadly from long range. They have a special ability to plant a barrier. He also plants potato mines.

After a few rounds with fighting zombies, players run into the first mini-boss: Disco Records and “Boogie your brains right over here” present Disco Zombie! He pulls himself out of the ground and begins to “get down” like he does in the classic Tower Defense game. When he appears onscreen, the entire music changes, also just like in the original tower defense..  He has a devastating spinning attack and it can do a lot of damage unless you evade it. As he dies, the     record scratches and a Gargantuar with a “bring a little imp to work appears.” In order defeat him, you will need to use all of your abilities and work as a team like setting up potato mines and the whole team leads him there through the path of newly planted mines. The Cactus can also turn into a flying onion and shoot corn down on enemies.

As you defeat the Gargantuar, a HUGE zombie appears and squashes all of you with his foot. Our hopes for seeing more were also smashed as this was the end of the demo. Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare comes to Xbox One and Xbox 360 in Spring of 2014, with the PC version to appear later. We can’t wait to see more of this title as it was one of the best at this years E3.