Pop Cap’s early games are amazing. We can definitely say about them that they give joy to almost everyone, regardless of the age or gender of the player. Someone may grumble with displeasure about “casual”, but let these gloomy and toxic gamers live in their own atmosphere. Ponca has a sample of 2009 and the zombie apocalypse is fun. Keep in mind that simple mechanics don’t mean lack of depth. Plants vs. Zombies for sure.
Plants vs. Zombies 2
George Fan, the author of the insanely addictive Insanequarium, played one of the tower defense mods for Warcraft III and brought the world Plants vs. Zombie. By the way, originally the plants were supposed to fight aliens, just like in a crazy aquarium.
One-story America, zombie apocalypse da Crazy Dave (Mad Dave), who lives next door, loves tacos and supplies us from time to time with seeds of amazing plants. The setting turned out to be attractive. Nice graphics (a little outdated by today’s standards) and wonderful music and sound design work for the atmosphere.
The gameplay, on the one hand, is straightforward. On the lawn in front of the house, we plant plants and mushrooms that have unique abilities that allow you to fight zombies. For planting plants need rays of the sun. In the daytime they literally fall from the sky or the sunflower presents them, at night the sun mushroom comes to the rescue. Different varieties of peas shoot peas at zombies, nuts stand guard, cabbage works as a catapult, sending heads of cabbage along a ballistic trajectory, working from closed positions. Zombies have their own characteristics – they jump, swim, fly, and dig tunnels. Usually, special plants are needed to resist them.
It would seem that everything is simple. Whatever it is! There are many options for building a competent defense, but not all of them will provide an easy life. It is necessary to carefully select the seeds before each level in order to be able to overcome several waves of enemies. And in the campaign there are fifty such levels – the lawn in front of the house day and night, the pool behind the house day and night (in the fog!), On the roof.
But even after completing the Plants vs. Zombie continues to entertain. The developers have added many interesting mini-games with game mechanics from other projects of Ponca Games, as well as two additional puzzle modes: “Visibly” (a puzzle with elements of tower defense) and “I, a zombie”, where the player is already trying to get brains by breaking through built protection.
Well, for those who didn’t have enough of the campaign, they added an endless mode, where the player will have to “survive” under the onslaught of ever-growing crowds of zombies, building up his ideal defense with virtually no restrictions. In this mode, the heaviest vegetable weapons go into battle. Endless thrill.
There is only one fly in the ointment in this whole barrel of honey – the free version of Prva Free, available on mobile platforms. At the same time, advertising in the game is the lesser of evils. Disabling is inexpensive, and this is not always required, because they have not yet learned how to display ads offline. Dividing the game into several paid pieces is frustrating.
Of course, you can grind long and hard to earn in-game currency and open additional content for the endgame, but many will find it easier to pay. And in this case, a 10-year-old game will not be cheap at all – compare with the prices for the same Insanequarium on Steam.
Development of the sequel “It’s about time” was carried out under the supervision of Electronic Arts (EA). Formally, the studio Ponca Games, being one of the divisions of a large gaming concern, remained “independent”, according to its leaders. Perhaps this is the case, and the subsequent layoff of dozens of employees in 2012 after the EA takeover and the departure of the lead game designer of the first part of Plants vs. The zombies of George Phan were not lobbied by the parent corporation.
In 2017, George Phan tweeted the departure with a short message: “Regarding the recent rumors, it is true that I left EA / Ponca, it is also true that I was opposed to releasing PvZ2 as a freemium game. That’s all I can say now. ” According to colleagues George, he was fired back in 2012 due to a change in the concept of the game series.
The actual creator of the first Plants vs. Zombies was not part of the sequel’s development team, and in general was not interested in the project after learning about EA’s plans to turn the brand into a large-scale franchise. Indeed, the subsequent releases of several parts of the shooter Garden Warfare, the collectible card game Heroes, the social Adventures and the comics “based on” had little to do with the first part of Plants vs. Zombies. So George Fan is understandable.
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time was conducted for iOS and Android mobile platforms. The company focused on a shareware distribution model and appropriate manipulation / monetization methods. The development team, left without the mastermind of the series, decided not to make revolutions. For the second part, the working game mechanics were adapted for mobile gaming, the graphics were refreshed and the plot foundation was laid, which would allow the game to develop over a long period.
The plot follows the adventures of Cresi Dave and the Time Machine in the past and the future, where they confront Doctor Combos. This allowed the authors to create several game worlds, stylized for different historical eras and locations, to populate them with their own unique for this area and time plants and, of course, zombies.
The number of worlds available to the player since the release has doubled, as well as the number of different types of zombies and plants. In principle, nothing prevents the authors of It’s about time from doubling the number of game historical eras once again, but it seems that the authors themselves began to get lost in the numerous types of zombies and the abundance of plants, which would be the envy of large garden centers in the spring.
The underlying gameplay hasn’t changed a bit. The player will also have to defend the house and his own brains from the zombies, growing fighting peas, zucchini, corn, potatoes and other vegetables, fruits and berries on the lawn. The developers have added several new interesting game mechanics that allow you to diversify strategies, but the ice watermelon still “rules” regardless of the battlefield.
