Clear your schedule of anything and everything for the next few weeks Plants Vs Zombies 2: It's About Time! is out now and remains as addictive, fun, entertaining and time-consuming as the first one. The flower defence game where you marshal your plants against endless hordes of zombies has several new features all of which make the game even more fun than it was the first time around. Before I get into that, note that currently PVZ2 is only available on iOS devices that means anyone without an Apple product that plays games will not be able to play PVZ2. PopCap/EA will of course be releasing this on other platforms later but for now it's Apple only. Sorry, Android users! The other main issue with the game, even before we talk about the game itself, is the pay-for-play feature that dogged pre-release chatter. Instead of paying for the game at a flat rate, you get to download the game free of charge. However within the game itself are pay walls that unlock certain plants and areas to play. While that is annoying, these plants and levels can be accessed free of charge just by playing the game which fans of the game will do anyway. The way the locked areas work is that you need a certain number of keys to unlock them. You get these by completing challenges, that is the extra levels you get access to following the single mission "story" mode. Within these locked areas are also plants that help you in your missions and which you don't receive without unlocking these areas. Impatient players can pay real money to unlock these areas but it's entirely possible for players unwilling to part with hard cash to unlock these areas simply by devoting extra time to playing all of the challenges and earning the keys that way which fans of the game will do anyway.
The important take-away is: the game and all of its features are completely free. You only pay if you want to the option is there, but it is still just an option. Now onto the game proper! Crazy Dave, the mentally skewed botanist from the first game, has invented a time machine in order to re-live eating an amazing taco. Joining him (and you the player) on this adventure is a talking RV that dispenses helpful tips along the way as Crazy Dave sends you hurtling back in time to the days of the Ancient Egyptians, the high seas when Pirates ruled the waves, and the Old West. The game remains in the same format as the original in that you still get the five rows of grids with the zombies shuffling towards you in their various guises (this time in funny era-appropriate get-up) and you still have sunflowers to generate sunshine to spend on an array of plants. But as you would expect, PopCap have introduced new elements into the mix to make things more interesting. Some of these are the new plants like the Snapdragon which spews fire across three rows at short range, or the Bonk Choy which punches zombies at close range both in front and behind. The Bloomerang fires boomerang projectiles that hit zombies going forward and back, while the Coconut Cannon fires an incredibly powerful coconut into the zombies but takes a while to recharge in between shots. There are more new plants but these are my favourites but all of them are excellent additions. But maybe the most interesting new feature of the line-up is the plant food power-up.
Plant food can be earned in the game by killing glowing green zombies (or can be purchased in game) and when used on any plant, gives them a sudden surge in power. For example using it on a sunflower will cause the sunflower to give out a lot of sunlight in one go. Using it on a single peashooter turns that peashooter into a Gatling gun peashooter for a couple of seconds. Using it on a Snapdragon causes it to leap up, blast off a firewall and light up a number of grids for a couple of seconds. Each plant reacts differently to the plant food and is an amazing power up that's both useful and fun at the same time. The other great new feature is the use of player power-ups. These can be bought in game with in game money (not real money, coins earned through playing the levels although if you have no in-game money, you can use real money to purchase it) and come in three forms. The first is decapitation where you pinch the screen and lop the heads off of zombies; the second is lightning, where you can electrocute chains of zombies by touching the screen and moving your finger to other zombies; the third is throwing where you tap the zombie to lift them up then flick them off screen by brushing your finger away. If all of these power-ups seem too powerful, bear in mind they only last a few seconds and are very expensive, thus limiting players though to be honest, the game isn't impossible to complete without using these power-ups. I never used them once outside of the tutorials. They're also well suited to iOS devices, utilising the touch screens for a more interactive experience. Initially I was wary of the touch screens ruining the gaming experience as I played the first PVZ with a mouse, but having played many hours on my iPad, I can say that touch screen is a better way to experience the game. The way the game works is that you need to collect a certain number of stars to progress to the next stage, where you collect one per level you complete, and then once that stage is done, each level unlocks three sub-levels giving you the chance to earn the required stars to progress further. These sub-levels are actually the best part of the game as they are the most challenging, strategic levels. You can only complete them by achieving certain tasks like spending only a certain number of sunlight, or using only a limited amount of plants, or not spending sunlight for a full minute, and so on. So even if the original levels might seem more straightforward and easy, the unlocked levels really force you to think about what you're doing, devise plans, etc. and make playing the game even more fun. Most players will have a certain plant combo they use for every level but these challenge levels force you to rethink them as no one combo works for everything.
There's so many good things to say about the game the crazy, brilliant new zombies, the new plants not mentioned in this review, the kinds of levels you get (just wait til you get to the Old West levels), and the surprises along the way but I'll leave those for you to discover yourselves. Suffice it to say, PVZ2 rules! The animation and character designs are still absolutely superb and cute, the game is as addictive and entertaining as the first one, and the best part is it's all free! Plants Vs Zombies 2 for my money, or lack of it, is the best game of the year.
Plants Vs Zombies 2 is out now for free download on all iOS devices with dates for Android and other platforms to be announced