OPINION | A Brief Exploration of the Plants vs. Zombies Series: its Faults, and its Successes

Photo Credit: Plants vs. Zombies

As a self-proclaimed enthusiast of mobile games, nothing speaks more dearly to me than the world of Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ), arguably the most successful mobile-centered game franchise to come out of the 2010s.

With the ongoing beta testing for PvZ 3 still under works (yes, they’re making a third one), I’ve noticed the… less than than optimal game design decisions being made so far. I think this is a good time to do some review on how this franchise came into success, the development of some of the games not many people even know exist, and how it’s progressed since then. One, because I’m annoying, and two, because game developers always need to be criticized by random 16-year-old girls who have never touched Unity in their lives. I will summarize the entire PvZ series, and my opinion on where it fell short both from an internal and gameplay perspective.

Plants vs. Zombies 1

Where it all started! Released officially on May 5, 2009 on both PC and mobile, PvZ was the pinnacle of childhood for those all across the globe. A simple tower-defense style game with cute graphics and quirky challenges, it worked well at providing both non-committal entertainment for the general audience and an experience of challenges hardcore fans could dedicate themselves to.

The success of the first game was obvious, and according to PopCap, the company behind the franchise, the game sold 300,000 copies on iOS nine days after its release, generating over a million dollars in revenue. 

The appeal of the game was in its accessibility; after its initial release the company adapted the game into every console and device on the planet. This model was a huge reason the success of the game skyrocketed, because if you had a screen, you could play it. 

It seemed only success was in the works for the series, and as one does when their product is booming, the PvZ universe looked to expand to further horizons. Just over two years after its initial release, PopCap was bought out by Electronic Arts (EA) for $650 million cash, $100 million in stock with the company, and an undisclosed multi-year earn out bonus. This deal is where, in my opinion, the problems in the franchise would begin, but we’ll get into that later. 

Plants vs. Zombies Adventures

This was a bit of a weird one. Coming shortly after PopCap and EA’s collaboration over the series, I can only assume this was a test into the waters of new gameplay relative to what the series was known for. Admittedly this is the only game in this lineup I haven’t played myself, because it was only available on Facebook, and also because it stopped operating in 2014 when I was 7 years old. So. Yeah.

But from what I can salvage from gameplay clips of PvZA on YouTube, it was alright. It was like the Homescapes of the PvZ series, with different game modes where you expanded the fictional town of Neighbourville into zombie-less prosperity. This concept would later be adapted to beta tests for PvZ 3, but that game will be covered later.

Plants vs. Zombies 2

This game is really the main reason behind the writing of this piece. Because I hate it (not really). With a newly developed art style, and new set of levels, PvZ 2 was the the first major installment of the series since EAs involvement with the franchise.

Although the gameplay didn’t differ that much from its predecessor, there were two very major issues with the game right off the bat. Firstly, EA completely abandoned the accessibility model set up by PopCap, leaving the release of the game exclusive to mobile downloads even to this day, ten years after its release.

One of the main reasons for the first game’s original success was dependent on the fact that it was an extremely easy application to get your hands on, and so no matter what device you had, you could play it! Abandoning it just meant lost streams of possible revenue, which led to EA’s eventual ‘solution’. 

This ended up just causing the second issue with the game itself: the difficulty threshold noticeably increased exponentially from the first game to the second. While some might argue that this was just a result of creating a harder challenge for the sequel, the majority of the reason was to help promote PvZ 2’s new pay to win system. 

In an interview from 2013 with Game Informer, senior producer Allen Murray said that “many zombies and plants [from the first game] never made the cut for the launch, but that doesn't mean they won't return in some way or another in later worlds.” 

While an initially promising statement, this was the unfortunate foreshadowing for the introduction of pay-to-win gimmicks in the PvZ universe. The format of the game eventually got to the point where you had to buy the power ups or special edition plants in the shop, with real world currency, in order to make a dent in the insanely hard levels the game introduced.

Refusing to invest in the expansion of the game to different console formats and relying on the consumer’s need to purchase in-game power ups was a complete money-hungry move on EA’s part. Players knew that from the very beginning. EA took a game that could have been great, and put a giant credit card scanner on the front.

Garden Warfare (1 and 2)

Okay, admittedly this game was pretty good. Both of them, actually. And I suck at first-person shooters. This game took everything wrong with in-game currency in PvZ 2 and did it well! Adapting a format we’ve seen from games in previous years, the in-game currency in Garden Warfare just acted as a tool to speed up getting skins and perks you could get from playing the game normally. There was no dependence on real-world money, but instead the addition of reasonable perks that didn’t give an insane advantage to those who were unwilling to spend money on digital sprites. 

Plants vs. Zombies Heroes

Plants vs. Zombies Heroes (PvZH) is, to put it kindly, definitely a game that was released. As to why, that can be answered with three simple words: a cash grab. After being released globally (not including China) in October 2016, the format of the initial release followed PvZ 2’s very closely. Only mobile, seemingly no intentions of expanding beyond it after, and most importantly, real world currency being the only way to succeed in the game.

To EA’s credit though, the setup of PvZH in particular was always destined to come to pay-to-win. With its card style format (similar to Hearthstone), the optimal way to play the game is buying the best cards with real money and destroying everyone else in your path. So while it sucks, it’s not the first of its kind to exist, and definitely will not be the last.

Plants vs. Zombies 3 (so far)

PvZ 3 will be the third and hopefully final installment of the PvZ tower-defense style game series, and so far its development has been ill received by alpha and beta testers. While I think it’s redundant to try and criticize a game which is still in early development (despite the fact that there have been three separate beta releases over the past three years), I will say that trying to revitalize a series that has pretty much boiled down its’ audience to a niche group of superfans is probably not the best idea. 

The latest beta test in 2022 went down like a very lukewarm bowl of soup. Too many short filler levels, lack of cohesiveness in the general story, and lack of interesting gameplay mechanics has really just left the game… boring. Obviously EA still has lots of time to retweak these aspects, and I’m sure they are, but the interest in the game has only been fading, and will only continue to as they delay the official release in lieu of half-baked betas. 

All in all, the life of PvZ as a franchise started out as a really simple and effective form of entertainment, but has slowly devolved into a set of monetary prioritizing games with little to no creative direction to make up for it in the gameplay. I really hope that PvZ is able to rejuvenate its reputation with the third game in the main series, but only time will tell.