Popcap Game : Plants vs. Zombies™ V1.2.0.1073

Popcap Game : Plants vs. Zombies™ V1.2.0.1073 | 81.7 MB

The Basics

The goal of Plants vs. Zombies is to protect your home from ever more powerful waves of invading zombies by buying and placing various kinds of anti-zombie plants on your lawn.

Plants vs. Zombies takes place on a lawn broken into rows and columns. Just beyond the left edge of the screen is your house, while just beyond the right side of the screen is the street. At the top of the screen is a seed tray that displays your current amount of sun as well as whatever seed packets you have available.

During each level, zombies slowly make their way leftward from the street towards your home. Your job is to resist the zombie attack by collecting sun and using it to buy various defensive plants to place on your lawn. If you destroy all the zombies in a level, you proceed to the next level. If a zombie makes it all the way to the left side of the screen, you lose.

Controls

Plants vs. Zombies is played with a mouse. To pick up sun or coins, click on them. To place a plant, click on the seed pack in the seed tray, then click on the spot on the lawn where you wish to place your plant. If you've clicked a seed pack that you don't want to plant, right-click to put the seed pack back in the seed tray.

After level 1-4 you receive a shovel that allows you to remove plants. To remove a plant, click on the shovel to pick it up, then click on the plant to remove it.

Sun

Sun is the primary resource in Plants vs. Zombies. Virtually all plants in the game are purchased with sun, so managing your sun supply is one of the most important tasks in the game.

In daytime levels, sun occasionally drops in from the sky in 25-sun units. While useful, this natural source of sun is insufficient to mount a serious defense against the zombies. After the first level you are awarded a new seed, the sunflower, which grows 25-sun units of its own. Plant sunflowers (and later, in nighttime levels, sun-shrooms) to generate enough sun to defend your lawn.

Sun units, either falling from the sky or generated by sunflowers and sun-shrooms, fall on the ground and, if unclicked, vanish after a few seconds.

Surplus sun is not carried over from one level to the next.

Plants and Planting

Plants are your warriors against the encroaching force of the zombie wave. There are many different plants with many different abilities. Some plants fire projectiles that damage zombies; some block or slow the zombies' progress; some destroy zombies and themselves in a single instant; and some have entirely different functions.

Plants are planted from the seed tray at the top of the screen. All plants (except puff-shrooms and sea-shrooms) cost some amount of sun to plant. As well, all seed packs take time to recharge. A recharging seed pack is grayed out and gradually brightens as it recharges. When the seed pack is fully recharged it lights up and is ready to be planted again.

As you progress through the game and complete levels, new plants are typically awarded at the end of the level to add to your arsenal. These new plants appear in your seed tray at the top of the screen. After level 1-7 you will have more plants than slots in your seed tray. From then on, before each level, you will be given the opportunity to select which plants you wish to bring with you to defend your lawn.

For a complete listing of all the plants and their abilities, consult the in-game Almanac that appears after level 2-4.

Zombies

Nobody knows exactly what eldritch force or demented science allowed the dead to rise from their graves and walk. What we do know is that the resulting creature, popularly termed a "Zombie," is a restless, mindless, tireless being driven by nothing other than its hunger for brains. Your brains, to be precise.

In order to get those brains, zombies are willing to chew through any plants in their way. Though slow, zombies are persistent, and if even a single zombie gets past your defenses and into your house, he will eat your brains.

A zombie can typically endure some damage before it dies. When its arm drops off it is close to dying. When its head drops off it is dead and can no longer eat your plants, though its body may continue to move and block shots for a moment or two longer.

As with plants, there are many different kinds of zombie. As you progress through the game you will encounter more powerful zombies with protections from and immunities to your various plants. As a result you will be forced to constantly devise new approaches and strategies for your defense. At the beginning of each level your view swings over to show you the various zombies you will face during the level as they mindlessly congregate in the street prior to their attack.

A typical zombie attack starts out slowly, with single zombies at first but gradually increasing in number as the level goes on. The level progress bar in the lower right-hand corner of the screen shows how far through the level you are, with the brain flags on the bar indicating particularly large waves of zombies.

For a complete listing of all the zombies and their abilities, consult the in-game Almanac that appears after level 2-4.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

OS*: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7
Processor: 1.2+GHz
Memory (RAM): 512+MB
Free Hard Drive Space: 65+MB
DirectX Version: 8 or later
Sound: DirectX-compatible
Video: DirectX-compatible; 128+MB
Color Quality: 16-bit or 32-bit color mode (256 colors may not work)
Controls: Keyboard and mouse