Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare review round-up

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare takes the idea behind PopCap's immensely popular tower defense franchise and turns the concept into a third-person shooter, but were they successful? Here's a quick summary of what different critics are saying from around the web:

USGamer

5 out of 5 stars

"From a myriad of humorous graphical details to its ridiculous, yet creative weapons and characters, everything about the game feels good-natured and fun. The end result is a thoroughly entertaining, super-competitive, high body count FPS that also manages to be accessible, fun, and easy enough to play so that it can be enjoyed by players of all skill levels. Brilliant stuff."

IGN

7.8 out of 10

"Garden Warfare respects its roots by preserving its characters and their humor and skillfully adapting their charm to a third-person shooter. A few clever twists on the standard modes give the action some fresh personality, and the co-op survival mode is a fun homage to the original games. Plus the solid controls, fun modes, and varied map design make it a good shooter to boot."

GamesRadar

3.5 out of 5 stars

"There's nothing groundbreaking about Garden Warfare, but beneath the absurd premise there's a clever, polished shooter with heart--even if it's held back by balance issues and a lack of maps. Whether you have a dozen friends you want to play Gardens & Graveyards with or a small group to grind booster packs in Garden Ops, there's a lot to like in Popcap's first shooter. Wow, I really didn't expect to ever write 'Popcap's first shooter' in a review."

GameSpot

7 out of 10

The good:

• Pleasantly lighthearted tone and colorful, appealing environments
• Good assortment of well-balanced class abilities
• Gardens & Graveyards game type fosters fun, hotly contested battles

The bad:

• A bit insubstantial for a $40 game
• Process for unlocking class variants is frustratingly random

VentureBeat

68 out of 100

"It’s apparent that a lot of effort went into updating the PvZ characters for this 3D makeover, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the same series you know and love. Playing Garden Warfare doesn’t feel like tending to a lush, lethal garden — it feels like Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty, or any other squad-based shooter.

"The patient build-up of plant defenses is almost entirely absent, and the zombies act just like competent human soldiers. Although Garden Warfare has some charm, most of it is borrowed from the original games. If this was the first Plants vs. Zombies game in the series, I doubt there’d be much demand for a sequel."

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is out now on Xbox One and Xbox 360, and the game is set to come to PC on June 30. For an even more in-depth run down of reviews, head over to Metacritic.com.