Why Plants vs. Zombies 3 is Mechanically Broken (A PVZ 3 Review) 

*Check out my new Discord if you enjoy the content!*: discord.gg/cuXmp5q Hey Y’all! During the filming of this video, the game received an update that ironically like I said in the video made the game slightly more appealing to the eye, so that’s why there are 2 different builds of the game in the video. Also I support the developers and hope they still improve the game! :-) 4/5/20 Update: Hey y’all! Thanks for the overwhelming support on this video, it has helped me understand the audience and quality people like. Also I welcome all of our new subscribers as well, but to the point of this update, I have barely touched the game after this video, maybe 2 times but that was to try to beat a tower level but I’m to low level. I don’t have the motivation to grind out plant seed packets to have a chance. I still stand in all of my opinions in this video. I am currently working on another analysis video and hope that releases soon enough. Take care! 5/11/20: Holy smokes, thank you all for the absolute overwhelming support on this video! This is absolutely crazy to me and I can't believe its all real :). And I want to address some things about the video, and I'll try to keep it brief but it will be still long. So to start with positives, first, I read all of the comments on this video and they are a joy to read. Positive or not, they all make me a better person in the end, now about the negative comments. I am a huge supporter of constructive criticism, as nothing in this world would ever improve without it. And any criticism I have on this video I greatly appreciate, as the flaws in this video as pointed out by some of you guys, I have fixed up and my videos going further are now getting even better :). So thank you. Now I am going to address some issues or sugestions people have with the video. You said "first-person shooters" when GW1 and GW2 and BFN are 3rd person shooters: Yea I can't defend that, just an error of mine, sorry. You should have done more retakes: This is the biggest piece of advice I have taken to heart, as this is another one that I can't quite defend, because yea, it could be better. This was my first video in this style and I put so much time into the editing when I really should have had a healthier balance in the writing and recording side of things, so yea, you guys are right, though watching my new video's you'll know I fixed that :). Have you heard of Eclise?: Yes I have! I am an avid supporter of the project, I have not quite tried it out yet, because of time and personal life, however, due to the overwhelming support of this video and the comments suggesting it, it might become its own video. The reuse of zombies, other games have reused zombies, so how is it lazy in this case: Ah yes, a big debate, I'll try to keep it short. PVZ 3 does not bring enough new ideas to the table to where an absolute overabundance of reused zombies seems very jarring to me. Yea PVZ 2 had Newspaper, Football, and Balloon, but Modern day was a homage to the first game, as proved by the zombies, background, and music. And even PVZ heroes had plenty of original plant and zombies to where the older plants and zombies felt cool and special to be included. But PVZ 3 (especially the zombies) Just have so many reused zombies, and even if they are "new" they are just a re-skin of an imp. Think of the first game where we had such unique zombies like ladder zombie and the basketball zombie, they did not have the basic zombie template and has a unique mechanic while having a unique look. Just because you don't like the art style, does not mean its bad: Uh yeah, your right. I should have made this clear in the video, but just because the art style is bad, does not mean the game is bad. A game at its fundamental core should be fun (Which PVZ 3 fails at by the way) And an art style is simply a layer to the overall package. I am a huge believer that console specs don't matter, it's software. And even though I believe this, I can still judge and rate how the game looks just because it is an aspect of the game. People bash on Mass Effect Andromeda for the poor visuals and lack of expectations, and granite there are a lot of other problems with that game, but how a game looks does affect people's opinion about it. (Sadly in some cases) You can't compare it to clash royale, just because it's similar does not inherently make it bad: Alright, here's the final one for now. As I briefly touched on in the video, PVZ 3 does not have really an identity. It's ok to use ideas from other games, it's encouraged by many to make those ideas bigger and better. But when a quality franchise like Plants Vs. Zombies compile a Hodgepodge of ideas that range from the menus and overall gameplay of Clash Royal, to using a battle pass, to using Angry Birds' 2 very, very similar structure, it just seems very unoriginal. It's ok to be inspired by other things, heck PVZ was inspired by A. Magic the Gathering and B. The tower defense genre. however, in addition to the heavy use of zombie reusing, PVZ 3 does not stand out as a quality unique product. As I said, it melds together into the other mobile games, they are one in the same. People can use the comparison like how Fortnite and Apex are the same, or even Mario and Sonic, both those examples both use the same game-like structure, the difference, however, is that Mario and Sonic have distanced themselves and have become unique properties within the gaming world. Sure, Fortnite and Apex are successful and popular, but does that validate them from being so similar to each other and almost uninspired? Wii Play was both successful and popular, but does that make it any good? No. (except the tank game of course) But success and popularity does not justify that it's ok. Those are the points I wanted to quickly make, you can dissect my words all you want, I tried to make it as brief as possible, but I just wanted to clear up some common comments. I am totally ok if you don't agree with me, everyone has the right to have their own opinion. These are just my counterpoints to some comments people have had. This video is not perfect, however, no video will ever be. . I can't reply to every comment, and I don't want to start an argument or anything. The comments are coming in so fast I can't keep up XD. I just wanted to address most things in one swoop, and if you don't have any problems with the video, then great! Like I said at the end, and earlier in this comment, I want this game to succeed, and would truly be sad if this game tanked and plummeted into obscurity. I want the developers to fix their mistakes, to make a quality product, is that possible at the stage they are in? Who knows. The fundamental goal of a game is to be fun. I just feel as though the mechanics are not interesting enough for me to commit to the game for a long period of time, they feel shallow and lack depth. I once again thank everyone who has watched this video. You are what make this community :).

You know it’s bad when the first game released in 2009 has better graphics than the game released in 2020

EA has literally never heard of the saying "If it isn't broke don't fix it"

I love how the closed captions say “cry” when Dane says “ G R I N D” “So all the player can do is cry”

The real crime is calling groups “clubs” and not “neighborhoods”

"I absolutely hate the old pvz artstyle"- nobody

When EA bought popcap they fired most of the original team including the lead developer, George Fan. Also, the composer for the music in pvz1, Laura Shigihara, wrote the theme for ancient Egypt in pvz2, but after George got fired she quit.

Bet this is gonna be one of those games where the ads are like, "MOM VS DAD"

3:50 Guy : *makes good 2D PvZ 3 concept art* EA : "so you have chosen layoff"

This is genuinely saddening. The original plants vs zombie was like my entire childhood. It was one of my most favorite games of all time and i could play it any day of the week still today. To see a downfall like this is quite heartbreaking and just disappointing. It proves corporates don't give a shit about the people and just are chasing after what is the most profitable without caring about any other individuals.

EA: "Oh look, a game with great game design, original graphics, and wonderful mechanics" EA: "...not anymore!"

“I doubt they’re gonna dramatically change the game to the point of a rework” Well this aged… well? Poorly? I don’t know what that would count as.

pvz 4: get the next plant that dropped in this level for 6.99? pvz 5: get peashooter and sunflower in a bundle for 9.99? 90% saved for getting this instead of getting them separate! pvz 6: get the next world for 49.99? pvz 7: get the next level for 99.99? pvz 8: get the next zombie to spawn for 999.99? pvz 9: ea commits nonexistent and popcap fixes the game and continues updating the shooter games.

Can we all just agree it’s impressive how he did this in Kinemaster

I'm Pretty Sure there are gonna be PvZ 3 Ads Like: 99% OF THE PEOPLE CAN'T BEAT THIS 😱😱😱 *_Shows Gameplay of Lvl 1_*

4:58 Comparing this Gargantuar’s design to the other 2 from PvZ 1 and 2, this one is an abomination in my opinion.

here's the best description for EA: EA: The Ruiner of Games

i literally didn’t know there was third yet and i’m disappointed

PvZ1: The Original everyone love PvZ2: Playable and an upgrade to the original, but a little littered with microtransactions. PvZ3: cloned garbage of garbage

Pop Cap: exists *EA sounds increasing*

I haven't played 3, the first one holds a special part in my heart though.

The sunflowers are gone, so am I.

My eyes are *B U R N I N G* because of how *U G L Y* the new gargantuar design is.

Cries in region exclusive beta test

"I doubt they are going to change the game enough to be a rework" That aged well._. But hey atleast it's better

They killed my girl Sunflower, this is literally unplayable.

I feel like Pop Cap is slowly getting replaced by EA employees. Everything that made the original game special is just slowly getting replaced by soulless and greedy bullshit. Fan-games and mods of the games are just way better.

10:37 I present you the new defensive plant... The matt-nut

Well, if this game eventually comes out, we can go back to the old games and proudly thank Popcap for the masterpiece this serie was

It's evolving, just backwards

Remember, you can't say "Steal" without saing EA.

Can't believe only 2 years ago you still had that KineMaster logo, you improved so much

ALERT ITS BACK AND CHANGED

There is something you didnt notice The generating sun "idea" was just genearing elixir lol

why does this look like one of those game that would have "I CAN'T REACH PINK COLOR!" ads

PvZ 1: Lovely artstyle, good ideas, not too many microtransactions and uhh lovely PvZ 2: A few Microtransactions here and there, animation and artstyle isn't bad and fits the year and uhh it isn't as good as 1 but still good PvZ 3: Kill me

This video ages better the more years pass.

EA: Money grows from trees, and trees are plants, plants vs zombies have plants in it. Therefore it'll give us alot of money.

No joke the moment I saw the footage of PVZ 3 I thought it's one of those "I BEAT YOU CANT BEAT LEVEL 3" ads

6:46 *I think the biggest crime is that gargantuan model*

Finally PvZ3 got new update, now the graphics look actually kinda good but Crazy Dave is literally nightmare fuel

I like how their reason for changing the artstyle is more detail, but PVZ2 has generally better detail and is VASTLY more visually appealing. PVZ3's models are just more stiff compared to the PVZ2 sprites.

This just hurts my heart, I loved PvZ as a franchise, and even bought that "government survival book", comics and all. Yes, it's now leaned towards a children game, but I missed it's darker atmosphere. It was comical, but zombies were trying to eat your brains after all, and the art reflected it. Now it has this overly cartoony art style for some reason. Oh, and the fact that you can't even plant sunflowers is just sad.

Things I want with PvZ 3 1: a good story 2: more characters like crazy Dave 3: the 2d art style 4: a port of the game to consoles like Nintendo and xbox

Wow, if these people didn’t complain we would’ve actually gotten this game. Sucks that we didn’t get it released, the beta was such a blast.

I didn’t even know there even was a PvZ 3, damn its that irrelevant

I liked PvZ2's artstyle, but this is definitely a step in the wrong direction.

It's sad that this 3D version of PvZ 3 was better than what we have now

I have no idea how this specific video managed to hit the algorithm but I’m not complaining since I love this guy’s channel

You got a good point. Nowadays, Popcap is trying to change the formula of the PvZ series (Removing Lawnmowers and making Sunflowers implantable etc) as an attempt to adapt to the Mobile Gaming Trend for example Plant Upgrade System, Gachas (Loot Pinatas), Life Systems (Keys used to play Devour Tower), Arenas (Very common in Mobile Games) and changing the role of Sunflower from making her implantable to a classic Clash Royale elixir system.

I love how a KineMaster Watermarked video has over 1 Million Views

Coming back to this video, at least they reworked it a bit it's back to landscape mode and we now use actual sunflowers rather than generator sun, though the interesting decision is how they made this game more of a puzzle type like Candy Crush you have a brain bar where every time you lose or quit you lose em and it recharges, you can't play once you reach zero and you are given random plants, it's like adventure mode 2 in PVZ1 but instead Dave picks your whole team of plants.

3:30 aged so badly

Most successful RU-vidr that has a kinemaster watermark I’ve seen.

This honestly looks like a weird Chinese knock off

Danerade they didn't change the name of the combination of hat Zombie and the mc zom-B BTW great video.

I wish we lived in a universe where ea never bought popcap or maybe even never existed!

I swear when I saw PvZ3 gameplay I said: "No... This is a bad fan game", when I realized it was really official, I got shocked of how terrible it gotten

“Look at how they massacred my boy” -someone who’s been playing PvZ since kindergarten

The fact you said “this isn’t gonna get to the point of a rework” and there’s been a complete rework

8:45 Damn you can buy college with Micro-transactions

“What made you screw up and ruin a beloved game?” EA: Money

I’m gonna cry, like seriously I have tears in my eyes, this doesn’t even looks like dogshit, IT IS dogshit, this saga is just a corpse from where EA tries to make money

Crazy how they somehow reached bottom, reworked the entire game and then dug deeper

Almost a year later and it’s back! I’m glad popcap listened in this second testing. Now we’re back to normal!

EA: Hey guys remember plants vs zombies 1 had endless hours of fun? Yea let's scratch that

Wanna feel down? There's a timeline where PVZ2 is made by Popcap and not EA.

It’s been 1 year, the game isn’t out but they actually changed EVERYTHING in the game from vertical view to horizontal view from 2d art to 3D art as well, and I’m pretty sure that they changed the entire menu as well, this game looks promising now! The only thing that I saw from the demo that I didnt like is that cherry bomb, jalapeño and the new plant chili pepper (I think? It’s just a cold vertical jalapeño) Are all instant plants that you can only use once as power ups, I would change that you can use those instant plants with your sun count, but for now it actually looks like they are listening to us finally, also sunflower is now a playable plant, so I’m glad they rebutchered the sunflower too

Never played it. Looks like a stereotypical mobile game, not what it used to be.

Long story short: Company’s just want coloured paper that can be used to obtain items.

When you realize that EA fired the original creater of plants vs zombies rip and all because she wasn't ok with EA pay to win sad this happened in pvz 2 sad

8:19 AB2 took it from Duolingo

I just don't understand how this could happen when the first game was so good.

One of the most iconic parts of the original game was the sunflower (it even had an entire song) and they just decided to yeet it out of the third game. Smart ea, smart.

They just need to accept that they can’t beat the original game, they need to stick to those fun basics and add a little more to it

And then, they actually changed

I miss the Facebook pvz, it made me really excited seeing new plants and I thought that it's layout was pretty neat, but hey, I was maybe 7-8 at the time so don't take my word as the absolute

"The zombies come from the left" *ZOMBIES COME FROM THE RIGHT*

Technically, its not a bad game, especially for mobile standards. But pvz standards, its dogshit Imo

"displaying the game in portrait mode allows you to play in one hand" What do you need the other hand for EA?, You sussy Baka.

3:46 New pvz 3: *AHEM what did ya say?*

3:48: look! They didn’t even turn into ash after blowing up! EA has gone too far

When someone uses kienmaster but makes the editing actually good like they’re using a pro editor.

Finally. Someone that blames both EA and pop cap

Gj on the vid! ;) I can't play PvZ 3, but have started 2 recently and it's been fun. The "p2w" stuff hasn't got in the way at all which is nice. The concepts for 3 looked so much better. I don't think I'd like 3 as much as I like 1 and 2.

If I had 1 word of advice to EA “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

Honestly they should've just added like 100 more levels to the original PvZ or something because that honestly sounds like more fun than the off brand Voodoo copy of PvZ that I saw in this video lol

3:45 aged poorly

One of the reasons I like your channel is the amateur nature of it while also having a very meme-y and joke-y editing style that lets us pay attention better

PvZ: Amazing PvZ 2: Pretty good but too many microtransactions PvZ 3: *weird Chinese knock-off*

I feel like instead of the classic “place plants to defend” they went for the “build up your army overtime to eventually try a level you’ll lose anyway so you’ll buy our stuff.” It seems to be less of the original game and more of a “nostalgic” cash grab.

This video is a straightup masterpiece!

I love how this quality content was made on kinemaster😂

This series becomes better and better with every game, just backwards

Plants vs Zombie : *Manga* Plants vs Zombie 2 : *Anime* Plants vs Zombie 3 : *Netflix Adaptation*

DANERADE, THERE IS A NEW BUILD OF PVZ3 AND IT LOOKS INTANTLY 10X BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL

EA: we made it 3D to show the characters in more detail. Me the moment I heard this: wait I thought that's what the garden warfare series was for WTF!

The new garg design made me turn off my computer and cry in the corner for like 30 minutes

Bro sounds like He's speedrunning the script 😂

5:25 "Zombies come from the left." Me: ...