Amidst allegations of AI art and complaints about the music, Plants vs. Zombies fans are not happy with the remaster

The Plants vs. Zombies remaster arrived earlier this week, and PC Gamer's resident green thumb warrior Chris Livingston was quite taken by it, predicting that he's likely to sink another hundred hours or so into it on his Steam Deck. The reception is much less warm on Steam, though, where fewer than half of the current user reviews are positive.

Complaints about Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted are many and varied. Three leap out as particularly common—the lack of dynamic music (which the original game had), no online multiplayer, and allegations (unsubstantiated, as far as I know) of AI-generated or upscaled art assets—and as usual, words like "lazy" and "cash grab" abound. More generally (and thoughtfully), though, there's just a broad sense of dissatisfaction with the remaster's attention to detail.

The reaction reflects the risk of remastering a much-loved game like Plants vs. Zombies—and, for those who weren't hip to the scene 16 years ago, PvZ is much loved. It was a genuine sensation when it dropped in 2009, and probably the number-one reason EA bought the high-flying PopCap in 2011 for $750 million, after which it did what it does by laying off a bunch of people, turning the studio to microtransaction-heavy free-to-play games, and just generally alienating a lot of the fans who made PopCap such a runaway success in the first place. We still don't have Plants vs. Zombies 2 on PC, not that I'm bitter about it or anything.

Anyway, the point is that people liked PvZ an awful lot. I thought I was a fan of the game but real fans notice things like "plants are wrong sizes within seed packets" and "cactus is missing the flower stems" in this edition—valid, sure, but not something I'd see as deal-breakers. Plenty of PvZ aficionados clearly see things very differently.

But while some of these complaints are probably only going to matter to die-hard fans (ie, not Chris or me), there is another issue that applies more broadly: The price. Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is $20 on Steam, which I think is quite fair for a game of this caliber, but the Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition is still available too, and it's just $5—and has previously been on sale for as low as $1. Does the new version bring enough to the table to justify the difference?

Lots of people don't seem to think so, and I can dig where they're coming from. I played the Replanted Edition earlier today and the genius of it all immediately came flooding back: Plants vs. Zombies is such a good game, and this updated version looks great. But then I fired up the GOTY edition, and the difference was not nearly as pronounced as I expected. The gameplay is identical, and honestly it looks better than I thought it would: More pixellated than the remaster, of course, but the 4:3 aspect ratio of the older game delivers a more zoomed-in view of the action that in many ways makes it easier to appreciate all the comedic detail.

Chris caught some comparison shots—this is the Game of the Year edition:

And this is the remaster:

End of the day, I still think Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is the way to go if you're specifically looking to get it on your Steam Deck: Along with the 16:9 aspect ratio, Chris says the updated game runs smoother on the Deck. For playing on PC, though, it's tougher to recommend: 20 bucks is a very fair price for PvZ, as I said, but when you can also get PvZ for $5, or less if you wait, well, that does complicate things. Satan Claus' user review on Steam cuts to the heart of it: "The gameplay loop still works because the original design was so strong, but this version adds nothing that warrants a remake, and arguably takes away more than it gives." That may not matter much if you're a newcomer to the game, but it's easy to understand why long-term fans aren't happy with how it's worked out.