Angry Birds 2 Review: The Candy Crush Effect

The game responsible for getting the masses into mobile gaming, Angry Birds, has finally got its much awaited sequel. But can this one live up to the legacy of the series?

What is it?

In a lot of things, Angry Birds 2 is more like Angry Birds meets Candy Crush, or so it seems. There are no seasons in this game, only the usual birds hell-bent on getting sweet revenge from those egg-stealing pigs.

 Angry Birds 2 goes heavily into the freemium model by giving you just five lives to play with. Once exhausted, you have to wait 30 minutes for a single refill. Even level restarts now cost a life. Every level has two challenges to clear and when you reattempt a level, the pigs' forts appear in different order.

You get three cards consisting of your flock of birds to get even with the pigs. Since there is no way to refill birds in between a level, it is imperative that you choose which bird you want to go with very strategically.

 Angry Birds 2 boosts up the overall production values. For instance, when you miss hitting the pigs, they sneer at your attempt. If you are out of cards for a particular level, then you can either watch an advertisement to get an extra card or buy some using gems. Yeah, more on these gems in a bit.

There is also a destruction meter, which fills based on the mayhem you cause in each level. If you are able to fill the destruction meter within the level, then you get a bonus card.

After every four levels you get to encounter the "King Pig" - boss fights that re a little more skill and tact.

 Getting back to the gems, you're rewarded with those every 24 hours, along with bonus cards. Also, there are a set of daily tasks in Angry Birds 2, which you can complete to grab extra gems. Of course there's always in-app purchases as well.

In comparison to some of the recent iterations of Angry Birds such as Angry Birds Star Wars or Angry Birds Transformers, the levels of Angry Birds 2 are quite easy.

 At the level 25, you unlock the "Arena", where you can play the game as an endless series of stages. The objective here is to get in a high score and see how you stand vis-a-vis your friends. You can log on to Facebook to see who all are already playing the game and compete with them on overall score.

Just like Candy Crush, you can also send and receive gifts from your friends. From whatever gifts that I have been able to unlock so far, we can only gift cards and gems to your friends but alas no lives!

The Pros

· The graphics and new gameplay

· The boss fights

The Cons

· The concept of lives, reminds us so much of Candy Crush

Verdict

The Angry Birds 2 is every bit fun and cute as the earlier iteration. The game plays and graphics have been improved in this one, but more than that, Rovio has shamelessly tried to push in-app sales. It's every bit as addictive as the earlier iterations of Angry Birds, but I am not very convinced with the idea of going with lives for Angry Birds. Also, and the 30 minutes of wait period sometimes kills the fun of it.