Analysis of Angry Birds 2: and how much have changed

vegueta18
mayo 6, 2016
0
Analysis, Device, News, Review, Technology, Video Games

They were not pioneers when it came to playing on mobile, in fact there were even consecrated sagas that made the leap even before them (It comes to mind Assassin’s Creed when the games were announced on the pages of the magazines and downloaded by SMS) , but despite this when you think about the explosion of this industry, that of smartphone games, Angry Birds is the first thing that comes to mind.

Alongside them was born a new audience for the video game sector, those who did not approach the games and then ended up hooked on the rise of the freemium by other avenues. Let’s say that, with its pluses and minuses, those of us who play from the phone every day owe something to Rovio, there’s something more than just carote dying for his Angry Birds in a relationship that now, with the arrival of Angry Birds 2, is as opposite as it is close.

A sequel that’s no such thing

Gone is the model of two applications in the AppStore, one free and limited as a demo and the complete one, which could have you not a few afternoons hooked to the idea of throwing birds against wooden structures using mechanics that they had not invented, but they had managed to make their own.

Now, with Angry Birds 2 adding up the insane numbers to which your company is used (one million downloads for the first 12 hours), the system is close enough that coming back to it doesn’t require convoluted tutorials, but it has that touch that the fashion of the free with micropayments and advertising as a pillar for its financing has become almost essential for any company.

It is difficult that this business model has just entered us through the eyes, mainly because the use (and abuse) of the system has forced us to stand before it with more caution than affection for being able to access more games for less money. That each company has taken enough liberties to make the freemium model completely different from one game to another also does not help, but being I have little fan of such proposals, I must admit that Angry Birds 2 is particularly good.

To want to take money through gems and recharge lives owes Angry Birds 2 all its ambition, because otherwise, if we do not seek to stay hooked as long as possible, the number of levels of this version would not go beyond the 60 to those that we were accustomed to first editions. The reality, on the other hand, is quite different, reaching 240 and adding, in addition, different sections within each of the levels, reaching even four different structures on the same screen.

-Rovio did not invent the mechanics of Angry Birds, but they did make them look like theirs-

Free-to-play, but those that don’t bother

The five lives that represent the least appreciated part of this system fail to overshadow this positive tonic, and that is where Rovio’s designers must be credited. The key is the possibility to overcome the game from end to end without having to spend a single life.

Let’s say that, unlike other proposals, the five hearts that accompany us during the game do not diminish when entering each level, only when it is time to restart it because we have not been able to overcome it with the available birds. Only in advanced levels, and I speak of the second world onwards, things can get uphill and force us to park the game until the 20 minutes of rigor allow us to return to it.

The head when always trying to attack with the same strategy, lack of skill or unluckyness in trying to destroy as many obstacles as possible to win a new point-based bird, are our great enemies, but it doesn’t seem to be by far focused on teasing the player into getting stuck or forcing them to pass through the spell shop (special powers that will make things a little easier with shell showers or self-immolating pigs).

In the trap of micropayments will fall those of always, cravings or those especially accustomed to compulsive shopping, but in-game advertising in the form of videos to get a heart or a bird more seem more than enough for rovio earn game revenue without being especially Machiavellians by marking their difficulty.

-Angry Birds 2 aims to live on updates rather than based on releasing new sequels-

A good reason to fall again

The renewed graphic aspect, with a cel shading style that suits you better as the games progress and you forget the change of scarm of the first encounter, and a sand mode close the round of novelties of a title that aims to live from the updates instead of you to resort to new deliveries to avoid expiration.

Especially juicy I found that last one, that chasing the most hardcore face of the Angry Birds scorecards, it proposes to face an infinite way in which to add as many points as possible before we are without birds because we have finished our luck or skill.

Despite the goodness and the good taste of the mouth, it is also welcome to recognize that the formula carries a exhaustion behind its back that can cause more than one to tiptoe through it. It is no less true that, because of its freemium playing condition, the fact that we are going back to it when we have a dead time does not bother at all and it is tremendously enjoyable, so at this point, as usual, what we have left is a matter of tastes. Personally, I’ve been convinced.