What do you think about the Lives system?

[NCroc709]

Angry Birds Under Pigstruction had Lives system that forced you to wait (or pay real-life currencies) when you die several times (randomly selected from 5 to 10?) in a level.
What do you think about the Lives system? You don’t lose a life if you restart before flinging your first bird, but I’m still worried that this system may severely ruin the gameplay and fun of AB2.

Topic

[Anonymous]

I agree with this. Part of AB is perfecting a level to get 3 stars which can take a TON of tries. By the time you run out of lives you may not even have the stars yet. This really does need removed but it’s just another silver mine for Rovio.

[AngryAngers]

Just like you, I don’t like it. At the first levels, the levels are pretty easy so I don’t need to try but started from New Pork City (Chapter 2), levels have to try many times to complete so I can only play the levels in AB2 less than 10 minutes. Then I have to wait. Where’s My Water? 2 has tried to put the energy system into the game but because of these feedbacks, they have to remove it by giving it to Cranky so he can eat it. This system has ruin the Angry birds games. But you don’t have to removed it, Rovio. You just need to add more energy, like Cut the Rope 2.

[Mighty Red]

I don’t really mind the heart system. Besides, if you want hearts without having to wait, you can spend gems, to get gems, you need to either earn them or buy them, by buying gems, you’ll ensure that Rovio keeps going, and by Rovio still going, more games and updates are guaranteed.

[Tinus]

Part of the fun in AB always has been to retry levels over and over to try to improve your highscore. With AB 2, Rovio has ruined this.

So Rovio, please stop with this damned freemium shit. Just give me a game I can buy for a couple of euro’s and let me play. And once in a while, put out a major expansion for an extra euro or 2. But not this. I’m not interested in buying or earning gems, or sharing on frikkin’ Facebook. And I don’t want multiple game strategies, spell cards and whatever. Or random generating the lay-out of a level, who the f*** decided that was a good idea? And what’s the point in keeping Topscore records with a setup like that? Plain old AB was just as it needed to be.

So, I’m guessing Candy Crush Soda will win over AB 2 on my phone for now. And I’ve not spend a penny yet on King games. I’ll gladly pay a little to buy a game, but not keep on spending money to keep playing a game.

[Thorondor]

Yup, have to agree – what kind of logic is it to make people not play your game. Seems self-defeating to me.

[Traneric]

What a f… Is this. Always have to Finishing the Level or lose life if u want to improve score. The Fun is away if u Try to get on the Top Score List. Doesn’t matter for average player but worried for flinger who want to get top score.
Fun is just getting away for me. Don’t want to wait 15min to play again. Already delete the game.

[Anonymous]

Since about 90% of the people playing this game hate the lives system I say we try to get Rovio to remove it. If we bother them enough about it they might do it!

[Kookaburra67]

This system sucks! I looked forward to playing this game and I am tremendously disappointed!! Did Rovio not figure out that the original game was incredibly successful for a reason. I’m not going to pay not to wait, I’m deleting this game now!!!

[MildlyIrateBird]

Deleted AB2 already due to Rovio’s blatant King-copy cash grab.

I will pay upfront for an app, but don’t pstronise me with buying gems, waiting for lives to regenerate and Facebook integration. And as for the random generation of each level, well there goes the repeatability.

What a wasted opportunity by Rovio

[cali_mom]

I am so disappointed in this game. I don’t post complaints very often, but I can’t describe how upset I am with angry birds 2. I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks and this is the pile of garbage we get. The lives system is horrendous. I won’t keep harping on it, but it has to change or for the first time I won’t finish an angry birds game. Rovio has forgotten or forsaken their customers with this game. They want to be candy crush and can’t come up with anything original on their own. How about a monthly subscription to all of your games? Instead of all this freemium crap let me pay a subscription like play station does. I’m just tired of playing games that constantly want you to put money in them like they are a slot machine. And I don’t want my Facebook account associated with my games! People have jobs and employers search your Facebook account now and I don’t need them to see how addicted I am to angry birds!!! There are so many things wrong with AB2. It should just be called Stella 2 / epic 2. It’s pretty much everything I hate about those two games combined into one. After all these rovio stars games and other AB games that are just so different than the original, why couldn’t we get just one game that they hadn’t messed up? I’ve probably spent at least $200 between all of their games and I am now finally done. Sad to see an era come to an end. Guess I will see you all on the daily challenges instead….#disappointed

[oldschool]

It is horrible. My advice is you go to the app evaluation page and give it the minimum score. I also advise you to refuse the add system in which you see adds to get more tries. Much like this topic: https://www.angrybirdsnest.com/forums/topic/video-boycott/

[burbman]

Honestly, I have been playing since the first day of the soft launch, and originally I really did not like the lives system. Since that time, I have learned to play within the system (finish the level, even if it is a lost cause for a high score just to save a life). When I run out of lives (not often) I can always play another game, read a book, go for a walk, (insert real life activity here). Also, I have found the game to be a bit of a battery hog, so keeping playing sessions shorter is not such a bad thing. I did find the game low on the replayability meter, but the addition of the leaderboards here has stirred my competitive nature, and I have found myself revisiting levels where my score was below the average.

[burbman]

Also note, that since I originally downloaded the game on my Canadian iTunes account that does not have a credit card associated with it, I have not spent any money on gems, nor have I even been tempted to.

[Tinus]

Well, I’ve tried patiently finishing the level even if a high score is out of reach. But then you don’t have a retry option, you can only go to the next level. Loading… loading… loading…. ah. Exit to main menu, now select the previous level again. Loading, loading, loading…

Nope, not doing it for me. But there’s always an AB Space, Rio or Star Wars score that can be improved. Since I currently no longer hold any Topscore :-)

And why is this release “upside down”? Now the bottom side of my Galaxy S4 needs to go to the left. So when a chargercable is plugged in, it blocks a good grip for aiming the slingshot. Or is that just on my phone?

[burbman]

@tinus – The game auto-rotates on my phone, so up is up whichever way I might be holding it. Probably a device option rather than something within the app itself.

[Tinus]

I have auto-rotation disabled and this is the first time AB rotates “the wrong way”. Maybe I’ll see if the auto-rotation works, but I’m guessing AB2 probably won’t last enough on my phone ;-)

Hmmm, now it turned the right way. Maybe it depends how I hold the phone when starting the game…

[Triggerfish]

I find the lives system very frustrating. I would much rather pay for the game and then have unlimited access to it. I find that, just when I’m getting To grips with a level, I run out of lives. The next time I come to play the level, I’ve forgotten what I need to do and start from scratch again. Very annoying. I have no intention of wasting money on gems.

[burungberang]

Lots of negative user reviews about the lives system here in this thread. Not surprising. Rovio please look here and find ways to work things out. But I can understand Rovio, this IAP thing must have been a very hard decision to make. Everyone makes difficult decisions that eventually cannot satisfy everyone. As for us fans it’s time to find constructive solutions.

For core gamers: A premium edition of the game, or an IAP to remove the lives system as in Cut the Rope 2. Make it clear to Rovio that premium is still relevant in the freemium era!

For everyone else: A more generous energy system with 10 lives (one regenerated each 15 mins) to fit AB’s gameplay style, and unlimited play on weekends like Candy Crush (albeit with Candy Crush it’s obtained with buying IAP).

Also cut down the gem prices of spells and offer spell bundles!

As for ads, I dunno what to say. I used to hate ads because I used a bog standard tablet. Now I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime and I am OK with playing ads to gain gems and extras. In fact I’m interested to see if view-to-play can actually succeed the freemium model after knowing about Futureplay Games, founded by former Rovio head of games.

[Tinus]

I just read a review about the game. They made it very clear that the whole setup of AB2 with the lives system, the 2 games per level, the random generating of the level layout, the free use of given birds from the start, spell cards and the earning extra lives/birds is to make everything as unpredictable as possible. So there basically is no way of learning and improving by doing it over and over and over again. AB2 is nothing more but a way to keep on pushing you to spend money. Over and over and over and over again.

I for one could never figure out why King made/makes millions of dollars day after day after day with Candy Crush, but I highly doubt that AB2’s game style/type will have the same effect for Rovio. The old addiction that AB carried is nowhere to be found in AB2, so there is no satisfaction in playing AB2 and therefore no need to spend money.

Remember Nokia, Rovio?

[Philsey]

I have been holding off on purchasing AB2 since I suspected that it was going to be like Stella, a pay to play format. This forum thread confirms my suspicions. I think I’m going to pass. I never purchased AB Epic for the same reason. I’d rather spend more on the app purchase, say $10, $15 or even $20 and then not have to spend another dime on IAP and still be competitive. See you all on the “real” AB leaderboards…

[burungberang]

Then again… one plus side about buying gems and playing ads to gain more cards is that 3-stars is virtually guaranteed. You fling more and more birds, destroy more stuff, pop more pigs, and all that adds up to the score going way past the 3-star threshold. Trust me, I passed the hellish Lvl 30 with three stars and went on to breeze through 20 more levels and get all three stars each and unlock all seven birds.

Yet my aforementioned suggestions stand. Rovio should better listen and implement all the necessary tweaks before AB2 gets registered into Metacritic. I’ve read some reviews and there are a number of missed chances to perfect-score.

[angrykink]

same here, I rarely complain but this will be the first AB games I wont be keeping.
Loved all of them except stella, but I ve been stuck for 2 days on level 30 and cant be bothered with the waiting for lives.
Bad choice of strategy rovio in my humble opinion

[dav001]

I hate the lifes system. imo its very unfair. my max lives is 3 while my friend is 5. I started before him and im now far behind him in levels. We used to play ab alot and challenge each other in levels to see who could get the farthest. In ab2 it just restricts getting far and new strategys.

[Becky Thompson]

I don’t like it and am deleting AB2 from my device. My favorite part of AB is that I get to try alternate solutions to the puzzles.

[Zakrza]

I agree. I hate this system.