But Angry Birds 2 generates each stage procedurally - if you restart it five different times, you’ll see five different stage layouts, five different pig placements, and even five different types of birds at your disposal. Getting three stars on a level always required a careful examination of each meticulously crafted stage, and using each bird in just the right way. Angry Birds’ secret has always been the deeper puzzle roots behind the casual “fling the birds and pray you hit a weak spot” experience on the surface. Unfortunately, because of a poorly conceived change to level design, even with that hypothetical payment option in place, Angry Birds 2 still comes up short when compared to the franchise’s amazing high points. Its pacing would benefit immensely from a $1 to $5 “buy the whole game and play as much as you want” option.

It’s understandable that Rovio’s years-long generosity might no longer be paying the bills, but preventing us from playing for hours at a time simply makes Angry Birds 2 less fun - period.

Angry Birds 2 swings wildly in the other direction, moving to a fairly aggressive freemium payment model: once you’ve spent your five lives, you must either wait for 30 minutes for each life to regenerate, watch an advertisement to gain a life, or pay premium currency (slowly earned or purchased for around $0.50) for a life refill. Buy the original Angry Birds once for $0.99, and you receive hundreds of free levels for years to come. The Angry Birds empire was built on almost ludicrously generous long-term support. Rovio's first mistake was changing how and when we're allowed to play.

Download angry birds 2 game