Vida Rock 2 Facebook Game Review

It doesn’t have the intricate details of a game like Rock Band where the great accuracy and musicality with which you play is rewarded. Unfortunately, to my slight disappointment, the quality of your playing is not tracked because you don’t actually get to “play” your instrument in Vida Rock 2.  But there are still many other interesting aspects of Vida Rock 2, and adding on a challenging play-your-instrument game may have added too many layers to this story-based game.

Your trusty bandmate shows you the ropes – like how to go shopping for new clothes, how to create a new song, and how to play a gig through your agent. After he takes you through the basics of practicing once and playing one gig, you are assigned a series of “quests” you must complete, from performing a certain number of gigs to getting your songs to a certain level. One of the issues with these “quests” however is that you are not told how to achieve most quests. For example, when asked to “have three level-two songs,” I didn’t know how I achieved a level-two song at all.

You start with one agent, a comically absent-minded partier-type who is rarely available and can get you a fairly limited number of gigs – he’s not much, even though he’s a start. As you build currency, you can buy new agents, and believe me, they’re worth it. All agents have different waiting periods, so you can only contact them at certain times. With some agents, they’re available only once an hour (yes, I’m talking to you, party man) but some agents open their schedule for you every couple minutes.

The more, the merrier!

In fact, that’s the goal with everything in Vida Rock 2 – more, more more! More songs, more gigs, more clothes to choose from – because after all, isn’t that what being a rock star is all about?

There are so many options with Vida Rock 2 that your goal is not as clear, since you’re not just progressing from one puzzle stage to another.

You could choose to stay at home and make changes to your room, or to practice, or to go to a gig. Sometimes your options will be limited because all of your agents will be busy and you will be low on funds, but when it rains it pours, and sometimes you will have many quests to complete and both your agents will be calling you to come play a gig. But don’t worry too much about that – you don’t lose points for not flocking to your agents immediately when they’re available.

In fact, once your agent becomes idle, they will stay idle until you go to their office. This is good because unfortunately it takes players a very long time to create songs, gain experience, level up and unlock all of the different elements that are needed to play a concert.

Like many Facebook games, you have energy which depletes and then recharges after some time. It depletes every time when you complete a task, like practicing, going shopping or playing a gig. The great thing is that while you start with only ten energy credits (recharging at one credit every eight minutes), as you gain experience, your maximum energy increases – after playing for only an hour, I had a maximum of 16 energy credits.

The biggest bonus of all is that when your maximum energy increases, you automatically refill! You can go from no credits to fifteen credits instantly that way – so that’s why it’s important to focus on your experience points and levelling up.

• So what’s the best way to build experience and level up? Well, it’s not unlike real life music skills – practice makes perfect! Using the “practice” option brings about one of the most fun components of the game, though it doesn’t last nearly long enough – although the more experience you gain, the longer your practice lasts and the more of a (fun) challenge it becomes.
• During practice, instead of having to match a pop song note for note, you have to chase after floating skill points and floating pieces of soft currency. Once you’re more experienced you can also chase after experience points too – but you also have to watch out for floating X’s too, which can your whole practice and cut you off.
• The soft currency is great for refurbishing your dilapidated rock star pad or reinventing your wardrobe. Premium currency comes in “cubes,” which you can earn without paying simply by progressing along in the story – you will gain cubes from your gigs every now and then.
• Another thing you can buy with your own money is song spheres, which help you write your own songs (sadly, you just pick a title and genre – no fun song-creator screen!). Your own original songs are required for many gigs. Unfortunately, your manager also controls the rights to those songs, and you sometimes have to wait up to an hour at a time to be allowed to play your song.
• As is true with real rises to fame as well, you can usually bypass the hard things by dropping a little cash – some cash will get you better clothes (which isn’t just an aesthetic thing, it helps increase your charisma points with every gig), it will free up your agent, and it will let you control your songs more. It depends on whether or not you think it’s worth it.
• Vida Rock 2 is a great game to pass the time and very fun during gameplay, but it lacks anything truly compelling to make you keep wanting to come back.
• However, if you really do want to see yourself rise to fame as a glamorous rock star, you may find it worth it to spend a few credits on cubes and song spheres.