Review Insights · App Store
Virtual Families 2 Dream House
LDW Software, LLC · 21,599 ratings · ★ 4.4
4.4
★★★★★
21,599 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 33 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
20 negative reviews mention this · 61% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be better. Game is ruined by obtrusive ads. Ruined actually." - Melissasplace
2
"every"
8 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So many ads!!. The ads have seriously gotten out of control. Every time I put down furniture or groceries it prompts an ad. At least give people an option to buy out of them. 🙄" - Spa apps! ❤️
3
"everything"
8 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "😭 why?!!!. I love this game… but- my little brother deleted it and it restarted everything, 8 months spent on that game, then… POOF! Gone, like the wind, I cured for hours hoping it would change, but it didn’t, so I’m trying virtual family’s 3, it’s n…" - Podcast 12-
4
"been"
7 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "way more random ads than there used to be. ive been playing this game since i was like 8 and i recently got it again i get a lot of ads just randomly. it never used to be that bad" - faggöt_00000000
5
"money"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads are ridiculous. This would be such a fun and nostalgic way to pass the time if the ads didn’t make me want to throw up ❤️ get rid of them, it’s not like you’re making any money anyways!" - svansnananansns
6
"second"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "ADS. I loved this game until you get past the second generation. After this point, I started getting a ridiculous amount of ads to the point where the game is unplayable. Every time you make a move an ad automatically pops up. WASTE OF TIME. The…" - Chelllllll84919
7
"years"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Too many ads. I’ve always loved this game. I downloaded it again after several years. Everything was fine until i made an in app purchase. Since then, i have not been able to do anything in the game as everything prompts ads. The ads are neverending. You…" - ekerina717
8
"ridiculous"
4 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads are ridiculous. This would be such a fun and nostalgic way to pass the time if the ads didn’t make me want to throw up ❤️ get rid of them, it’s not like you’re making any money anyways!" - svansnananansns
9
"love"
4 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "😭 why?!!!. I love this game… but- my little brother deleted it and it restarted everything, 8 months spent on that game, then… POOF! Gone, like the wind, I cured for hours hoping it would change, but it didn’t, so I’m trying virtual family’s 3, it’s n…" - Podcast 12-
10
"deleted"
4 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "😭 why?!!!. I love this game… but- my little brother deleted it and it restarted everything, 8 months spent on that game, then… POOF! Gone, like the wind, I cured for hours hoping it would change, but it didn’t, so I’m trying virtual family’s 3, it’s n…" - Podcast 12-
11
"virtual"
4 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "😭 why?!!!. I love this game… but- my little brother deleted it and it restarted everything, 8 months spent on that game, then… POOF! Gone, like the wind, I cured for hours hoping it would change, but it didn’t, so I’m trying virtual family’s 3, it’s n…" - Podcast 12-
12
"family"
4 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "😭 why?!!!. I love this game… but- my little brother deleted it and it restarted everything, 8 months spent on that game, then… POOF! Gone, like the wind, I cured for hours hoping it would change, but it didn’t, so I’m trying virtual family’s 3, it’s n…" - Podcast 12-
📋 All 33 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Ads are ridiculous
This would be such a fun and nostalgic way to pass the time if the ads didn’t make me want to throw up ❤️ get rid of them, it’s not like you’re making any money anyways!
Used to be better
Game is ruined by obtrusive ads. Ruined actually.
So many ads!!
The ads have seriously gotten out of control. Every time I put down furniture or groceries it prompts an ad. At least give people an option to buy out of them. 🙄
Used to be good
Used to love this game, made a purchase to get rid of the ads, and I still get a ridiculous amount of forced ads. Support was zero help.
constant ads
i’ve been playing this game since elementary school at least, i’m 19 now and i’m so excited to renovate my house finally. but all of a sudden recently, anything you place or touch loads up an ad. it’s incessantly annoying.
Too many ads
I’ve always loved this game. I downloaded it again after several years. Everything was fine until i made an in app purchase. Since then, i have not been able to do anything in the game as everything prompts ads. The ads are neverending. You click something, an ad immediately starts playing. So frustrating. Have to delete. Rating 1 star for this. Get rid of the ads!!
Too many ads!
Too many ads to the point its unplayable. Every grocery bag you sit down - ad! every upgrade you get, ad! No option to remove ads either.
Too MANY Ads
You get an ad when you open the game, when you place an item in the game or remove a piece of furniture, and even in the most insensitive moments like when a character dies. Defeats the point of the 100 coin incentive.
Money hungry
They used to be a good franchise back with vf1 but after vf2 they became money hungry pay to play games. virtual families 1 is the only and last game that didn’t have pay to play you paid a one time fee and everything including content only cost in-game currency such a shame they took the EA route and became so greedy. they still could have made plenty of money if they kept it at one paid transaction instead of becoming a microtransactions greedy game franchise
Even on steam you pay for vf2 and still have microtransactions when that should be illegal after one payment that’s a different level of greed.
Even on steam you pay for vf2 and still have microtransactions when that should be illegal after one payment that’s a different level of greed.
AD EVERY SECOND!!
There is literally an ad everytime i tap a singular button this is ridiculous. the game isn’t even playable at this point! you literally can’t touch anything without an ad popping up!! This game used to be so fun and now it’s ruined by these ads.
TO MANY ADS NOW!
I’ve loved this game for over what 7 years ?? and all of a sudden i feel like it’s nothing but ads DISAPPOINTING !
need to update for new phones
it’s difficult to play on newer phones:( my notch is in the way of inventory, i can’t see how much money i have, and my bar is in the way of store/decor
My profile got deleted
My profile I had worked on for years got deleted
Ads Pop Up Any Time Try To Decorate
FIX THIS GLITCH! No matter how much money you spend, ads will pop up every other second when trying to decorate or sometimes not even trying to decorate. Most of the ads don’t come with an exit option, even when they’ve completed, so you have to exit out of the app and restart. Hugely embarrassing this hasn’t been fixed yet.
Ads. Ads. Ads.
This is getting to be unbearable. Of people have paid for coins, permanent upgrades, why are we still being inundated with ads? Not only that, the UI is terrible, we can’t even see everything on the screen (I have a larger phone). Every single time I use this app, an ad shortly follows if I open the menu. Or if I switch between two different applications. Or if I attempt to scroll between all my decoration items. The ads are egregious. Plus! I’m being consistently bombarded with ‘Leave us a review!’ Prompts. So now you have it. 1 star. Because the ads are terrible and the UI is outdated.
Doesn’t work 💔
I tried to open the app it doesn’t open at all. I deleted and reinstalled same thing.
I HATEEE THIS GAME
I worked so hard I had like 50 generations I got off the game and got back on and I lost everything it said your family has been lost then made me try to adopt someone.
Noooooooooooooooo
Why is it so difficult!??
Cheap, stingy, dirty and gross xD
I used to love this game. I downloaded it for the nostalgia not too long ago and was very disappointed. The game is still the same game, yes. I love its charms and quirks. However, it has some updates - get ready everybody! Did they optimize the UI and display to fit the screen orientation of newer phones? Nope! You won’t be able to view half of your inventory if you use an iPhone with that big black thing on the top of your screen with your front camera on it. Did they add new items or features? Not that I can tell! But wait - did they make sure to add advertisements that pop up on your screen the second the game loads, and also when you spend a certain amount of time on the app? Why YES, of course! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU LDW Software, I’m so glad whoever developed this game originally sold the game to you, you had so many bright sparkling ideas for improvements. Enjoy your $0.50 or whatever from the 6 ads you managed to squeeze out of me before I got too mad, I’ll just find a way to pirate this on my laptop.
😭 why?!!!
I love this game… but- my little brother deleted it and it restarted everything, 8 months spent on that game, then… POOF! Gone, like the wind, I cured for hours hoping it would change, but it didn’t, so I’m trying virtual family’s 3, it’s not bad… it’s just different, uh, whoever created that game, I hope ypur happy,
DELETED ALL MY PROGRESS
I was on generation 5 and i played this often and i open the app and it reset everything ….
way more random ads than there used to be
ive been playing this game since i was like 8 and i recently got it again i get a lot of ads just randomly. it never used to be that bad
ADS
I loved this game until you get past the second generation. After this point, I started getting a ridiculous amount of ads to the point where the game is unplayable. Every time you make a move an ad automatically pops up. WASTE OF TIME. The game itself is fun but after playing for so long, it just gets frustrating. You can be in the middle of doing a task and an ad will pop up, making it impossible to do anything.
OK GAME
Ive played this game for years and it hasnt made any upgrades or changes to the game. Once you buy everything you possibly could the game is boring.
Eh
Bought coins and did not get them. Everything moves so slow. Hasn’t really evolved since I first downloaded it years ago
bittersweet
Love this game played it when I was young. Cant play 5 minutes without an Ad popping up that doesn't even have an X in the corner after you wait a whole minute. So you have to clear the app because you're STUCK on an Ad. then you open it back up and may lose progress on an activity you were doing, then another ad pops up and ruins the experience. I would literally pay like 5$ for no ads. Just wanna be able to PLAY THE GAME
Significant issues with the game
I have been a loyal player of Virtual Families for years, and while I greatly enjoy the concept, there are two significant issues that need to be addressed for the game to reach its full potential.
Lack of Diversity:
Every character in the game is white. This is not reflective of reality and creates an exclusionary experience. In today’s gaming landscape, representation is both expected and necessary. Adding characters of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds would not only improve inclusivity but also broaden the game’s appeal to a wider audience.
Task Persistence:
The inability for tasks to continue when the app is not open severely undermines the gameplay experience. For example, if I put a character to bed or assign them to cook, the task cancels the moment I switch apps, even briefly. As a result, characters often become sleep-deprived or hungry despite being properly managed. This mechanic creates unnecessary frustration instead of immersion. A system where assigned tasks continue in real time would be more consistent with the game’s life simulation design. The issue is not simply inconvenience; it fundamentally undermines the simulation experience. Players who take the time to plan responsibly are punished, while micromanagement and constant screen-watching become the only viable strategies. This strips away immersion, realism, and fairness - all of which are key reasons players are drawn to this genre. A true life simulation should encourage smart decision-making and allow tasks to persist in real time, rather than forcing players to sit idly in the app while nothing meaningful happens.
Lack of Diversity:
Every character in the game is white. This is not reflective of reality and creates an exclusionary experience. In today’s gaming landscape, representation is both expected and necessary. Adding characters of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds would not only improve inclusivity but also broaden the game’s appeal to a wider audience.
Task Persistence:
The inability for tasks to continue when the app is not open severely undermines the gameplay experience. For example, if I put a character to bed or assign them to cook, the task cancels the moment I switch apps, even briefly. As a result, characters often become sleep-deprived or hungry despite being properly managed. This mechanic creates unnecessary frustration instead of immersion. A system where assigned tasks continue in real time would be more consistent with the game’s life simulation design. The issue is not simply inconvenience; it fundamentally undermines the simulation experience. Players who take the time to plan responsibly are punished, while micromanagement and constant screen-watching become the only viable strategies. This strips away immersion, realism, and fairness - all of which are key reasons players are drawn to this genre. A true life simulation should encourage smart decision-making and allow tasks to persist in real time, rather than forcing players to sit idly in the app while nothing meaningful happens.
Ads
Good game but the ads ruin it for me. Every time I place a furniture item, ad. Every time something happens to a family member, ad. I don’t want to watch 30 or 60 second ads every time I do something.
Game is great, bugs are awful
I have little to no problems with the game itself, but twice the game has crashed while I try to purchase coins. The payment goes through, but I do not receive my coins. Thankfully I am just using gift cards and was able to receive a refund on the first one (hopefully the second one as well), but it is still incredibly frustrating.
Can’t use 2nd bathroom
After saving i bought it and it’s not even working
Virtual families 2 dream house
Need to be more interactive, more interesting, house should have upstairs, balcony etc . And better floor plan. More children, grandparents etc. More money for watching ads and free things.
Restarted
I went off the game for 20 mins came back and my whole family was gone had to star all over even the money started over which I bought all gone. What can I do to get them back or at least the money very devastated. It stated your family has been lost. You need to adopt someone new.
Review
Where did the ads come from? Slows game down
Sentiment summary
84%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
9%
Negative (1-2★)