Love pets? Love video games? Pet Pals combines both in a fun, realistic game.

When I first installed Pet Pals: New Leash on Life, I thought ok where do I start. I read up on their new features over the original Pet Pals. Upon those upgrades were 35 new cases that were written by real vets! And it shows. For this review, I pretended I was a “tween” with moderate knowledge on installing a game and knowing my controls.  Read my “Good” and “Bad” section of the review for details.

Clinic or Clinique. The game allows you to enter the pet clinic where you can Q&A your veterinarian technician. Each animal is caged with the list of symptoms (if any) on the outside of the cage door. The first mission I chose was to assist a stray cat. Throughout the initial check-up, your assisted with the computer highlighting the correct tools to assist your examination. As you investigate the animal, you are given a metric score that can reach 1000 if you ask the correct questions and perform the necessary tasks.  Pet grooming and shampooing was interesting.  Giving a Golden Retriever a good clipping was very easy.

A little too realistic. At some points of the game I did notice that the game was a little too technical for the average pet owner and gamer. It may be a good feature to teach and influence future potential veterinarians, but you can get lost in the translation.

Now where did I put that darn stethoscope. At some points of the game, after completing an examination of a sick animal, your brought back to your office with no direction. You have the option to go back to the clinic where you can examine a new patient, but again with no direction. Video settings were never found. My video displayed a small 500 x 400 box that did not allow me to select the correct resolution or even the option to view the game in full-screen. Another bug I noticed were with the controls. At several points of the game you’re instructed to give animals IV’s. extract blood or apply topical medication. It instructs you to give the IV in the arms, click as much as you want on “a” arm but I was 50% wrong. Half the time it was the other arm or leg I had to give the IV in. Also, if you quick fingered, the game will not let you advance until the narrator stops speaking.

Good
- Visuals and audio (characters had personality)
- In game Diplomas, for your out of game walls (printouts available)
- Cute animals
- Humane Society getting % of sales

Bad
- Very buggy
- Not intuitive
- Controls not accurate
- Video display

6/10

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written by Juan Perez on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 8:15 am \\ tags: array, Clipping, Correct Questions, Correct Resolution, Correct Tools, Diploma, Fun Game, Golden Retriever, Half The Time, Initial Check, Moderate Knowledge, Necessary Tasks, New Features, New Leash On Life, Personality, Pet Clinic, Pet Owner, Pet Pals, Pets, Realistic Game, score, Several Points, Sick Animal, Stethoscope, Stray Cat, Topical Medication, Veterinarian, veterinarians, Veternarians, Vets, Video Games, Video Settings, Visuals