Animal Shelter: Vet Clinic Review (dewdrop ghoul :])
As fun and interactive this DLC is, the lack of initial direction is abysmal.
Spent two hours trying to figure out how on earth to diagnose a pet, wasting hundreds of dollars and medical supplies, only to be forced to parse through an entire discord channel to figure out that pressing M on the clipboard shows the treatment plan instructions.
It's somewhat enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but when the dog I adopted for myself (and have had since the feature was implemented) got sick with a stomach bug and required a fecal sample, and had a full 'bladder' status upon becoming ill, you can do nothing but sit and watch as your animal slowly 'dies' because it won't take a dump, forgive my language... Maybe fix that..? Add a medical laxative for bowel-related sickness, or even just prevent player adopted pets from deteriorating to the point of seizure + relocation? Had to reload a 2 hour save and lost a bunch of progress, which was my fault to begin with for not saving frequently, but the point still stands.
The same goes with horses. Sick horses in need of veterinary food absolutely refuse to eat from the feeding troughs, and only pick at hay bales and snacks (like carrots and salt licks). Had two horses nearly starve themselves out before I had to step in (and subsequently fire the stable employees for wasting so much straw by cleaning out entire stalls after one single mucking, lol).
The DLC has the potential to be amazing, but really needs a lot more fine tuning; will update my review as patches are released. I won't deny this DLC is enjoyable, but please make sure you separate your saves from "pre-vet-installation" and "post-vet-installation" upon purchase, cause oh boy does it affect a lot of the aspects of your shelter.
Overall, I solidly recommend this addition to the game! Given time I know it will reach that full potential.