Animal Shelter: Vet Clinic Review (friedapplejuice)
I want to love this DLC, especially as a veterinary technician who does things like this for a living (and because that's where I'm passionate). But the rate at which the pets in your care become ill--and how quickly their health meter drops while you perform diagnostics--is just insane. The rate needs to be lowered for pets already in your care, unless they're exposed to an infectious disease, and more time needs to be granted for already sick pets while you try to help them. Being able to vaccinate them as well would be nice, especially when you bring in the puppies and kittens DLC. I've had no issue collecting fecal samples thus far, my pets seem to poop an egregious amount while sick with literally anything, so that's fine. Not sure if that was fixed or just isn't a problem for me.
I do enjoy it despite the shortcomings, however. It tries its best to be accurate, which is cute. Having the knowledge that I do of diagnostics breaks the immersion a bit, like when I have to do a blood smear instead of a CBC and chemistry on a pet with vomiting and diarrhea, and when I do an x-ray it reveals... food poisoning?? But that's really just my unique experience with knowing what I know. The average person wouldn't really care I don't think LOL. Performing x-rays, ultrasound, blood draws, bandaging, skin cytologies... all very fun! Diagnostics are my favorite thing to do in veterinary medicine, and it's so neat to see that represented with fairly decent accuracy. It scratches an itch I didn't know I had for a vet based game that isn't awful.
TL;DR: lower the rate at which pets become ill and health drops, it is far too fast to be enjoyable. Overlooking that part, it is fun and I appreciate the attempt at accuracy. I'd give this a sideways thumb if I had the option. It's not horrible. Just too stressful for the premise of this game.