[b]TLDR[/b]
I'm obsessed with this game right now and get the urge to play every day but I have a lot of issues with how it functions so I overall don't recommend it.
I have a lot more gripes with the game that I can probably add at a later date but below are the things that immediately come to mind that I have an issue with.
[b]Gameplay[/b]
There are many mechanics that aren't well explained in the encyclopedia pop-ups. You'll probably find yourself googling things more than once because there are things the game just doesn't tell you or do enough to make clear.
The alligator tag toy basically just doesn't work. The animal doesn't run away most of the time and just stands there and you click them to win the game immediately. It just serves an easy way to give them joy/complete a whim they have as an alternative to sitting there and holding down the pet button.
The command training with the clicker and treats isn't great either because you have to wait for the pet to go through a slow animation process which specifically seems to have an issue performing the jump for the cats. They do this weird animation where their tail curls instead of actually jumping, so you have to look out for that if you need to train them to jump. A lot of animals will have a mandatory task of training them to do certain tricks before they can be eligible for adoption. Considering the above, this is annoying and makes me wish the breakpoint tasks weren't entirely mandatory and rather served as bonuses to get more money/reputation even if that would make the game too easy.
The staff feel like they don't do enough, even when they have high stats. You're practically emptying your wallet to pay their wage just for an ugly NPC to get in your way and not do the work you actually need them to do. Washing the dogs is fun but they get dirty really quickly all the time so I wish the staff could wash them as well instead of just brushing them because the brushing only does so much.
For the time I've played, the isolation rooms have been completely useless. I've had many sick pets but none of them needed the isolation room. I wish they were more out of the way so you wouldn't have to go through this useless room every time you need to get to the garage.
In multiplayer, it doesn't notify you of anything anyone else is doing such as buying things/what they're buying. I don't recommend playing in multiplayer immediately, make sure you go through the tutorials for everything first because if someone else goes through them, it won't give you the full tutorial just the encyclopedia pop-ups. Not that the tutorial is great anyway but it helps at least to know the bare bones. The game is unfortunately more fun alone in my opinion which is sad because I bought the game initially to play with friends.
For the DLCs, I made a separate review for the veterinary DLC because it is a [i]mess[/i]. Just like the rest of the game, the pop-ups are usually not very thorough in explaining the game mechanics. This is specifically an issue for the microscope minigame. Maybe it was just a me thing, but it didn't occur to me that you might be able to move the microscope around with WASD because it literally does not tell you that you can do that. The dental care minigame takes a little too long for the lack of engagement it gives. Removing the plaque is kind of tedious and annoying rather than fun or satisfying. The nail trimming is probably the best one because you just have to click when the bar reaches the yellow or green points and if you hit the green, it does the entire minigame for you. I think you can see how that's an issue, but if you can't, the idea that the minigame that completes itself automatically is being the one viewed as the best because the others aren't entertaining is not a good reflection on the DLC as a whole. I also don't understand why the hunting dogs are a DLC. Just update the game to feature these breeds as well? I have all of the DLCs and the only one I can say is 'worth' being a DLC is the rodents. The other two DLCs feel like they should be base game.
And a final pet peeve, no pun intended, the tablets default keybind is tab so it either brings it up or puts it down whenever you alt-tab. You can change the keybind to open the tablet but not close it. So if you alt-tab while you have it open, it will close the tablet. This is annoying.
[b]Audio & Visuals[/b]
The pet noises are irritating in my opinion. The noises used for them walking around are awful, especially for the rodents because for some reason you can hear them through the wall of the shed when you're in the dog cages' yard. The rain pattering on the roof is really loud and is the sole reason I adjusted my volume to be lower.
Audio cues glitch often, I've encountered a bug where the noise it makes when you complete a step of the washing process gets 'stuck' to the item you used. This happened with the shampoo, sponge, and dryer. Whenever I picked them up, they'd play the step finished noise.
The lighting is bad. Things are often way too bright or way too dark. I've experienced the clinic room being both while the pet cages are too bright after upgrades 2 and 3. Its straining to look at and I can imagine its much worse for someone with any kind of photosensitivity.
Something I think can be easily overlooked is the way it tries to guilt you into continuing to play which I personally feel is kind of... predatory (for lack of a better word, I know this is definitely not the intention and its supposed to be cute). I can imagine a child playing this game and feeling guilty for wanting or--even worse--needing to stop because the poor doggy and kitty are saying "We thought we were going to play some more" with sad faces on the pause menu. The same happens on the main menu screen where the husky and orange tabby look excited when you click play and upset when you click quit. I don't have an issue with the excited part but the latter is really not a good thing to have in your game especially when it's a game about animals that will most definitely be played by younger kids.
