Dr. Amy Cares now runs her grandfather’s independent clinic.  Unfortunately, it’s also around the time when an epidemic spreads through the pets of Snuggford.  To make matters worse, Pawsitive Pet Clinic opened a new branch in the same town and the boss is Samantha, Amy’s childhood bully.

In the last game, we saw Amy try to find her way as a vet.  In this game, we get to see Amy not only handle a crisis, but also learn about her past.  Be warned that spoilers in this review are unavoidable, so proceed with caution.  When Amy was a kid, Samantha worked her hardest to make her miserable and turn everyone against her.  This is because Samantha tried to sell her father’s treats to raise money for the classroom pets and her father’s business.  While this did help them raise the money they needed, these treats also made their pets ill.  Amy either exposed Samantha or didn’t say anything but didn’t defend her depending on what you picked, and I’ll explain later.  Either way, Samantha’s mad at Amy and refuses to see her side about the treats making the animals sick.  She goes to the point of stealing the donations and framing Amy for it so that the class will hate her.  It works and even gets to the point where, no matter what Amy does, the other children still hate her.  Yet they easily forgive Samantha for getting the pets sick, even teaming up with her to frame Amy for taking the bird egg at camp.  Said bird egg is Newton and his birth is the only thing that cheers Amy up.  I’ll admit, as someone whose faced bullying, this really hit a nerve for me and, during Newton’s birth, I almost cried.  In fact, I find myself about to cry as I write this.

When Samantha comes back into Amy’s life as an adult, she has the same plan for her over a spat they had when they were children.  Samantha advertises the Pawsitive Pet Clinic and tries to ruin Amy’s reputation as a vet while pretending to be the concerned businessperson who wants to make amends.  It works because, when there’s an epidemic, people take their pets to Pawsitive Pet Clinic saying that they have a cure.  They actually don’t, which makes the town’s lack of faith in Amy very confusing.  I’ll also warn you that Amy will get very self-righteous at this time, such as refusing Crystal’s offer to advertise her clinic because she doesn’t want to play Samantha’s game.  Advertising is not selling out; it’s telling people that you have something to offer to the world.  You only sell out when you present a false image of yourself to the public to stir up business.  Crystal never tells Amy this, but does get frustrated with her stubbornness and I don’t blame her.  Amy also refuses to talk about her history with Samantha until later in the game, which I can understand because it was a painful time in her life.  The stress of the epidemic and having Will They or Won’t They chemistry with Jack while Samantha sets her eye on him isn’t helping anything.  That’s right; Samantha is also after Amy’s love interest like any traditional mean girl.  As for the epidemic, it started when Pawsitive Pet Clinic came to town so I’m sure that, like me, you’ll suspect that they’re behind this.  They are, but it’s not on purpose and Samantha isn’t involved in the conspiracy.  In the end, she genuinely sets things right with Amy and does a 180 degree personality turn that feels a little less out of left field than the one in Maggie’s Movies.  However, it still feels forced considering that Samantha didn’t care about the animals when she was a child.  She’s shown no regret for what she did and is still blaming Amy for the incident.  Yet, in the last level, she actually seems concerned about the animals and sets aside her feud with Amy to save them.  I’m not against redeeming evil characters, but you need to write it in a way that feels believable.

After Parker and Lane, which was less than mediocre, this game is a breath of fresh air.  Playing it didn’t feel like a chore and I actually wanted to get all of the trophies.  The challenge was trying not to go through the game too fast so that I could level up my pets to ten.  That’s right; you can adopt up to three pets in this game, name them and take care of them. 

You use the diamonds you earn to decorate the shelter, which you can earn by complete special challenges, beating challenge levels and taking part in the daily challenge.  You can also earn diamonds by leveling your pets up.  Other than that, it’s the usual Dr. Cares style with you earning one star to pass each level, but trying to go for three.  You treat animals throughout the game and take part in mini-games in each level. 

This game also has an extra element with you being able to choose Amy’s actions during the story, even if they don’t have that much of any effect. 

However, the game play does contradict the story when Amy claims that she has to close her clinic due to lack of customers.  You actually get more customers than you can keep track of.  In Emily’s New Beginning, when she opens a cafe, she has trouble with college customers who don’t like Paige.  Since you have to keep Paige under control throughout the game and the college customers don’t like Paige bothering them, this makes sense story wise and game wise.  The game also has an added goal in each venue with you fulfilling a special task each level for more points, and you get a bonus for keeping whatever place you work at clean.

This game is addictive, if a tiny bit predictable.  I give it 7 out of 10, a nice fun game after Parker and Lane.