The Partners

List Price: $39.99 Discount Price: $7.50

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Just OK [Posted on 2002-11-11]
This game is like a no-frills version of The Sims. You're constantly rushing to complete one tedious task before you have to do it all over again.

Pretty awful game! [Posted on 2003-07-21]
Well I was first drawn into the game because of my love of "The Sims." (Plus EBgames was selling it for 5 bucks, know I know why!)

Like the Sims you are able to interact with the environment and other people but it is a very limiting game due to the specific number of interactions and items available. It's fun for the first 10 minutes then you realize that there's not much difference in gameplay. It's pretty redundant. You make sure needs are met, click the same buttons to win the case, which isn't hard. Soon you find that you're just clicking buttons in a certain order over and over again.

*One of the most annoying things about the game is that unlike the Sims where you can change the settings to "see" through the walls, you can't do that in this game so your character might be doing something but you can't see it because of the wall.

Far too many glitches to be a good game [Posted on 2003-08-07]
I picked up this game because I already have all of the Sims expansion packs and it was only 5 bucks at EB. It is a lot like the Sims, but a highlight is that none of the characters needs involve "bladder" or "hunger", which makes this game much less routine and more interesting. This game was fun at first, but its unpredictable controls make it extremely frusterating and almost impossible sometimes. This would've been a very solid game, but there were a lot of glitches that made it too aggravating to play for a long time. For example: as Sims fans are familiar with, the characters have "free range" where they choose what they want to do, without you telling them. In "the Parters", all of the characters are constantly going about just what they need to do, and you can't interrupt what they are doing. So you end up just watching them until the exact right moment where they are between doing things, then you get to command them. It ends up being more like just watching little characters in a lawyer's office, instead of controlling them.

Overall, "The Partners" is worth 5 bucks, but nothing more.

Fun idea... [Posted on 2003-12-03]
I got this game because, like so many other reviewers, it was like $5 EB Games. It's well worth the $5, I got a bit of enjoyment out of it.

The game itself is fun, I had a great time playing it. The scenarios are funny (though farfetched) and I had a laugh out loud moment every time my lawyers got a new case.

Unfortunately the game had some serious flaws that were kind of annoying. The characters didn't interact well with items - my character would sit on a couch, then stand up and be standing right inside the couch. That sort of thing happened a lot. Also, a lot of times the characters just did what they wanted, instead of what *I* wanted - and that was aggravating at times.

This game is cheap enough that its worth the price, but it really doesn't even come close in comparison with the Sims. The Sims costs a lot more (especially with expansions), but it is a lot more fun and a lot less buggy.

Puh-thetic [Posted on 2004-09-16]
I was having some fun with this game, exploring all the stuff and new rooms you can use to expand the office, but then I discovered that the very mechanics of the game forbid same-sex relationships. I think it's just sad that these generic Sims clones like The Partners and Singles are missing that capability when the very original game in the genre, The Sims, supported it fully, drawing almost no gender lines at all when it came to the characters' relationships. If not for that tacky and somewhat offensive flaw, this would have been a very satisfying four-dollar purchase, but because of it, I'm going to try to see if Menard's (yes, I actually got this at Menard's) will take it back.

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