GameSpot editors' review
-
CNET editors' rating:
stars
OK
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 09/10/2002
- Released on: 09/09/2002
- Originally published on GameSpot: The Partners (PC) Review
It's clear the developer of The Partners thinks of its game as a cross between the TV show Ally McBeal and the smash-hit PC game The Sims. All this means is that they've taken The Sims, interface and all, and placed it in a lawyer's office. It's not a bad premise--after all, every Sims fan has probably wondered what his or her sims do all day at work. But if The Partners is any indication, their lives at the office are pretty much the same as at home.
As in The Sims, you must manage relationships.
The Partners adds a strategic wrapper to The Sims, giving you more-specific goals and even a bit of work to do. But otherwise, it's primarily the same game. You are in charge of an office full of lawyers. You help shape their relationships, and you buy items to make their time at work more productive and more enjoyable. And it's especially important that the workplace be pleasing to your little computer people, because these lawyers never, ever leave the office. To be fair, The Partners makes some slight changes to The Sims formula. For instance, you don't have to worry about sending your lawyers to the bathroom, but you do have to worry about their need for sexual contact.
There are three different scenarios you can play. Each requires you to shape the lawyers' relationships to meet the goals. The scenarios take place in three different law firms, and the overall goals include things like terrorizing coworkers and avoiding flirting. There are more-specific goals as well. A new lawyer might join the firm, and you must help him win his first case in order to stay on board. Winning a case is usually easy--your chance of winning the case is represented by a percentage, and you can raise that percentage by selecting a lawyer assigned to the case, clicking on a desk, and then selecting the "work on cases" option. Harder cases require more work, which means repeating this process over and over again. The cases themselves are occasionally amusing, but the work element of the game is fairly slight.
As in The Sims, you build your relationships by forcing the workers to interact. There are a variety of interactions, and making good choices will make your coworkers become friends or even more than friends. Each lawyer has a need for love that can be addressed by developing an office romance or by using various objects that satisfy that need. For instance, one of your lawyers can attempt to woo a coworker, or he or she can just read a romance novel. You can have your lawyers offer diamond rings to their love interests, buy flowers for them, and use all sorts of other courting techniques (all on the company dime, strangely enough). Lawyers also have a need for sex, and they can likewise look to their coworkers or the magazine racks for satisfaction. This is one of the stranger elements of the game, as occasionally one of your lawyers will crawl under another's desk to "tickle feet."
It's not what you think.
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