Gabriel Stanford-ReisingerFor some time, I’ve wanted The Sims to face a little push back, a developer to put their knee on Maxis’ neck to improve the state and passion behind their flagship simulator. As The Sims 4 rolled around back in 2014, things felt… flat. Features that were prime features in previous entries were missing from launch, the game was more closed off than its precursor, and the overall state of the game now is just… boring.
I catch myself drifting into a mood to play The Sims 4 only to play for a few hours or maybe a day or two before drifting away as the game just feels boring. I felt that perhaps if another developer stepped in to put a little pressure on Maxis to improve, things could’ve gotten better.
In steps InZOI, a life simulator backed by PUBG’s Krafton that’s currently in an Early Access phase. But, regardless of the time it’s in, I felt I’ve played enough to really grasp the goods and bads of this competition.
Sul Sul, InZOI
InZOI is pretty expansive and allows for a lot of customization out of the gate. I’ll admit that I had more fun twiddling around the ZOI creator than what’s supposed to be the actual meat and potatoes of this life sim. You have so much customization options from choosing differing outfits to wear during certain seasons and situations, down to actually being able to choose the color down to its HEX code. This little feature will definitely hit right for those who are tired of The Sims 4’s middling customization options.
InZOI features a decent level of character customization with enough realism that I feel more like I’m crafting a human than some bundle of clay. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a distinct style to InZOI and you can still make some atrocities with ease, but it’s a lot more grounded and less cartoony than the rest.
Even beyond the character creator, you can customize how the environment looks. If you wanted to take a trip down exploring the city during its winter months, go right ahead, if you wanted to toss in some custom posters to be plastered on the billboards, you can, and if you wanted your ZOI to live as if they live in New York City, but perhaps a bit less crime, you got it.
This is really nice, it gives some flavor to the surroundings that you can’t really get anywhere else as not only is the life sim genre largely in a forced stranglehold by Electronic Arts and Maxis, but so is the wider well-established city builder genre.
Don’t get me wrong, there are others, look at Cities: Skylines, but even with Paradox at the helm, it could never find itself in the same echelon as Sims City.
Other features that are worth pointing out is your ability to craft clothing to share with the world and transcribe videos into emotes that you can use within the game.
Noo noobu
You’ll notice I really found enjoyment in the character creation and city customization aspects of the game, but didn’t really touch on the title’s “meat and potatoes,” that being playing as the character in a semi-open world. That’s right, InZOI features a semi-open world for you to explore similar to something like The Sims 3, but it is smaller with less to do.
The problem is… InZOI just isn’t fun. I can see the guts of a good game that could put a little pressure on EA to better themselves, but with the heavy endorsement of AI, uncanny models, and shoddy performance, it all makes it something I can only play for an hour or so before I get bored and want to play something else.
I understand this sounds like a similar issue to The Sims 4; the life sim genre isn’t built to keep the attention long-term, but that’s where I counter with The Sims 3, or even 2, both those games are ones I can play hours and not get to the same level of boredom that I almost instantly fall into when booting up InZOI and getting into the actual game.
Now, my biggest gripe with this game is that it feels too sanitized out the gate, it took ideas from The Sims and threw them in without gauging whether or not they work well with each other. The game just feels like an imitation of modern Sims, which many fans of the franchise don’t want. Many people, myself included, want the old tongue-and-cheek satire back.
While the game has careers, it follows the same rabbit hole careers with a handful of active jobs that let you take control of the ZOI as they complete tasks at your employer. While this is nice to immediately have access to, I certainly hope that the rabbit hole jobs will slowly fizzle out in favor of making the player be more active in working at their ZOI’s job. Perhaps they could introduce a prompt asking if they want to, but largely, this would be a nice touch.
My other gripe is that the gameplay is dull even for life sim standards, much of the potential charm that Krafton could’ve shoehorned into InZOI is left flat, almost like they didn’t want to rock the boat of the already well-guarded genre.
Finally, there’s the graphics, as it stands, they look good, but as a person who knows how fast tech is changing, I can say with confidence that between The Sims 4 and InZOI, the latter will age way faster, a game than one that goes with an art style rather than a more realistic look.
Geelfrob, InZOI
InZOI is in early access, so saying this game could never live up to the hopes is a little harsh, but saying that it’s got a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time without modifying its looks isn’t. Its character and environment customizations are top-notch but its overall gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this game to anyone who’s looking for an experience like The Sims, I’d be more likely to say to wait for Paralives or just stick with the ol’ reliable, if boring, Sims line.
