I grew up playing the original Sims and The Sims 2, and have many fond memories of maxing out my Sims' skills, building relationships between them, starting families, and constructing giant houses. My nostalgia for The Sims put InZOI on my radar as soon as it was announced, but I've always been skeptical of the game. To me, it's always seemed like one of those games that promises too much. But InZOI has taken me completely by surprise. Even in its early access state, the life simulation game is a blast and genuinely gives The Sims a run for its money.
Like The Sims, the first step in InZOI is creating a family. The character creation process for the "Zois" is nothing short of incredible. There are plenty of presets available and sliders to tweak, but players also have the option to simply grab whatever part of their Zoi they want to adjust and drag the mouse to do so. There is a great deal of freedom and extensive options when it comes to creating a Zoi, with the only restriction being the inability to adjust where a scar was placed on a Zoi's face. Still, even in early access, InZOI's character creation tools are impressive.
Once players are satisfied with their Zois, the next step is to choose which of the three available open world cities to settle down in. The options are Dowon, Kucingku, and Bliss Bay, which are inspired by South Korea, Indonesia, and Los Angeles, respectively. For my first pair of Zois, I chose Dowon, and moved them into an apartment.
InZOI Constantly Impresses
InZOI's core gameplay is near-identical to The Sims, but with more realistic graphics and far more options when it comes to interacting with any given object or Zoi. Like Sims, Zois have needs that must be met if they are to live happy and healthy lives, with players needing to make sure their Zois shower, eat, sleep, etc. The Zois can be given autonomy and left to their own devices, or players can micromanage every aspect of their lives. This can all be handled with the typical bird's eye view like The Sims, or players can zoom in for an immersive over-the-shoulder look. Players also have the option to explore with a free camera or even take direct control of their Zoi, which makes the game that much more immersive.
I wanted to see what limitations there were on my Zoi, and quickly found out that there weren't really any. I left the apartment building and started walking around the city, bumping into a couple of other Zois that live there (and can also be controlled by the player). I spotted a public basketball court and figured that it was nothing more than decoration for the city. I was delighted when I found out that I could actually have my Zoi play basketball, though the public display did seem to make him embarrassed.
While I was directly controlling that Zoi, the other one had their autonomy left on and was, for some bizarre reason, constantly choosing the "Overspend" option on their computer, which kept costing me $5,000 a pop. Needing to replenish my funds, I used the handy smartphone each Zoi has to secure both of them jobs that started the next day. Zois disappear when they leave for their jobs, but prompts pop up throughout the day that have players make choices about what exactly their Zois are doing at work.
Players can improve their Zoi's work performance, ambitions, and stats in general by engaging with various objects and completing tasks, though the latter feature didn't seem to work properly in my experience and across multiple Zoi families. The objectives weren't track and wouldn't complete, but hopefully that's something that can be ironed out quickly.
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