inZOI Early Access Preview: A Promising Start

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of The Sims. I started with The Sims 2 Pets on PS2 way back in 2007, and have been playing The Sims games since. Nowadays, I’m an avid player of The Sims 4, having been playing since it first released in 2014. As I have played The Sims for so long, I wondered if I’d ever be interested in other life sim games. I took notice of Paralives when it was first announced, until it was eventually cancelled – and then inZOI came along.

If I’m totally honest, while I was curious about this new life sim, I wasn’t really that interested until its early access launched on March 28th. That’s when I decided to give inZOI a go. For an early access title, I was impressed. As a long-time player of The Sims, this is my take on inZOI.

inZOI is available from Steam at $39.99. It is also set to release sometime on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S.

Story – ZOIs in the Cities

inZOI in the strictest sense doesn’t really have a story. Just like The Sims, it’s up to you to make up your own stories, whether it’s with custom-made or pre-made characters, who live out their lives. 

Officially a Simulator

There is some form of backstory to inZOI, with an interesting take on the life sim genre. The general premise of inZOI is that you are controlling a simulated world set in a parallel universe where your task is to manage the Zois living there. Well, that is exactly what a life sim game is, but I kind of like that this is officially stated by the game itself. It’s a very self-aware move, reminding you that this is all a simulation, and what you do is entirely up to you.

Answering to Cats

You should also know that the inZOI simulator appears to be managed by cats. No, seriously. Even the currency is called Meow! These cat-like gods are also there to give you hints and tips as you play the game, as well as warn you about things such as your house getting too dirty or if someone has negative karma. I find this concept quite funny, and cute.

The presence of the cats are also quite useful, as while the tips do come up quite often, they don’t really feel too spammy in an annoying way. They’re there as a good reminder whenever you need to be made aware of something important you may overlook, especially this being a new game with so much to think about.

What Wonderful Worlds

inZOI includes two different worlds for you to choose from to play in. Dowan is a dense city setting inspired by Korea, complete with skyscrapers and nicely landscaped parks and gardens. Bliss Bay is also a city, but inspired by Los Angeles, with a sprawling beach and boardwalk. So far, I’ve only played in Dowan, and the level of detail is just outstanding.

The only gripe is that once you pick a world to live in, you’re stuck with it. Unlike The Sims 4, you cannot travel between worlds, so you have to choose wisely when deciding where to move your new Zois to. However, there is good news on this front. The ability to travel between worlds will be added in as part of a future update.

Also, more worlds will be added into inZOI, starting with Kucingku, a tropical Indonesian inspired world, which is currently slated to arrive in August this year.

Gameplay – Like The Sims, but Not The Sims

Being a life sim, inZOI pretty much has everything you would expect to see in such a game like The Sims: bustling worlds filled with people living out their lives, being able to create and customize your own characters, the ability to construct and design buildings, and all the other intricate details in gameplay such as personalities, needs, skills, relationships, jobs, etc. inZOI has all that, just like The Sims – but despite all the comparisons, inZOI still manages to create its own identity to distinguish itself from The Sims – and I’m not just talking about the graphics!

Let’s go into the key aspects of the gameplay that make up what inZOI is all about.

Create a ZOI

Naturally, you can’t have a game like inZOI without its own Create a Character, which you dive right into when you start a new game. I had a great time creating my first Zoi, seeing what all the customization options are. You could probably write an entire review just dedicated to Create a Zoi, but I’ll try to keep it condensed and stick to the key points.

Life Stages and Other Options

You have everything you need to create a Zoi. You pretty much have the same features and options as The Sims 4, but with a few differences. The life stages are nearly the same, except for the older life stages, called Middle-Aged and Senior. There’s something else you need to know: there is no infant or toddler life stage in inZOI. Just like The Sims 4 upon release, you jump straight from a baby to a child. This is a bit of a disappointment, but I also happen to know that toddlers will be added into the game later, so it will happen.

There are also options for gender identity, such as being able to be non-binary and what gender your Zoi is attracted to (and even if they want a romantic relationship at all). It’s not quite as customizable and in depth as The Sims 4, but again, this might change in a future update.

There’s another thing you should be aware of: when naming a Zoi, you won’t be able to change it later. If you’re used to playing The Sims 4, while there are similarities, there are things such as this that you should remember.

inZOI has a few different options regarding life stages compared to The Sims.

Traits and Desires

One thing I would say that inZOI does better compared to The Sims 4 are personalities. In Create a Zoi, you only get to pick one trait, but somehow this gives the Zoi much more depth than 3 or 4 traits for a Sim. I just think inZOI‘s system works better. There are 18 traits to choose from, and while this doesn’t seem like much, it is. Examples include Dreamer, Volunteer, Socialite, Scholar, Adventurer, and Leader. I really enjoyed going through the different traits and seeing how they could shape my Zoi. It was honestly difficult picking one! I should also add that while you can only pick one trait when creating your Zoi, you can gain more through gameplay.

You can also pick a Desired Life for your Zoi, which I think is meant to be inZOI‘s take on Aspirations from The Sims 4. Desired Life is another feature I really admire in inZOI. You have 16 to pick from, and they’re things like Life of Self-Discovery, Tranquility, Advancement, Wisdom, Creativity, Romance, etc. Again, I enjoyed exploring the different options.

Customizing Appearance

Let’s move onto my next favorite part of customizing characters: their appearance! You can alter their hair, face, body, clothes, and accessories. There are plenty of options for Zoi customization, allowing you to change every detail. One thing to note though is that you cannot layer things like freckles and moles, at least not at the moment.

When it comes to clothes, you also get a generous wardrobe to kit your Zoi in. You can even layer tops, and apply accessories such as headwear, glasses, and nail design. The best part is the return of the Create a Style option from The Sims 3! One feature inZOI incorporates that I find fun is the texture generator. You type in what you want, and it’ll automatically create something for you, which you can then save and reuse.

No Zoi will look alike with the amount of customization options.

Create a Zoi Summary

All-in-all, inZOI‘s character creator tool is excellent. There are even preset characters and designs you can use if you’re stuck for ideas or just want to create something in a hurry. Even better still, more content will be added to Create a Zoi as time goes on.

The World Is Your Oyster

I’ve previously talked a little bit about the two worlds that comes with inZOI, but there was something I wanted to add here. You can customize them! Well, not entirely. You can’t build worlds completely from scratch. However, there is a degree of customization.

For one, inZOI has seasons! They may not be quite as detailed as The Sims 4, but you do at least get to control the weather. You can choose to make it sunny, cloudy, rain, or snow! This only lasts for a short time though, but it’s better than nothing.

You can make other world alterations such as populating it with different wildlife, adding special effects such as butterflies, and even customizing the appearance of billboards. There might be more world customization options further into inZOI‘s development, but this gives us something to start with.

Another thing I wanted to touch on was just how alive the world feels. There’s something very real about it, with all the buildings (whether enterable or not), the other Zois living out their lives, and all the activities you can do there. The world never seems to be asleep.

Customize the world to make it more your own.

Make Yourself at Home

We need to talk about buying objects and building homes in inZOI. Admittedly, I haven’t done much in the building side of things, but I did buy furniture and redecorate.

I was actually blown away by how much furniture was on offer in inZOI. I felt spoiled for choice. Also, I didn’t feel that the majority of stuff was outrageously pricey. Even if you moved into an expensive Lot that ate up most of your initial funds, you could still afford to buy new things. Also, furniture is customizable, being able to change color and create new textures, just like in Create a Zoi.

I had fun playing around with inZOI‘s Buy/Build Mode. However, it does feel a bit clunky. It might be that I’m so used to how easy it is in The Sims, but things like moving objects or rotating them can feel a bit tricky. This might be something that gets smoothed out overtime though as the inZOI team listens to player feedback. I personally feel this is something that needs working on, but for the meantime, it’s workable.

Build Mode needs a little tweaking, but otherwise it does the job.

Juggling Needs and More

inZOIs have needs, just like Sims, and humans. To be more specific, they have 8. Most of these are straightforward: Hunger, Hygiene, Sleep, Bathroom, Fun, and Social. However, the other two are new: Recognition and Energy. To be totally honest, I’m not entirely sure what these mean and how exactly you manage them, but my guess is that Energy is like the old Comfort need from the early days of The Sims, and Recognition has to do with loneliness. 

I found needs in inZOI pretty straightforward to manage. They decay at steady realistic rates, but I’d actually say inZOI is easier to manage than The Sims. I usually find my Sims’ needs drop quite frequently and rapidly, while Zois are much more comfortable and content for longer. Yes, there are consequences in inZOI if their needs hit rock bottom, but in honesty, this seems difficult to happen. One other thing I liked was that if a need gets low enough, you can click on the tab and your Zoi will attend to it automatically. I also didn’t experience my Zoi standing around complaining like Sims often do when their needs are low.

How Does That Make You Feel?

A feature in inZOI carried over from The Sims is Emotions. I know moods and emotions were heavily promoted when The Sims 4 first came out, but I actually think inZOI does it better. The emotions are there and you are aware of them, but they’re much more subtle. They also seem somewhat more real.

Zois are like real humans, with needs, wants, and emotions.

I Want To…

In The Sims, I’m a goal-driven player, so I enjoy completing wants and aspirations. However, the wants system in The Sims 4 does feel a little one-dimensional. inZOI has its own wants feature, but I think it’s implemented better. Like The Sims, you get wants randomly throughout the day, and these are usually influenced by your Zoi’s traits and desires. However, these have a time limit, usually 12 in-game hours, and you cannot cancel them. There’s no penalty for ignoring or failing to complete wants. 

Making Money

Zois need to make money if they want to buy nice things and pay their bills, so inZOI has given you a few options. 

Careers

The most obvious is getting a job. What jobs are available depends on which world you choose to live in. You get about 10 full-time jobs, plus two part-time jobs. For example, if you live in Dowan, you get to choose from Firefighter (my favorite career from The Sims 3), Entertainment, Business, Lawyer, Reporter, University Professor, Military, Software Developer, Pro Gamer, Criminal, and then being a cashier or manager at a deli or store. You can also send your Zois to university!

I like the variety of jobs on offer. Also, most of these jobs are active, like some of the ones from The Sims 4. However, career progression isn’t the same as The Sims. In inZOI, you pretty much just need to show up to work to eventually get promoted, and it takes time as well. Also, you don’t get 10 levels to climb up, or branches. You also don’t need to worry about making friends, completing certain tasks, or building skills. One thing I wasn’t so keen on was that in inZOI, retirement is mandatory once you reach the oldest life stage. Why should your Zoi be forced to retire? 

I have to admit, while I don’t think careers in inZOI are bad, I do think The Sims does it better.

The careers in inZOI do look interesting, but I can’t help thinking they could be fleshed out more.

Skills

I enjoyed trying out the different skills you can learn in inZOI. There seems to be so many. I couldn’t find a way to see a list of all the skills like in The Sims, but I got to try some of them out. I had fun with the Painting and Writing skills, and also developed other skills like Critical Thinking and Rhetoric. I even saw that there was a Coffee Art skill, which I’d like to try sometime. There’s so much to explore in inZOI!

Selling Stuff

Another way of making money in inZOI is by selling items over an in-game app called Pocket Market. You can sell things like secondhand items and finished paintings. I like that this system exists, but I wish selling paintings was easier. You can easily publish and sell books or articles, so why not art?

It’s not a feature yet, but you will eventually be able to work as a freelancer in inZOI.

Relationships

In inZOI, you can get out and about and meet all the other Zois in the world. In terms of how many interaction options there are, I would say they’re about equal to The Sims 3 and 4, but with slight differences in how the interactions are presented. I found it quite intriguing during my first day playing inZOI, as a random Zoi came up to my character and antagonized them. I don’t think that ever happened in The Sims! 

You’ll be pleased to know that in inZOI, you can do all the things relating to relationships and families: getting a partner, getting married, and even having kids!

I think The Sims 4 and inZOI have their own systems when it comes to how relationships work, and I think there are different aspects from each game that are implemented better. inZOI works well, but I think The Sims slightly edges out in terms of slickness and management. Again, this game is in early access stage, so this can all change over time. 

You can develop relationships in inZOI, and even get married and have children.

Other Features to Note

I just wanted to touch on a few extra things before I wrap up this whole section. I could honestly go on and on talking about inZOI, but I wanted to mention these things.

In inZOI, time works differently than The Sims. Instead of a day lasting 24 real-time minutes, the standard time set for inZOI is 96 minutes! That’s three times as long! You can change this though to make it shorter, but the shortest is 48 minutes. However, this does make a big difference and the day does go faster. You may think this set time is a bad thing, but I actually don’t think it is. To be honest, it sometimes feels like I rush through playing The Sims, fast forwarding everything. You can still do that in inZOI, but the longer time gives you more time to do things, and it somewhat encourages you to slow down and take in the moment. Some activities also take a bit longer to complete, such as painting, so this extra time is necessary.

inZOI in the Future

I should reiterate that inZOI has just been released and is in early access, so there are a lot of features yet to be added and more content to come along. These include new worlds, new clothing and furniture, being able to move between worlds, and infants and toddlers. I do feel that the price tag for inZOI is justified, given the amount of content we currently have, and the game doesn’t feel empty or unfinished. I am of course looking forward to what more will come to inZOI this year and beyond.

inZOI’s got plenty more to offer yet!

Graphics & Audio – Just Incredible

If you’ve seen the promo screenshots of inZOI, they look almost unreal in how good they look. I honestly couldn’t believe these were the graphics of a life sim game. I was completely blown away by the incredibly lifelike graphics of inZOI. I did worry initially that there would be an uncanny valley feel to them, but that didn’t happen. The game is simply gorgeous to look at, whether it’s Zois, furniture, the world, plant life, water. It was almost like playing Grand Theft Auto V, but as a life sim.

The sound for inZOI is good and clean too. The music that plays when you’re in Create a Zoi, Build/Buy Mode, and Edit City is nice and easy-going. The sound effects you hear throughout the game works well too. Honestly, I had no issues with the audio in inZOI. It’s like everything else: clean and slick.