Inzoi, oh Inzoi, my beloved, but it wasn't always like that. It's no surprise that if you are a fan of the genre, that genre being life simulation games, that up until recently, there weren't ever really that many choices you could spring for. You had The Sims, and, uh, that was kind of that. And depending on the era you played The Sims, what meant a good life sim to you might have been completely different from the other Sims fan sitting next to you.
Well, I played the first Sims a lot, a bit of the second one, and a lot of the third one, with the third one being my favourite. Having generally skipped out on The Sims 4 because it went in a direction I just wasn't interested in, you'd imagine that, as a huge fan of The Sims 3, inZOI was to me a lifeline back into the genre, where The Sims had moved on from being a simulation game to much more of a dollhouse.
So you could imagine my disappointment when initially inZOI launched into early access on the 28th of March. The bones were amazing, but as seems to be a recent issue with any life sim game coming out in early access, there simply wasn't much to do besides the amazing builder. It was the case of as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle. inZOI released with jobs, huge amounts of social interactions, locations to visit, and jobs that you could actually participate in, but it felt like they were trying to get as close to the feature set of The Sims 3 while at the same time not really adding much depth to them. So after putting in a fair amount of hours, I left the game with rather conflicting feelings and went back to The Sims 3.
It has been a year since, and a lot of things have changed, almost surprisingly so, given how little time has passed relative to what they have added or, in some instances, straight up changed. A lot of it is good, adding much-needed depth into the game, and especially the simulation aspect of the game, but also just more things to do that make it more fun to play: new jobs, new features, a whole free DLC, swimming, multitasking, a memory system for your Zois, police, crime, ghosts, education/school, a huge improvement on mod support, and honestly just more personality, plus tons of other features that would be too long to list.
If there is one thing I have noticed, it's that the team is really listening. Features get requested, and besides acknowledging them, they go beyond and actually implement them. That is in general quite a bit more than a lot of studios do. People's opinions and feedback are really shaping this game, and I hope it continues to do so, together with the inZOI team's own vision. This game has soul and passion put into it, and as I personally see it, if you were to get inZOI now, there is a lot to like and a lot of fun to be had. It is much further along than The Sims 4 base game ever was. I'd say it's further ahead than The Sims 3 base game. So if you are a huge fan of The Sims 3 and didn't like The Sims 4, then this really is one you should consider. However…!
It also sort of depends. Now, while I do have my gripes with this game, there are a few things that I don't mind and quite enjoy that some people might see as a bit of a barrier to entry, starting, of course, with the elephant in the room, and that is that this is very much an Asian game made by an Asian studio. Now I don't mind that personally; I like it in a "breath of fresh air" kind of vibe, where I get to enjoy something from a foreign market and see their take on it. Second, it would be the graphics. inZOI is going for this realism type of vibe. If you came from The Sims 4, this might be rather jarring. I like the realism vibe, but I acknowledge that it really isn't for everyone. The Sims 3 already looked very divisive at the time, so I could imagine inZOI might be rather divisive as well.
One of my main gripes with the game, however, is that there simply aren't enough spaces in the cities for people to live. That has been the case since the release of early access and continues to be so throughout its development thus far. They have added more spaces to build, but honestly, if you're someone who likes to play generationally, or have loads of relationships/friendships in the game, and like to head over to their houses, you're simply going to run out of space to make that happen. In each city, you get a couple of small plots to build on, a couple of apartments, and a couple of huge ones to build your villas, and that's about it. There isn't much sense of a neighbourhood existing or a local community. The maps look vast and expansive, but a lot of it is simply set dressing and non-interactive. I came into this game originally thinking that almost every building was going to serve some sort of purpose or be enterable, much like The Sims 3, sadly, that didn't turn out to be the case. They are planning to remedy this through these "Canvas" type of neighbourhoods that are connected to cities, which will provide around 80 lots or something and give you that suburbs vibe. While that is great, I truly do hope they continue to open up the cities and figure out a way to make more houses work in there as well, as currently even Sims 4 neighbourhoods have more families living in them than this game. Though I imagine the game would need a big change in how it loads in these houses and interiors.
Another thing that is severely missing is clothing items. While mods can substitute for quite a bit of that, the quality of clothing mods and their styles can vary greatly. This game is in dire need of more clothing options for all ages and genders, as there isn't much to choose from right now. On the positive side, though, you can load any texture onto clothing—nowhere near as good as The Sims 3's Create-a-Style, but it is better than nothing and does allow you to create some variation.
Also, I am not a big fan of the schedule system this game has, and the way it is used now. I find it a rather game-y way of forcing activity in the world, instead of having characters dynamically decide if they want to visit the beach today, or go to a restaurant, or go out to do something. It will instead give them a pre-decided schedule that is filled in for the week, and then when it becomes time to go do said thing, they will drop everything they're doing and rush over there. I really do think the simulation could have much more character if a Zoi develops their interests over time and starts liking certain locations over others, and dynamically decides where to go sometimes on their own will and at varying times. For example, have a Zoi develop a liking to be outside a lot, and thus instead of eating at home, it'll visit restaurants to eat, spend the entire day on the beach, maybe head to a café later, things like that. It makes the Zois and the world feel much more real instead of pre-decided.
Overall, I really do recommend this game, IF you can run it, It has come a long way, and really does have me excited for what will happen after its release, when we'll start getting expansion packs. With a lot of core features already included from games that used to charge us for them, it really does open up the freedom after release for inZOI to create experiences in these expansions that aren't just the ones we're so used to, like a weather expansion, or a school expansion—since they are already covering those in the base game.
Kudos to the inZOI team I hope they keep chipping away at it, and continue to improve on it in every category, and while it hasn't fully taken me away from the Sims 3 yet, once Canvas Neighbourhoods come out, I think it will finally have.
