Krafton’s InZOI might be the first life sim to properly challenge EA’s The Sims. I’ve been playing around in its gigantic dollhouse for the past week or so, and I’m now more excited than ever by its potential, even if it still has some way to go.
InZOI is a slightly more grounded life sim, a genre known for its plant babies, alien abductions, pet dragons, and burglars with giant vacuums. But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of zany antics to enjoy in this Korean take on a genre dominated by a single Western creation. It’s ultimately as wacky as you make it, with abundant opportunities for accidental knee-slappers and self-made laughs.
That’s because it includes a dizzying number of possible interactions with people and objects. These are often so specific or context-laden – like discussing plant varieties or asking if they like mint chocolate – that they’re almost spooky. But I had the most fun when I avoided the AI-powered chit-chat and embraced the chaos.
InZOI is at its best when you usurp a character’s free will and observe the ramifications of your manic instructions. Life events can cause a character’s chosen personality traits to change entirely. They’re a blank canvas until you start to play god, and the karma system is sure to make badly behaving Zois pay. There’s even the threat of talking to the CEO of the company behind the virtual space if things get too unruly.
InZOI’s building system is robust, though I opted not to spend too much time crafting a family and their home. After messing with a few dials and clothing options, I settled for the game’s randomizer to create a pre-fab abode.
The family had no direction. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I chose their characteristics – like a career-focused father and a determined social activist daughter – but that was all. After noticing my most minor inputs could cause their moods to shift dramatically, I was hooked on power and compelled to ride the wave of the unknown.
The eldest daughter became my nighttime hooligan, tagging every wall in sight, while her less adventurous dad refused to cross roads for fear of jaywalking.
The daughter soon spiraled into a life of crime, starting with the theft of a box of pearls from behind a convenience store counter. Places of work became a target, too. Like something out of Assassin’s Creed, she snuck into an office undetected among a group of workers and then proceeded to steal laptops and kick a box of inventory. She even had time to blast some EDM on the local library’s gramophone before heading home.
After terrorizing the streets and spending 80% of the family’s fortune on a car, she decided to nap on a bench by her house. Was she scared to face her parents? No. In fact, Mum slept there of her own volition two days later.
The next day, her downtrodden father started a role at the local fire station. While he was away, his unruly daughter’s life changed forever as the family TV ironically burst into flames.
Shocked by her dance with death, her personality shifted entirely and she suddenly became a safety obsessive. Now she sells blueberries on the secondhand market.
It can be hard to tell how much of InZOI’s simulation is working as intended at any given time. Regardless, you’re sure to have plenty of your own tales to tell after spending a few short hours with it.
Freeroam, which feels like directing a GTA character, is another neat addition, but I think the game’s long-term success will come from its UGC tools.
User-generated content has been the backbone of life sims for decades, but making your own has rarely been a one-click process. Until now.
With built-in solutions for creating textures and models from an image, adding emotes and dances via video, and even facial capture via your phone, it’s a breeze to stuff your city with outdated memes like a dabbing grandma, Etruscan Boar Vessel, or a shirt depicting a scarred Lisa Simpson. The in-game guide even encourages it with a faithful recreation of the Simpson’s family kitchen.
But InZOI is as much about managing the city as it is about meddling with your chosen family or messing with memes. With three living cities to play around in, you even have the tools to wildly alter the landscape.
You can tweak the trees, swap the town’s cat population for crocodiles, or change the city from a spotless metropolis into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And if you want to see it descend into chaos more gradually, you can fiddle with sliders that control healthcare issues, litter, and the effectiveness of public services.
InZOI aims to be a vessel for self-made storytelling. While some of these features need work – like the limited texting system, broken reflections, a fussy camera mode, and some deeply unnatural AI interactions – there’s great potential for it to co-exist alongside The Sims, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves from here.
The InZOI release date is March 28, and we’ve already got a guide to all the InZOI cheats for launch.