inZOI Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, GeForce Now, & PC)

It’s finally here; the life simulation claimed to be The Sims killer. If you’ve been an avid follower of The Sims, you’ll know that’s not an entirely bad thing. The franchise has solely dominated the life simulation genre for decades now, with the first game launching in 2000. Its concepts and ideas are so out-of-the-box, allowing you to create any character you can imagine and build the life of your dreams for them in a full-blown open world. 

Thanks to player-created mods, you can go further to enact the wildest ideas that push the game’s underlying foundation to the limits. You can force Sims, the characters in the game, into fights built on human self-interest, jealousy, ambition, etc. You can watch them helplessly drown in swimming pools. Honestly, no crazy idea is too bonkers for The Sims or its mods to handle it. Or rather, you can stick to the foundation it’s built upon to take your character through school, relationships, career growth, and family drama and still enjoy an absolute thrill. 

The Sims has done it so well that no other game has managed to unseat the franchise from its life simulation throne. Life by You was a solid effort but, ultimately, was cancelled. In comes inZOI, a life simulation that, judging from its pre-release marketing content, has gamers excited about it potentially ousting The Sims. Fans have tolerated The Sims’ pricing model for what would be essentials for a life simulation game for far too long. EA has also failed to innovate on the gameplay, only putting out DLCs and updates. 

Dare I say, it’s time for another life simulation franchise to take up the mantle? And if said new franchise is inZOI, I would be especially pleased. Here’s an in-depth inZOI review detailing everything you can expect. 

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Right off the bat, inZOI feels like a dreamy universe in which you’re given the freedom to manipulate. Its characters have a glossy touch, donning stylish looks and faces. The environments they live in are similarly idyllic, whether South Korean or United States city-inspired. It’s difficult to imagine societal struggles like depression here. Climate change, maybe, because you can immerse the world in dirt. No, really. You can change the aesthetic so everything is soaked in rot. However, neither the characters nor the gameplay will change its “feel good” approach. 

It’s funny, then, that inZOI’s world is owned by cats?! Yup. This whole dreamy universe is, in fact, a virtual open world created and overseen by a mysterious corporation run by cats. Their goal? Well, they seem particularly focused on maintaining a low Karma scale. This means the Zois, the characters in the game, ought to do good to remain on the cats’ good graces. Or at least it’s what the premise leads you to believe. Working as an intern at the corporation, you’re given control over the Zois to charge forth into the virtual world and make good on the company’s goals. 

My Kind of Person

First things first, select your character. It can be the game-created ones, each looking as stylish as ever. Or you can create your own. The customization system is deep enough to let you play around with your characters’ appearance. You choose their gender (male or female). You choose their age (young, teenager, senior, etc.) Then, proceed to design their face and body shape. The facial structure does have some leeway in allowing you to come up with your closest vision of your inspiration, be it a superhero, someone you know, or your neighbor, perhaps. 

Yet, it still doesn’t feel like the options are limitless. Sure, you can even toggle around asymmetrically. However, the characters will either way appear… stylish? Glossy? Beautiful? Definitely not a reflection of the world or the freedom life simulation games are meant to give you. Definitely plasticky. It may come down to the limitless options for hairstyles for black characters. Perhaps the shallow body art tools that are frowned upon in South Korea, but still. At least the make-up is top-tier. But then again, you cannot create plus-size characters. And then it’s soothed by the clothes; you can manipulate their patterns, designs, and textures. 

It just seems like giving you a taste of freedom only to restrict it down the line. Say the personality traits, they are 18 you can choose. Yet, restricting in disallowing mixing and matching your own ideas. Anyway, after all the work you put into character customization, deploying your Zoi into the virtual world doesn’t translate accurately. Virtual world Zois are less impressive. But no matter, the virtual world is where the fun begins.

Crank It Up

Basically, inZOI’s gameplay contains customization that continues in the virtual world. You can freely select where to set up camp for your Zoi. Then, get to work building, designing, and decorating their home. You can customize to the nitty gritty, to be fair. Choose wallpapers, change the bedding textures, and splash color onto furniture, it’s all up to you. There are, of course, pre-designed homes for you. Though I find these plasticky, too, with their flair and flamboyance. You want to design a place that feels your own, even if the end result looks shabby and all over the place; it’s yours. In any case, nothing about inZOI’s designs is like The Sims, in the close-to-real-life characters you can create, the absurdity of the lives you can simulate, perhaps because of that cartoony aesthetic or perhaps because building a life for the Zois is stiff. 

Let’s get the basics out of the way: You can take your Zoi to school, work, coffee shops, and all. Your Zois can have a life and a routine you guide them on. They have certain goals aligning with their personalities. An eccentric personality type can be a fitness couch, for example. However, they may take the biggest hit of boredom when not engaging in their interests. It’s about balance and finding ways to keep your Zoi happy. As they go about their day-to-day, you’ll be interacting with other Zois, and that’s usually where the fun begins. inZOI gracefully allows you to control your Zois. So, you can guide them to parks and instigate romantically-charged conversations with someone you like. You can drive them around to find the flea market, and so on.

Is Life an Experiment?

Yet, the conversations your Zoi has with others usually revolve around similar, if not boring, topics. Cryptocurrency. Stock markets. Some want to be influencers. Just like the cat corporation managing this world, the conversations in the virtual world feel just the same: bland, corporate talk. You can steer the conversations how you want. But the game almost reverts back to its ideas of a fulfilling life. Not to mention that Zois, on the whole, behave unnaturally. Unless you walk up to a Zoi to chat, they won’t come to you. Or they will walk away as soon as you finish talking to them. If you insult them, their response is unsatisfying. They may even come to your wedding if you manage to woo a Zoi to the altar. 

And even then, marriage life is bland. The randomness that autonomy gives to Sims is lacking here. So, you’re always running into all sorts of crazy scenarios. Your partner will behave predictably, go about their day-to-day, and return home to get back on the horse, the same horse. You can try to kill them, lock them in the bathroom and wait for them to starve so you can try wooing another more interesting partner. But for them to die, it’ll take a lifetime of waiting. A whole lot of waiting in this game, even when you take your Zois to work, you have to wait them out scrolling your phone or fetching lunch. When they finally die, you’re given the option to bring them back as a ghost, which is just about the one absurd idea you’d been waiting for but hasn’t yet been implemented.

Verdict

See, inZOI is unfinished, just like The Sims was upon its first release. You might even go as far as to say it’s barebones, with roughly interesting ideas but no follow-through. The customization is in-depth, but only in some areas. Others are incredibly restrictive, like the personality traits that ought to allow more tinkering around. The world, though allowing you to manipulate its weather and state, ultimately maintains inZOI’s stylish vibes. Zois, on the other hand, might be able to go to work and chat with others. However, their jobs are straightforward. Nothing unexpected will happen at work. You might instigate a fight or bump into a stranger’s car. But beyond a short flailing of the arms, they simply drive away. 

There’s something major missing in inZOI that makes The Sims special. Something random, something spicy, something absurd, maybe. Being unable to predict the future is what life simulation is all about. Better still, being able to experiment with all sorts of crazy ideas and seeing the characters respond in unpredictable ways. That’s where the true fun lies, and hopefully, inZOI can get there in the upcoming updates it plans to launch over the coming months.