InZOI Preview
A quarter of a century ago, a little game by Will Wright called The Sims was released. I’d say “and the rest was history,” but it’s hard to overstate how influential The Sims and its cottage industry of sequels and add-ons has been. When it comes to life simulators, the only competitors to The Sims have been cozy, pixel art games that lean into RPG elements. That’s about to change in a big way with the upcoming Early Access release of InZOI from Korean developer InZOI studios. To call InZOI “The Sims with Unreal Engine graphics” is true enough. It is also maybe the least important aspect of the game.
A Simulator for the Present Day
To say that daily life is different from that shown in the original Sims might be the biggest understatement ever. Little things like social media and generative AI (just to name a couple) have utterly transformed the world and culture. Any life sim in 2025 has to reflect that reality, which is maybe the premise and point of InZOI.
On the surface, InZOI is strong reminiscent of The Sims, especially the later entries in the franchise. Players create characters — called Zois — and their starting relationships. The Zois move into starter homes with comfortable, but no-frills, basics. Although they are more intelligently autonomous than The Sims, you can still take control over the Zois’ actions, interactions and behaviors. You can enter building mode exactly like in The Sims and change up decor, add furniture or appliances, and landscape the property. Zois have jobs, go to school or work, socialize with neighbors and pursue hobbies. So far, so Sims, right?
Uncanny Realism
But there’s so much more going on, mechanics that make InZOI infinitely more complex and interesting than The Sims. For starters, there’s a Karma system, where a Zois’ positive or negative choices accrue and begin to influence the future. If a Zoi picks up a wallet on the street and report it to the police, for example, their Karma will increase by a point; conversely, if they take cash from the wallet, it will decrease by a point. When the Karma passes above or below a certain threshold, special events happen to Zois based on probability. For example, if a Zoi has high Karma points, they have a better chance of winning the lottery. As I was playing one of my Zois was clothes shopping. I gave her the instruction to return home. Unfortunately, she complied without paying for her purchases, which resulted in the cops being called and the loss of Karma.
Zois’ good deeds and bad deeds that affect their Karma point can also be spread through Bubbly, the in-game social media platform. Karma points apply to Zois when they pass away, not just when they’re alive. A Zoi will not move on to the afterlife if they have unfinished work to do. They will remain in the city as a ghost. A collection of ghosts can make the city uninhabitable.
It probably goes without saying that the Zois’ smartphones are at the center of life. Everything a smartphone does in the real world is mirrored in the game.
Life in the Big City
InZOI takes place in a sprawling and realistic metropolis with distinct neighborhoods. Much about the city is customizable, like billboards, landscaping and animals. There are also a handful of important public figures that help manage the city and a megacorporation that is the city’s biggest employer and influence. There’s definitely a feeling of a larger city simulator under the hood. The Zois themselves are far more behaviorally complex and autonomous than anything in The Sims. Of course, this is largely due to the exponential development of generative AI in recent years.
Graphically, InZOI takes a step towards photorealism, starting with an incredibly detailed character creator. In addition to being able to make granular changes in appearance, the character creator goes far deeper than The Sims in terms of Zois’ needs, desires, career choices and personality traits. The character creator tool is something that many people will no doubt spend hours obsessing over.
Photorealism is a risky choice, because graphics evolve constantly. Today’s realism will most certainly look dated tomorrow. The stylized look of The Sims is one of the reasons it remains vital. That said, InZOI looks stunning.
An Alternate Life Awaits
The fantasy of living out an alternative life — or a parallel one, for that matter — in digital form has always driven games like The Sims and now, InZOI. I’ve only spent a few hours in a pre-early access version but I’m extremely impressed. InZOI Studios has iterated on a classic genre in a way that feels contemporary and potentially more immersive than the earlier games could ever have been.
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.
