As a child who grew up in the nineties and noughties, few games captured the attention of my peers more than The Sims. The Maxis megahit brought people of all ages and backgrounds together with its compelling life sim gameplay, and has since become an empire of ever expanding titles. It’s hard to really imagine another life sim stealing the limelight of this powerhouse, but that’s what inZOI is aiming to do. It’s an ambitious task, and truth be told, it’s one I’d much rather involved considerably less generative AI.
inZOI starts the way all these games do, with a character creator. Unlike the genre leader, though, you won’t be making stylised cartoon families, and instead you’ll be moving sliders to create slightly unnerving realistic humans. I’ll admit I never really got used to the uncanny valley people whose life I pulled the strings of, but it’s certainly an interesting switch up visually.
After forming some excessively beautiful people (because ugliness can’t exist in this world) it was time to dress them, and this is where I had my first run in with one of the AI systems of inZOI. All the clothing in the game can be customised by adding textures to it, with the myTEXTURE system. These are generated by inputting a prompt, and then the AI will do its magic and give you a hideous pattern you can slap on a hoodie.
There are many reasons to be unimpressed by this AI inclusion, but even trying to take personal ethics out of the situation it simply creates poor textures. My first attempt at making a flamingo covered shirt ended with dozens of headless flamingos and floating bits of pink feathery matter floating between them. My husband wanted a dinosaur jumper (because of course he did) and the dino this featured looked like a horrendous mix of every single dinosaur an eight year old would be able to name. It’s like stepping back to that simpler time of AI being a weird curiosity instead of something that’ll ruin lives.
Zois made and dressed, it was time to find my lovely LGBTQ couple a place to live. A beachfront property in Bliss Bay (which is definitely not San Francisco) seemed ideal, it just needed creating. This was a relatively stress free process, and would have been even easier if I’d just chosen one of the lovely looking premade options the game provides. There are a nice amount of furniture options for a game that’s in early access, easy to understand tools, and even some wildly unexpected features like the ability to create up to fifteen stories of home.
Decorating your house in a life sim is important, and I wanted to make the space my own. This is possible thanks to the 3D Printer, another AI system that makes 3D models out of the 2D photos you give it. After searching for adult toys online (because I’m incredibly mature and professional) I selected a suitable image and uploaded it to the game. After a bit of meddling with sliders my item was complete, and a six foot tall phallic statue was placed in the kitchen. I’ll admit I wasn’t quite expecting it to be so massive, or so pointless since my Zois couldn’t interact with it in any way at all, but it certain was a statement piece.
Now they had a place to live, it was time to actually spend some time with my virtual humans. As you’d expect there are basic needs that must be met, and without your guidance they’ll ignore these completely and sit on a PC for eight hours (living the dream). They also have aspirations you can help them achieve, which will usually involve you having to buy a specific item for them to play with or needing to take them somewhere on the map. It’s simple and not particularly taxing, but likely what you’re used to if you’re a Sims fan.
I expected to be happy doing this for the whole afternoon (as is the way of the life sim) but before I knew it I just sort of got a bit bored. The lack of charm from the virtual humans makes it hard to really get invested in them living their best lives, and the world itself is just dull. Interacting with other Zois doesn’t break through this issue either, because despite having exciting sounding social options (like the topic “how to eat more and not gain weight”) the communication is bland.
It is worth mentioning that inZOI is in early access, which could mean much of this is improved. But as of right now there’s a lot to battle before you find the fun. There is some serious ambition here though, like the impressive photo mode which can be used to capture those precious moments. The karma system is certainly interesting too, enabling Zois who are good eggs to have increased luck if they buy a lottery ticket, and punishing the bad by preventing them from moving onto the afterlife after death.
inZOI is an ambitious attempt to topple Maxis’ empire, but in its current form it’s not really exciting enough to pose a threat to it. The use of generative AI is unpleasant, the actual gameplay is too slow paced, and there’s just a lack of charm in the world. Hopefully this period of early access can shake things up enough to make some serious improvements to the game, because right now it merely remains one to watch.
inZOI is in early access on PC via Steam now.
