inZOI: Could This Be The Next Big Life Sim?

inZOI is the latest upcoming life simulation game taking the internet by storm. It was only recently that it started to make waves too!

The realistic-looking and incredibly detailed life simulation is from the South Korean company Krafton and is also behind the likes of PlayerUnknown’s Battle Grounds.

Naturally, I was curious to find out more, so decided to watch the first gameplay demo overview. I didn’t really know what to expect, so went about watching the gameplay demo with an open mind.

At just over six minutes long, there was a lot covered during this time, and I can definitely say I was not disappointed in what I saw.

Even though this is just a demo overview and a lot could change between now and the game’s release, I was impressed. The attention to detail, the variety of features, customization of your characters, building and so much more.

Characters and Day-to-Day Life

The first segment of the video gave us an insight into the characters and everyday life. Just the features from following them to work and attending social events in a way that’s different to other life sim games is more than just a rabbit hole event.

It gives you another level of depth to really becoming part of your character’s life. Really getting the player involved in what is happening. Instead of just sending them off and waiting for them to return.

Character Creation

I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed and how much freedom for customization players can have when creating their characters. I do think there are more features that could be added to character customization, but this is just a demo and a lot can change between now and the final product.

Building and Furnishing

Like most life simulation games that contain an element of building and furnishing, inZOI makes it look easy! From creating your builds and furnishing, it’s almost as simple as drag and drop into place. I’m interested to find out more about the ins and outs of building, the kinds of builds you can create, as well as what styles and customization features players will have.

Directors Mode: Schedule, Weather and City

Directors Mode looks very interesting. Being able to curate a detailed schedule for your characters and supposedly household. Take control of the weather around you and tailor the city in various different ways. While there wasn’t much within the demo video that showed specifics for this aspect, you could get a general overview as to what you could expect with these features. Again, they seem really promising and hopefully, more will be shared about them soon.

Filters

At first, I must admit, I was confused and then it clicked. Filters for screenshots. As someone who takes far too many screenshots in games, I love seeing this as a feature in games. On the other hand, this has me thinking about whether this is meant as just general filters to have switched on in the game overall. Either way, a cool addition coming to inZOI.

Relationships and Life Stages

Amongst various interactions with other characters, it was nice to see the different life stages featured in the game. Baby, Child, Teen, Adult and a glimpse at Elder characters in the creation tools. It appears that characters can have a range of varying relationships, both positive and negative ones.

You could really see and feel each emotion characters were displaying throughout the gameplay demo video and you really get an idea of just how much time must have been spent making sure they were true to life.

Overall Thoughts & Feelings

Overall, I feel that inZOI has a lot of promise. Yes, this is merely a gameplay demo and there’s a lot that can still change, but there’s so much potential for this game already. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll see more information on how development is going and an official release date in the near future. I’ve seen that it’s penned for a 2024 release, but again, nothing official yet.

Could inZOI be the next big challenger towards The Sims along with other upcoming life simulation games?

I think it could be to a degree, however, at this point, it’s still hard to tell specifically to what extent. There are already some strong points to inZOI and some areas where I think there could be more information shared over time before making a firm choice. For an early gameplay demo, inZOI is shaping up to be pretty good.

For the time being, I’ll be checking out some of the content from creators on YouTube who were given a hands-on opportunity with the game demo recently and wait patiently for more information from the inZOI team!

What do you think of inZOI? Why not let me know in the comments!