After so many years of Sims series dominance, we're about to have tons of Sims competitors in the life simulation space. The prettiest one of the bunch, announced late last year, is called "inZOI," and it's being made by PUBG publisher Krafton of all places. Inzoi is expected to launch at some point this year and the developers have just revealed a lot of features planned for the game in a new video this week.
As its developers note, we don't know a ton about Inzoi yet, so they wanted to show off lots of things they've been working on in the upcoming life sim. Here's the quick and skimmable list of what they covered:
- Drivable cars with color customization (and car accidents?)
- Autosave functionality
- Group activities like karaoke, chess, and visiting cafes
- Difficulty settings controlling how quickly you can progress relationships
- A reputation system based on your good and bad actions
- City editing features for controlling weather, landscaping, cleanliness, and crime rates
- Support for modding and custom content
- In-game catalog of player-made content called "canvas"
- Dreams, sleepwalking, and tarot interpreters
- An in-game "studio" location for staging your own screenshots
- Hair dye, haircuts, and nail art customization
One of the most-requested features, project director Hyungjun Kim says, is drivable cars. We're getting our wish, but "driving in inZoi will not be like what you see in Grand Theft Auto," Kim says. "We designed our driving system strictly with 'life simulation' in mind."
To that end, you can hop into a car and see things from a first-person driver's seat view, but it looks like you're probably just riding along, not actually controlling the wheel. You can invite other characters ("zois") to hop in when you stop nearby. And if you happen to be in a convertible, folks may be impressed by you as you pass by.
Kim also describes a reputation system, currently called "karma" that's influenced by your good and bad deeds. As you lean in either direction, new actions like tripping someone or stealing money might become available—so maybe it's not that unlike GTA after all, huh?—and even things you do alone, not witnessed by other Zois, can factor in. Interestingly, Kim says "It could have an effect on your future offspring, for example. It's still a work in progress, so our viewers can let us know if this is something you would like to have, and we will keep developing it."
Kim spent some time mentioning that Inzoi is planning to support mods and custom content, but Inzoi will also have an in-game catalog of user content—think The Sims 4's gallery—called the "canvas" where players can share and download one another's creations. In the video they show off a custom Zoi character being added to the canvas with photos and hashtags.
One of the weirdest things mentioned is a "dream" system. You might have a lucky dream that suggests buying a lottery ticket the next day will be successful. Or you might sleepwalk and accidentally donate all your money to charity. Oh, and there are tarot readers to help you interpret your dreams too.
Kim says that lots of players have requested that Inzoi release its character creation as a free demo. There's certainly precedent for that in other games like the recent Dragon's Dogma 2 or Street Fighter 6. They're not promising anything yet, but Kim confirms it's being considered as an option.
Even after the long deep dive video, it's still not quite clear what playing Inzoi will feel like moment to moment or how fun its live simulation will be. Personally, I'm waiting to see more of what building and decorating are like since that's by far the majority of my Sims playtime. But for those who want to make beautiful characters, this is sure looking like a winner.
Inzoi hasn't announced a release date yet, but last we heard it's expected to launch sometime in 2024.
