For years,The Simshas cornered the market in the life-sim genre. Yes, things likeStardew Valleyand even games like thePersonaseries have life-sim elements, but if you want to play a game that’s just people in a house living a (somewhat) normal life,The Simshas been the go-to option for a while. That’s why I was initially excited when I saw promotions forInZOI, a game that seems like posed to challengeThe Sims' supremacy in this style of game. However, some recent developments have made me question ifInZOIcan live up to expectations.
A recent lackluster Online Showcase started to make me a bit nervous about the quality ofInZOI. When the low price point of the game was announced, I should have been thrilled, but this also seemed to be a bit of a warning sign about the game’s quality. Now I can’t decide if my issues withThe Simshas lowered my expectations for the genre, or ifInZOIreally isn’t as good as it first seemed.
InZOI Will Only Cost $40 At Launch
InZOI Costs The Same As The Sims 4’s Latest Expansion
InZOIrevealed its pricerecently, announcing thatit will only cost $40 for its Early Access launchon June 01, 2025. As a bonus,InZOI’s developers promised that any content added to the game between now and the game’s full release will be included in that initial cost. While this seems like a great deal, it also has me a bit skeptical.
The Sims' Biggest Competitor, inZOI, Reveals PC Specs That Might Already Change Your Mind On Playing
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Seeing how niceInZOIlooks, and assuming it would feature a full gameplay experience to rivalThe Sims, I would have expected the game to cost at least the $59.99 or even $69.99 that is typical for recent games. Instead, the game only costs the same asThe Sims 4’s latest expansion. Sure, the game is only entering Early Access, butI still can’t help but question why it’s so cheap. To me, the most obvious answer would be that it doesn’t have nearly as much content as I was expecting from aSimsclone.
InZOI Seems Too Good To Be True
I’m Skeptical InZOI Can Deliver An Experience To Rival The Sims
Despite showing off some impressive features, I can’t help but feel likeInZOIis a little reluctant to show off its gameplay. From what I’ve seen, it looks like the character builder has a lot of depth, and I can buy the Build Mode features (or whateverInZOIwill call it). However, I still don’t feel like I have a good sense of what playingInZOIis like when you’re actually controlling your Zois.
In the preview footage I’ve seen, it mostly shows off Zois while they’re already mid-interaction, and not the actual input players will have when it comes to controlling these moments. I was hoping to get more insight into this duringInZoi’s hour-long Online Showcase onYouTube, butthere was shockingly little gameplay footage during the presentation. This reluctance to actually show someone sitting down and playingInZOIcertainly has me worried about the final product.
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I started to get worried thatInZOImight simply be a pretty coat of paint over a gameplay experience that was far more hollowthanThe Sims. And according to Nicole Carpenter ofPolygon,who has actually gotten a chance to playInZOI, I’m right to have these concerns. Carpenter said there wasn’t much to actually do in the game, and that interactions between Zois felt shallow. While I’m holding out hope thatInZOIcan prove to be more than it appears, I can’t say I’m overly optimistic.
The Sims Has Lowered My Expectation For The Life-Sim Genre
The Sims' Pricing Model Has Warped My Expectations For What Games Like It Should Cost
Part of the reason I have low expectations forInZOIis because ofThe Sims 4. I see people fretting over the idea ofpaying $100 forGTA 6and I feel like laughing (or perhaps crying) when I consider the cumulative cost of my add-ons forThe Sims 4is at least three times as much, and I would trade them forGTA 6in a heartbeat. It’s not that I hateThe Sims, butits content is rarely worth what it costs, and I still feel like mods are almost required to improve the experience.
After having this experience withThe Sims 4for years, I can’t help but be cautious aboutInZOI. How could a game that looks so much better, and has such better character- and house-building features really afford to be anything more than a glorified tech demo at such a low price point? I’m trying not to letThe Sims' monetization practices turn me off the entire life-sim genre, butit’s still hard not to be cautious about the quality of a new competitor that looks too good to be true.
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Of course, it isn’t justThe Simsthat raises some red flags aboutInZOI. The game’s use of AI-generated content for one thing speaks to me of a lack of effort (not to mention the questionable ethics of monetizing AI content trained on the work of non-consenting parties). I will have to reserve my final judgment for when I get a chance to playInZOI, but I can’t help but feel its not going to be theSimsreplacement I hoped it would.
