InZOI‘s Early Access has been embraced by many life sim gamers. It sold one million units in its first week, and currently has a Very Positive average from reviews on Steam. One of the reasons InZOI‘s release has taken the community by storm is because it’s the first game that’s given The Sims 4 competition in a genre where many titles struggle to survive.
InZOI has many features that make it a life sim, but it has other features that could potentially make it a competitor in another genre. InZOI has players take the role of an intern working for AR COMPANY, a virtual reality company that’s overseen by cat gods. The player is given control over a city and its inhabitants as a part of their training. Because players are given control over a city, InZOI comes with custom options for its cities, which could potentially make InZOI a competitor in the city builder space.
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InZOI’s Playable Cities
While InZOI includes similar features to The Sims 4, such as managing the needs of an individual or family, a Build and Buy mode, the ability to create and customize individuals, and gameplay features such as marriage, work, school, and death, InZOI includes other features that differentiate it from The Sims 4. One of InZOI‘s defining features is its karma system, which applies to both individual Zois controlled by the player, and collectively by the entire city.
There are two playable cities in InZOI, Dowon and Bliss Bay. Dowon is inspired by Seoul, while Bliss Bay is a coastal city inspired by Santa Monica. Both cities differ from each other in several significant ways, but their aesthetics are the most obvious difference. Dowon is a city of densely packed high-rise buildings, while Bliss Bay is more suburban.
Players have customization options for each of InZOI‘s cities. Although there aren’t currently any customization options to change the buildings in the city, there are other customization features. Players are currently able to control levels of the city’s sanitation, fire prevention rate, maintenance rate, safety, health, how often the residents dream, the animals that appear, and the maximum population levels.
InZOI’s City Customization
These sliders can dramatically change the appearance and gameplay of each city. Low scores for the sliders can make the city look like something from a post-apocalyptic dystopia, while high values achieve a utopia. Another factor that can change the world is the karma system, which is influenced by the actions of the population. If a city’s Zois do good deeds, the city’s karma score improves, while bad deeds slide karma into bad or terrible states. The karma system hasn’t been fully implemented in Early Access, but future plans for karma involve ghosts and the number of new Zois who can arrive in the city, including newborns.
All these city customization options go beyond a typical life sim. The closest example found in The Sims 4 is The Sims 4: City Living or The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle, where Sims can live in cities and their environmental actions affect the green rating of the world. However, the two systems aren’t close enough to be comparable, and InZOI could eventually have enough city customization to be considered a city builder. With Cities: Skylines 2 struggling, and SimCity‘s disastrous launch in 2013, InZOI has the chance to become a real contender in the world of city simulations with a few adjustments, such as additional customization features and individual building choices for its cities.