[Early Access] inZOI - Visually Stunning but Needs More Depth and Polish

• DEVELOPER: inZOI Studio
• PUBLISHER: KRAFTON, Inc.
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Life Sim
• RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2025
• STARTING PRICE: 39,99€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

InZOI enters the life simulation arena with bold ambitions, aiming to challenge The Sims’ decades-long reign by blending photorealistic visuals, expansive customization, and a fresh take on sandbox living. The game looks amazing at first, you can create detailed characters and build freely in an open world. But right now, in Early Access, it feels empty. While it shows great potential, it needs more interesting content to keep you engaged for longer time.

Tools That Redefine Creativity

Gameplay revolves around creating and controlling Zois, customizable characters who live, work, and socialize in one of two launch cities: Dowon (Seoul-inspired) and Bliss Bay (a Californian coastal vibe). You start with the Create-a-Zoi studio, sculpting your avatar’s look and personality from 18 traits such as Adventurer or Individualist, then drop them into a home, prebuilt or custom, to manage eight needs: hunger, hygiene, bathroom, fun, social, energy, sleep, and recognition. From there, it’s classic life sim fare: get a job, build relationships, pursue hobbies, and navigate daily life, all while tweaking the world around you.

Even before you start playing, inZOI surprises you with its incredibly detailed character editor. Personally, I’m not great at creating characters, it’s not my style, and I don’t have hours to tweak every facial feature or outfit. But what makes this system stand out is the ability to share your creations with others. From clothes and accessories to fully designed Zois and lots, there’s so much to experiment with. The tools are not only deep but also well-implemented, making it easy to explore and integrate your ideas into the game.

Build Mode is equally powerful too. You can stack walls, roofs, and furniture, then fine-tune colors, materials, and even 3D-print real-world objects like a plush toy via photo uploads. City Edit mode lets you overhaul entire towns like swap billboards or adjust safety levels to tweak crime rates or even influence the health of Zois. It’s a sandbox dream, with tools that outshine The Sims 4’s base offerings in scope and detail.

Slow-Pace Drag Life Sim Fun

Jobs range from passive (office worker) to active (firefighter, fast food clerk), with the latter offering task-based engagement, put out fires, flip burgers, while the former auto-resolve off-screen, leaving you twiddling thumbs unless you fast-forward (a functional but slow feature). Yes, unlike Sims whose day can end in a matter of minutes, inZOI genuinely is much slower paced game. One day can last for about 96 minutes if you keep it in normal and you can also tweak this future. The game is genuinely a proper real-time game and two in game days can make you play for hours before they even end.

My biggest issue lies in the sluggish pace, it drags down every other system. Skills accumulate too quickly, and social interactions feel meaningless when you can marry someone within two hours or instantly become best friends. The lack of realism undermines what could be engaging systems. While the dialogue options are impressively varied, split into Love, Friendship, and Business categories, relationships begin unnaturally neutral – even married Zois start as strangers, forcing a grind that lacks emotional payoff.

Worse, all interactions feel samey. The Sims isn’t perfect here either, but inZOI’s repetitions make it hard to connect with other Zois; everything grows stale fast. That said, the developers have promised meaningful updates. A texting system, when implemented, could be a game-changer, here’s hoping it injects some life into these hollow relationships.

The open world delivers a mixed experience. While you can drive vehicles or navigate your Zoi with WASD controls through detailed streets, parks, and shops, much of it feels superficial. Numerous buildings remain inaccessible, and NPCs, though enhanced by “Smart Zoi” AI, often dismiss interactions when occupied, creating a world that feels vibrant yet oddly detached. The world itself is visually stunning, with exceptional attention to detail that brings it to life. Zois constantly populate the streets, vehicles flow through traffic, and every element combines to create a spectacularly crafted environment.

Very Demanding Game For Your PC

A karma system introduces an interesting dynamic: positive actions (like helping others) improve luck, while negative behavior (such as insulting others) has consequences. However, without dynamic events or deeper NPC interactions, the gameplay loop grows repetitive. After 30 hours, the cycle of building, working, and socializing loses its charm, lacking a meaningful purpose to sustain engagement.

The game looks amazing thanks to Unreal Engine 5. The Zois look very realistic, with shiny skin and hair, but they look more like perfect K-pop stars than normal people. Although there are weather changes like rain and snow make the world feel real, they don’t really influence the gameplay that much. You can get cold and become sick, but it’s not as detailed as I hoped.

While the game runs well on powerful computers, like those with RTX 3080 graphics cards, it can be too demanding for average PCs. Additionally, the game is filled with bugs, many of which are more annoying than game-breaking. For example, food doesn’t always get eaten immediately after being prepared, or it disappears when placed on counters. Zois also frequently get stuck in random places, like on treadmills. These are just a few of the many bugs I encountered during my multiple playthroughs.

The AI-driven “Smart Zoi” system, which simulates thoughts and autonomy is a promising but experimental feature. Right now, NPCs are too rigid to create organic stories, often behaving illogically, like stubbornly following their schedules despite being starving. Still, the game delivers a solid sandbox experience and has a lot of ideas to make it a proper life sim one day.

A very ambitious project

Ultimately, the gameplay feels shallow, jobs lack variety, and the social systems come across as robotic. While the world is visually stunning, it remains a hollow shell. That said, it’s still far more impressive than The Sims 4 at launch, and a clear step up from EA’s approach of flooding players with hundreds of overpriced, underwhelming DLCs. InZOI has great potential, and I’m eager to see how it evolves.

That said, we should remember this is a Krafton game. Even in Early Access, the developers have already hinted at upcoming DLCs, which is concerning when the base game still feels so unfinished. Heads up: this is a VERY slow-paced game, and I mean painfully slow. Even at 8x speed, things drag. While some hailed it as a “Sims killer,” the reality is more modest: it’s a promising contender still carving out its identity. For customization addicts and patient Early Access supporters, it’s a great 40€ sandbox with tons of potential. But if you’re after deep simulation or unscripted chaos, temper your expectations, it’s not there yet.

A copy of the game was purchased for review purposes

3.2