The launch of InZOI in Early Access at the end of March was one of the most high-profile events in the world of life simulation games in recent years. This game from Krafton, the Korean studio known for PUBG, literally burst onto the scene surrounded by hype and expectation.

It’s being called a potential “killer of The Sims,” which in itself sounds like a challenge. The community of players and critics have been debating for months whether InZOI can dethrone the iconic series from EA, which has set the standard for the genre for decades. The fact that EA canceled The Sims 5 after InZOI was announced has also thrown more fire into the cauldron.

Comparisons to The Sims are inevitable: both games are life simulators where players are encouraged to create characters, build houses and control their destinies. But if The Sims is famous for its chaotic charm and absurd humor, InZOI relies on visual power and modern technologies, including generative AI for textures and dialogues. Already at the start of early access it became clear that the project has huge ambitions – from an open world to a detailed character editor.

However, the first impressions of the game are divided: some see it as a worthy competitor, others – just a beautiful shell without a soul. The delight from the graphics neighbors with disappointment from the gameplay.

At the time of its launch on Steam, the game received 83% approval out of more than 12 thousand reviews, which indicates a warm welcome from the players. Critics, on the other hand, are more reserved, with scores ranging from 65 to 80 out of 100, and opinions ranging from “promising experiment” to “disappointment of the year”.

The question is whether the game will justify the hype that surrounds it from the first days. Let’s tell you what makes the novelty so remarkable and whether it has potential.

Graphics are InZOI’s strong suit

InZOI’s graphics are the first thing that catches your eye when you launch the game, and arguably its main calling card at the current Early Access stage. The photorealism of the characters, referred to here as “Zoe”, is striking from the first moments.

The detailing of faces, clothing textures and environments reaches a level that has been a rarity in the life simulation genre so far. The character editor stands out in particular: the ability to customize the smallest details, from eye shape to layered outfits, is a true delight. Even the most demanding aesthetes find here a space for creativity, creating unique characters with cinematic precision.

The world of the game doesn’t lag behind either. The open map with smooth transitions between locations, be it city streets or cozy houses, looks impressive. The generative AI technology used to create textures adds realism: surfaces look alive, and lighting adjusts to the time of day, creating the atmosphere of a real world. On medium PCs, the game shows decent performance, which is a pleasant surprise considering its high system requirements.

However, this brilliance has a downside. The photorealistic “Zoe” sometimes seems too perfect, almost puppet-like, which causes a feeling of unnaturalness.

The lack of variety in physiques, such as full characters, limits the realism that the developers so actively promote. The world, despite its beauty, is sometimes perceived as sterile and empty – vast spaces are not filled with enough details or activities, which contrasts with their outward splendor. This is especially noticeable in comparison to The Sims, where visual simplicity is offset by liveliness and chaos.

The technical side isn’t flawless either. Some people encounter problems like clothes clipping or small bugs in animations, which is expected for early access, but still slightly spoils the impression. High system requirements scare away some of the audience – without a powerful hardware the game may slow down, especially when the world is fully loaded.

And yet, despite these shortcomings, the graphics remain InZOI’s strongest argument. It sets a new bar for the genre, even if not all elements of the visual style are perfectly balanced yet.

Emotionally, it’s hard not to get enthralled when looking at this world. Every texture, every ray of light seems to shout that before us is the future of simulation. But this beauty still hides the question: is the image alone enough to keep the players’ attention? InZOI’s visuals are both a triumph and a challenge, as they raise expectations that the rest of the game has yet to live up to.

InZOI is fun to play only in the first few hours

InZOI’s gameplay was perhaps the most controversial part of the game, evoking both guarded optimism and outright disappointment. At first glance, the framework is familiar. Especially for fans of life simulators like me (I’ve played all parts of The Sims and almost all add-ons, don’t beat me with sticks): character creation, managing their daily lives, work, relationships and building. Behind this familiar structure, however, lies an experience that so far boasts neither depth nor coherence.

The developers at Krafton were clearly aiming to offer something new, but at this stage the mechanics feel more like a draft than a polished product.

Zoe’s controls include basic needs like eating, sleeping, hygiene, and activities like working or socializing. The open world adds freedom: you can explore the city, visit different locations, and interact with other characters with almost no loading screens.

The karma system, which affects the fate of all Zoey’s on the map depending on their actions, sounds intriguing and promises variety. The building tools are also satisfying – they’re intuitive and allow you to create detailed houses with relative ease. Although, to me, it’s severely lacking in European furniture and interiors.

The customization of clothes and items is impressive: the ability to combine layers or create unique designs sets the game apart from the competition.

But here’s the catch: there’s a hollowness behind the shell. Mechanics seem superficial, and activities quickly become a chore. Work, sleep and even socializing take place without much player involvement – there is no chaos or unexpected events that could revitalize the process, as in the same “Sims”.

There are three cool features, but all of them are still raw

One of the notable features of InZOI is the use of the smartphone as the central control tool. Characters interact with the world through a virtual gadget that replaces traditional menus (they haven’t gone anywhere either, if anything). Through it, you can make appointments, communicate with other “Zoyas,” order food, or even manage your schedule. The idea sounds modern and fits logically into the game’s photorealistic aesthetic, emphasizing its connection to real life. In practice, it adds convenience: no need to dig through the interface to call a friend for a visit or check work tasks – everything is at your fingertips in one device.

However, communication via smartphone is not yet impressive in depth. The choice of lines and actions is limited, and the reactions of interlocutors are predictable, which deprives the social system of liveliness. Controlling other elements via smartphone – like buying a car or planning your day – works stably, but doesn’t bring anything revolutionary. It’s more of a convenient wrapper than a full-fledged mechanic that could change the gameplay experience.

Time acceleration works slowly, making the wait unbearable, especially when the character is just sleeping or laboring. AI-generated dialogs often sound unnatural – topics like cryptocurrency or corporate slang are taken out of context and ruin immersion. However, they often look concise and on-topic, you can directly participate in dialogs and understand what they are talking about. True, AI communication here is only in English.

Relationships and social interactions still lack depth, and the world, despite its openness, feels lifeless due to the lack of events and activity.

Another innovation is the possibility of direct control of “Zoe” in the style of action games. Instead of the usual point-and-click simulation, the player can take control of the character by moving it with the keys or gamepad. This is especially noticeable with driving: the inhabitants get behind the wheel and the player is given the opportunity to drive around the open world, exploring city streets. On paper, it sounds like a step forward – a life simulator with elements of freedom, where you can not just tell where to go, but make your own way.

In reality, the realization is still raw. The movement of characters feels clumsy, animations sometimes fail, especially when colliding with objects. Car control adds variety, but is not fully integrated into the gameplay: trips rarely have a purpose other than getting from point A to point B. The open world, while beautiful, doesn’t offer enough activity to justify such mechanics.

It feels more like an experiment that hasn’t yet found its place in the big picture. Racing or dynamic events could be added, but right now it’s more of a nice bonus than a key feature.

The karma system is one of InZOI’s most intriguing mechanics, promising to add a moral aspect to the simulation. It tracks the deeds of “Zoey” and affects their lives based on how they behave in the world. Good deeds – helping others, generosity – boost karma, unlocking positive events or bonuses. Bad deeds – selfishness, conflict – lower it, which can lead to trouble, like failure at work or broken relationships. The developers position this as a way to make the player’s actions meaningful by adding an element of consequences.

In practice, the system is still in its infancy. There are few concrete examples or large-scale consequences yet. From the basics: you can scold any “Zoe” in town with bad karma and give him an incentive to behave better. There’s no clear feedback that shows exactly how choices shape the fate of characters. This adds depth to the game, differentiating it from The Sims, where actions rarely have a lasting effect. But for now, this system is too abstract – it’s not woven into everyday life in a way that feels meaningful.

Comparisons to The Sims are inevitable here. Whereas the competitor offers absurd situations and emotional involvement, InZOI is so far stuck in a sterile consumerist existence. There’s no spark of fun, no sense that the characters’ actions matter. Some see potential in this – the game is clearly designed for refinement, and elements like karma or city customization may eventually make sense. However, trying to cover everything at once has left the gameplay shallow and aimless. Any key features are still missing. The game gets boring to play after a few hours.

Emotionally, the gameplay leaves mixed feelings. There are glimmers of something big: moments when it seems that something exciting is about to start. But they are quickly extinguished under the weight of monotony. At this stage, InZOI feels more like a technical demo than a full-blown life simulator.

Its mechanics are a promise that has yet to be fulfilled, and the game’s success depends largely on how the developers utilize the early access time.

Don’t look at the system requirements, they’re inflated

The game demonstrates very good results on an average hardware system. The performance remains acceptable if you don’t turn the settings to maximum, and the open world loads without significant delays. So, on PC with RTX 2060 or RX 5600 XT graphics cards and 12 GB of RAM the game runs smoothly at medium settings. Moreover, even on an old GTX 1070 the novelty produces 40-45 frames at the same settings, but without raytracing.

This is pleasantly surprising, considering its visual saturation. However, high system requirements are not an empty sound: on weak machines or without SSD, the game can be sluggish, and loading shaders sometimes causes crashes. For a comfortable game it is recommended to have at least 16 GB of RAM and a fast drive.

On powerful configurations the picture is more complicated. Even with RTX 3070 or 4090 and processors like i7 12700 there are FPS drops to 40-45 in rich scenes, especially if ray tracing is enabled. Disabling this function significantly increases the frames, but it is difficult to achieve stable 60 FPS at ultra settings.

The “empty world” problem is also related to optimization: texture and resource streaming sometimes can’t keep up with the character’s movement, which leads to a feeling of incompleteness. Asynchronous loading helps, but doesn’t solve all the problems completely.

There are already mods that add optimization to the game.

Emotionally, optimization causes ambivalent feelings. It’s good to see that the game is already performing better than many people expected from a project on UE5 in early access. But it’s annoying that even top systems don’t always cope without tambourine dancing. It’s not a disaster, but still the developers will have to work hard on this point.

There is potential, and with patches the situation may improve, but now optimization is a compromise between beauty and smoothness.

It’s still worth a try

InZOI leaves behind a complex impression – a mixture of excitement, disappointment and hope. This game really stands out against the background of the genre, but so far it doesn’t live up to all expectations.

Graphics is an absolute triumph of the project. Photorealism of characters, detailed editor and open world set a new bar for life simulators. The ability to create unique “Zoe” with cinematic precision and build houses with intuitive tools is impressive. However, this brilliance is overshadowed by sterility: the world feels empty, and the characters’ perfection sometimes borders on unnaturalness. Visuals have become a powerful trump card, but it is not yet backed up by content.

Gameplay is still far from perfect. Mechanics like communication via smartphone, direct control and karma system sound promising, but they are realized superficially. The everyday life of the heroes is reduced to routine without a spark of fun or significance, and AI-generated dialogs are often out of tone. And on weaker PCs below the RTX 3060, there’s no AI-feature at all.

The open world, while beautiful, isn’t eventful, making exploration aimless. It’s not a full-blown simulator, but rather a foundation that has yet to be completed. Comparisons to the chaotic charm of The Sims only emphasize this emptiness.

Optimization, too, leaves questions. The game runs decently on medium PCs, but requires a powerful iron for a comfortable experience at high settings. FPS sags, texture loading issues, and high system requirements are discouraging.

Modders and developers are already offering solutions, but perfect smoothness is still a long way off. This is not a failure, but rather an expected roughness of early access, which can be forgiven.

The overall impression is made up of contrasts. InZOI’s potential is huge: innovative ideas, visual power and Krafton’s ambition hint that the game could become a genre leader.

Emotionally, InZOI is both delightful and frustrating. Delight at the beauty is replaced by disappointment at the emptiness, and hope for updates struggles with doubts about their sufficiency. This is not a failure, but a bold experiment that is still searching for its soul. The game’s success depends on how Krafton utilizes the early access time: whether it adds depth to the gameplay, revitalizes the world, and polishes the technical side. For now, InZOI is a beautiful promise that one would like to see fulfilled.