Vortex Gaming

The life of a person is profound and diverse. There are so many things you can do while living, and the choices you can make are also diverse. That's why I like life simulation games. Or, strictly speaking, I really liked The Sims series. In fact, this genre is so narrow and solid that The Sims series is the only thing that comes to mind when I think of life games.

So when Krafton's inZOI first revealed its appearance, I was so excited and happy from the perspective of a life game fan. I thought I could finally meet a life game other than The Sims. Playing various games in a genre you like and experiencing new fun is something that gamers can't help but look forward to.

And before the Early Access release, I had the opportunity to play inZOI a little earlier. It was my second meeting since the last G-STAR, but this time it was a test version almost identical to the Early Access version. In other words, I could play the game without time restrictions.

So I installed and played the game with a pounding heart. I created a total of three Joys and lived each of their lives, or Joy lives, diligently. After living three lives like that, I'm going to write about what I felt at the time of Early Access.

The first impression of the game, the customization part is really good. First of all, I want to give it a passing score just for taking 2 hours to create two Joys. If you want to immerse yourself in one person or one family and play for a long time, you definitely need a Joy that you like. Both externally and internally. In that regard, customization is naturally very important.

And inZOI's customization is excellent. It's not just that you can create outwardly pretty and cool characters, but also because various aspects such as the detail of customization, the freedom of clothing production using AI prompts, and the diversity of presets are well prepared.

What I liked the most was that I could easily adjust everything about Joy from head to toe, simply but delicately. I could easily change various parts of the appearance just by pressing the dots on the face and body and moving the mouse around. It was also nice that they provided options for users who want more detailed customization.

Not only that. You can also create everything you want after selecting the basic frame for clothing. For example, in the case of tops, you are given options for each part, such as the detail of the neck, the shape of the arms, and the length of the clothing itself, so you can easily create the style of clothing you want.

You can also easily change the color and material of the clothing. I could see that they were trying to satisfy users of various tendencies by providing functions that allow you to easily select colors from the palette or directly apply more diverse patterns or material files to the game.

Among them, I especially liked the AI prompt, which produces results just by combining words easily. These added textures can be used not only for clothing but also for various objects, making them even more useful.

Thanks to this easy and delicate customization, time passed in an instant as I adjusted and selected everything from Joy's appearance to the clothes and accessories they were wearing. That means there are many choices you can make. Since it's still Early Access, more elements will be added in the future. I'm already excited.

After diligently creating Joy's appearance, you can then select their traits. Quite a variety of traits are prepared, and depending on the trait, various aspects such as the things Joys automatically do, their personality, what they enjoy, and what they get bored of are determined.

And goal setting is also prepared for users who find this difficult. When setting a life goal for each Joy, various things such as recommended traits, short-term goals, and recommended jobs are provided. This helps users who are not familiar with this genre to enjoy the game more smoothly. Of course, you can start the game without setting a goal so that you can create everything yourself.

After spending a long time customizing everything about Joy, you can start playing in earnest. There are currently a total of 3 villages you can play in. To put it simply, it feels like a Korean-style city, a resort, and an American LA-style city.

After selecting a village, you can buy a house according to the amount of money you have, or buy a site at a cheap price and build your own house. In the test version I played this time, I could use money cheat keys. Thanks to this, I was able to buy a very expensive house and play by changing the interior as I wanted.

You don't have to worry too much even if building is difficult. They provide presets for completed buildings, as well as room presets for the purpose. You can build everything from the foundation of the house yourself, but even beginners can easily start building by using various presets.

What was a little disappointing was that it wasn't easy to change the angle or overlap objects. I wondered if it would be better if the angle could be changed more precisely, or if it could be rotated freely. Now, it only rotates as much as it is honestly set, and object overlapping is not possible at all, so it was not easy to use the space freely.

What was a little embarrassing was the placement of the large sofa and coffee table, which seems like nothing. Because the large sofa in the form of 'ㄱ' or 'ㄴ' takes up space in the form of a square, I couldn't put a coffee table in the empty space between the sofas. This was a problem caused by the fact that object overlapping was impossible and the space occupied by the object was different from its appearance.

Of course, there were also noticeably good parts. One of them is the 3D printer. Just bring a 2D image roughly from Google and put it in, and the image will be transformed into a 3D object. After a little adjustment, you can add the added object to Joy's house as furniture.

However, I didn't think it was perfect yet. The image I put in was an image of Totoro sitting on a white background, but it was 3D-ized with his left ear crushed. Of course, you can turn on the symmetry mode and rotate the axis for such cases. If I refine this a little more, I think I will be able to fill Joy's house with my favorite character dolls in the future.

Personally, this 3D printer is the most favorite tool among the various convenient functions inZOI has. Anyone can really easily add furniture, objects, and accessories to the game. You don't need to receive a separate external tool or install anything. Just bring your favorite image and upload it. Isn't it amazing that you can apply objects to the in-game so easily?

So what is the actual gameplay process of inZOI like? Although there were still many things lacking, the content itself was not bad. The concept of being a god and managing the Joys in the city as a whole is also faithful. However, personally, I was quite disappointed as much as I had high expectations. The biggest disappointment among them is that I don't feel that inZOI has its own unique characteristics in terms of content, except for the graphics.

To be really honest, it feels like I'm playing The Sims series with innovatively improved graphics, thanks to which the specs have also increased, and with realistic backgrounds. To be more precise, it feels like I'm playing The Sims with a lot of DLC missing.

From basic parts such as desire parameters to interactions with family and neighbors, various skills that can be raised through actions, and conversations on various topics, a lot of things in the content are too familiar. Of course, by applying all of these contents to the game, there is no major shortage in enjoying the game as a life simulation.

However, users who like this genre have often experienced The Sims series. I am one of them. So in inZOI, I wanted to play 'inZOI', not The Sims. It's not that I wanted the content to be similar just because it's a game of the same genre. It was a bit disappointing that what I encountered after the enjoyable customization was a system that was so similar that I didn't even need a guide.

Of course, satisfaction will vary depending on the person. Some people may have wanted to play a familiar style with graphics that are more up-to-date. There will also be people looking for an alternative to The Sims 4, which was released 10 years ago.

However, it seems that the content itself may feel familiar to those who wanted to enjoy a life simulation with a slightly different and special system, rather than The Sims series with good graphics and advanced technology.

That doesn't mean inZOI is a badly made game. It's not that the game is bad just because it's familiar. First of all, the foundation of the basic content has been well laid, so you can fully immerse yourself in the game and enjoy it.

You can also see the efforts to add something special in the midst of familiarity. A business element has been added to the relationship with other Joys, so you can create a colleague relationship, you can experience the Korean-style city of Dowon where you can see various Korean signs while riding the actual subway, and you can adjust your desires with Nyang Points provided when you achieve Joy's short-term goals to make the game easier to play.

The AI-powered Smart Joy system is also indispensable. The Smart Joy, which was added in this Early Access, is an AI system that literally makes Joys more delicate and smarter. It improves the intelligence of NPC Joys in the city, and you can look into the minds of the Joys you are controlling or check their diaries.

Not only that. Joys also set their future schedules based on their own experiences, and users can also influence Joys by writing commands directly. For example, if you enter 'You love music. You get musical inspiration from anywhere and look at the world lovingly.', Joy will live their life according to this command, interacting a lot and opening up their own minds.

Users can read the minds that Joys create in this way and interact with Joys through diaries that they write in more detail at night. However, the command prompt can only be entered in English, and for this reason, Joy's thoughts and diaries were also displayed in English.

Objects and interactions with other Joys, which take up the most part of the game, are also well organized. What's especially great is the computer. With just a laptop or computer, Joy can write, compose, study, get certified, make videos, and report public interest, among many other interactions.

There are also a lot of conversation options. In addition to the options that appear in the recommendation list, you can also choose categories in detail and have the conversations you want one by one. However, it seemed that talking to multiple Joys at the same time was done automatically in some way. When you are talking 1:1, another Joy who was nearby naturally participates in the conversation, but it is impossible to directly select the topic of the conversation.

In addition, it is true that the content itself is still lacking. I want to naturally approach Joys singing and playing in the park and play the guitar with them, but it is impossible, and I can't put the paintings I drew in my bag or hang them on the wall. Most jobs and all schools are rabbit hole methods, so Joy disappears all day several times a week, and even events are held in rabbit holes.

What was most disappointing was that it was difficult to adjust Joys who were tied together as a family individually. If they are together in the house or not far away, it is possible to move between Joys without loading, but in other cases, you have to go through a loading screen. Because of this, if you send one Joy far away, it was not easy to check what the other Joy was doing and spending their time on.

In the case of optimization, there seemed to be many parts to be refined. When playing with Intel 13600KF, 32GB RAM, RTX 3080 specs, the game was forcibly terminated about once every 4 hours. The graphics in the game were set to the highest level automatically recommended in the game, but if I turned off Smart Joy, there was no major problem playing at 60 frames.

The Smart Joy system, which is also considered the core of inZOI, was not yet in its complete form as it is still in experimental mode. The biggest problem is the language problem. Joy's thoughts keep popping up, but they are all in English. And it seems that there is a lag in the process of loading this, so if the thoughts pop up in a row, it is difficult to move Joy as I want.

inZOI, which I confirmed through this test, is a life simulation that has built a great foundation such as customization, architecture, and interaction, but I still feel that there are empty parts in terms of content. There were many cases where I wanted to do more and enjoy more, but I couldn't yet. But as they revealed at this showcase, I think they will fill in these shortcomings one by one until the official release.

And once you play the game, time passes very quickly. Isn't this the most important thing in life simulation? Immersing yourself in Joy's life and watching their lives.

inZOI will release its Early Access version on Steam at 9:00 AM on March 28th. And from the 20th to the 28th, they plan to release a demo build where you can experience the character studio and architecture studio.

inZOI Party InvenMinno
2025-03-21