Soulless simulation
I was, like so many of my 1990s-born peers, a huge Sims girlie.
I played it as a traditional life sim and I also got into all the weird, scrappy lore.
But in the end, I must insist that its not me who is wrong.
InZOI simply has awful vibes.
Starting where you have to start: in character creation.
Zois, the games controllable characters, are rendered in minute, slightly uncanny valley detail.
You cant have a beard on a female body, for example.
This is not only true of character creation.
But each of these is just as shallow.
Careers, skills, and hobbies are progressed straightforwardly.
These presumably influence the autoselected ambition to become a fitness star, so I put him to work.
First, he wants to buy some home gym equipment, and then use it three times.
This is easy enough.
He then wants to read 10 fitness books and level up his fitness score to six.
This whole thing took maybe a week in-game and maybe an hour of real time.
He gestures vaguely at the bins.
Eddies intangibility at work extends to any interaction outside of the Zois home.
But I dont know why you would want to.
One aspect which does potentially contain some of the creative spark I was hoping for is the building mechanics.
Finally, theres getting to know other Zois.
They all want to become influencers and are constantly thinking about social media metrics.
And not just insult, either.
a game developer (??)
who works at a building full of cats (???)
and is then controlling (????)
the Zois in turn.
The only thing this does for the game is add a veneer of corporate soullessness to the whole thing.
