I've played more than 30 hours of Sims competitor Inzoi, and I'm not sure it understands what makes those games so special
I've played more than 30 hours of Sims competitor Inzoi, and I'm not sure it understands what makes those games so special
Its kinda bizarre that there are so few Sims clones/replacements.
It's not that bizarre when you think about it. As a technical piece of software, Sims is actually quite complex.
You need a sophisticated character editor with a vast array of clothing options. You need a house editor that allows you to build any house you can imagine. You need a huge array of possible interactions between people and all kinds of objects. You also need lots of randomized interaction and AI (as in traditional game AI) to control NPCs. You need to have all these things be affected by the characters traits and you need them to go through life stages while still being interesting.
It's a whole lot. It's basically impossible to build a game like that as an indie developer. You really need a large team and that means funding. And that's where it gets hard cause you are up against Sims and I don't imagine many sources of funding want to make that bet.
Its a big piece of work sure, but there haven't even been attempts (that I know of).
And sims is priced so high (with all the expansions) that getting in that market seems feasable if one of the big names wanted to try.
Seems worth an attempt, rather than churning out copy-cat FPS/dots/battle royals/flavour-of-the-month games :/
The flip side to this article is that most of the criticisms, while really valid, talk about the intended play style for life sim games to be to live through the key points of their character's lives with immersion.
For literally 20 years, I've barely seen it used for this purpose, instead people make themselves, their friends, their dream house, they cheat in money and turn off aging etc. Actually stopping to roleplay your character making friends is the activity most people do when their bored of the regular things they do.
Still, InZoi seeming to not simulate the lives of any of the other NPC's is a big loss. Even if you're not interacting with that part of the game, knowing it's there is great. The Sims 4 (or 3, I forget) strove to reach the dream version of this: You buy a cheap property in a fully open world and 'functioning' town and you could walk from your front door to the town center, and the neighbour you see may also drive to town and you'll see them there. Then as you play, you go from working in the gym to owning it, and can now modify it like your property because it runs on the same rules, the same goes for everything else. The Sims didn't manage this but their later games clearly launched with this as their design's guiding light.
I'm mostly interested in the game as a character creator and house builder, but that's because I don't expect any game to do a good job of what the article writer wishes for, The Sims included.
The Sims 4 (or 3, I forget) strove to reach the dream version of this: You buy a cheap property in a fully open world and 'functioning' town and you could walk from your front door to the town center, and the neighbour you see may also drive to town and you'll see them there
That was 3. 3 also has the best customization system where you can make custom patterns for literally every object in the game, so you never had to live with mismatching furniture if you didn't want to.
Keep in mind that "those games" also have decades of content added through expansions and mods, it's very difficult to separate the true base games from what they have become today, in fact a lot of them were relatively simplistic and shallow in their very first releases too. Go play the first version of one of the Sims games with no expansions and tell me if you're having a good experience with deep and interesting mechanics for your Sims, knowing what you know now of what the Sims are capable of.
We are comparing a game in its infancy to an established giant, of course it will pale in comparison... for now, and for quite some time. The question is whether it will catch up, because if it does, it's going to become something very, very big. Yes that's a big if, but it's an if worth waiting for.
I bought Sims 4 on release and regretted it. It released without pools, without toddlers, babies were just objects like back in Sims 1, no genealogy system, no basements, no wants/fears (introduced in Sims 2), and obviously no cool stuff (supernatural Sims, university, ambitions careers, nightlight, pets, horses, seasons/weather, celebrities, etc.). No Create A Style from Sims 3, no truly open neighborhoods like Sims 3, just a bare bones downgraded POS. The games aren't enjoyable IMO without all the EP content anyway. EA/Maxis will never get a penny from me again. I bought Sims 2 base and pirated the dlc, pirated Sims 3 and its dlc, and then bought Sims 4 base but only really played many years later with pirated dlc. Edit: forgot to add I played nearly all Sims content on console as well, I was a major Sims fan.
Inzoi is something I have been waiting for and don't mind buying depending on price, the graphics are closer to what I usually mod my Sims to look like since I never liked the cartoon look.