Starting from 2024, lovers of Life Simulator in The Sims style will have many games to choose from. Let’s discover them together!
Over the past years, EA has built a large community thanks to The Sims universe. For the first time, Life Simulator players will have the opportunity to choose whether to remain faithful to EA’s created universe or to try something new. Let’s explore together the alternatives proposed for 2024 and the years to come.
1. inZOI
Developed by KRAFTON, inZOI is the new Korean life simulator scheduled for release in the last quarter of 2024.
The first thing that comes to mind when talking about inZOI is the level of graphical implementation. Thanks to the use of Unreal Engine 5, we have much more realistic and detailed graphics compared to the titles seen so far.
In inZOI, we’ll be able to create and manage our inZOIs, a name chosen by KRAFTON to represent the ‘Sims’. We’ll always have traits and skills to assign to our inZOIs, along with their ambitions and desires.
Regarding aesthetics, the inZOIs seem much more similar to us and have a higher level of detail compared to other titles. However, at the moment, inZOI seems to offer fewer choices in terms of house construction, furniture selection, and physical characterization of the character.
The face and body don’t seem to be as customizable as in The Sims 4, but rather the choice seems to be limited to a pre-established selection.
As for color selection, however, the choice is quite extensive. It seems to use the same style of color and theme selection seen in The Sims 3.
The architectural style aims to represent a modern and technological reality, very close to the current representation of large cities.
We’ll have various themes to change the graphics of our game, including cartoon, black and white, or modifying the game’s brightness tones and colors. This choice has never been seen before.
Regarding gameplay, it promises much more than the basic game offered by EA with The Sims.
InZOI promises an immersive experience by allowing us to live the lives of our inZOIs in the third person!
We can roam the city, make friends, fall in love, or quarrel with other inZOIs.
From the trailer, we can also observe a life schedule and family unit commitments that can be modified.
The map will be open-world; we can already see some aesthetic changes in terms of billboards or the choice of trees scattered throughout the city. We don’t yet know how far we can go in editing the present terrain, but we can definitely customize the already-built buildings.
We can already see food kiosks around the city, available in The Sims 4 only through expansions, in addition to the presence of seasons that can be modified by the player.
Another addition is the ability to adopt pets. In particular, in the trailer, we can notice the inclusion of a cat in the family unit, an icon chosen by KRAFTON to represent the new title.
We’ll also have the opportunity to experience our careers; we can already see many options to choose from, such as firefighter, bartender, supermarket clerk, office work, and many more.
For now, it’s known to be available for PC, and the game requirements seem to be quite high due to the graphical implementations. We don’t yet know if it will be released for consoles, but we can assume that if so, it will be available only for next-gen platforms.
We still don’t have information about the purchase modes, but we can assume that inZOI will be free-to-play and will feature microtransactions.
Currently, KRAFTON is developing several multiplayer modes for inZOI. This information leads us to assume that it is unlikely that the use or favoring of mods will be allowed.
For graphics enthusiasts, cat lovers, and those who appreciate modern style, this is definitely a title to look forward to.
2. Life By You (cancelled*)
Life By You is the new life simulator from Paradox. The early access release was scheduled for September 2023 but has been postponed to March 5, 2024.
One of the fundamental mechanics that sets it apart from other life simulators is that the Sims, called ‘Humans,’ use the same language as the player. Conversations will also be customizable, and we can create our social interactions, adapting them based on the circumstances.
The character editor, for creating family units, is extremely detailed. Both aesthetically and in terms of personality choice. Many traits and characteristics will be available that will allow us to create unique and detailed humans. We’ll have the opportunity to decide not only the tastes and skills of our humans, which will result in changes to the gameplay style, but we can also create a customized background.
We can also assign a job, a home, and a means of transport directly in this mode before placing humans in our city.
Life By You will be an open world, and the map is highly customizable. We’ll decide the size and location of our lots. We’ll also be able to create our commercial activities, choosing from a list of activities including bars, supermarkets, and much more. If the activity we want to create is not on the list, we can even create one ourselves with our rules.
Similar to inZOI, in this case too, we’ll have the possibility to play in third person. Not only that, for lovers of the first person, we’ll also have this mode available!
For now, the graphics is not a strong point of Life By You, but the game is still in development, and we can expect significant improvements.
Life By You will be available for PC; the requirements will not be as high as for inZOI, but we’re still talking about an NVIDIA GTX 960. Knowing Paradox, the minimum requirements will not be enough to fully experience the game.
As mentioned in the previous article, Life By You not only guarantees the use of mods but also encourages it thanks to the mod tool specifically developed.
Paradox is known for the complexity of its titles, and even in this case, it doesn’t seem to be any less. If you want to create your world and stories in detail, Life By You is definitely for you!
3. Paralives
For those who prefer a more peaceful and relaxing experience, let’s move on to the next announced title: Paralives!
We still don’t have a release date for Paralives, the new indie life simulator developed by Alex Massé.
Paralives offers a completely different style from an aesthetic point of view compared to the other titles. We’re facing a more natural and realistic vision with pastel colors and a relaxing atmosphere.
Paralives offers a more detailed experience when it comes to character creation and house customization. Both for interior choices, highly modifiable and customizable. And for the choice of land and buildings.
Moreover, the team is focusing on making the simulation experience regarding work/careers customizable as well. The world of Paralives also takes into account a currently sensitive theme: Climate change.
In the game, ‘Eco-friendly‘ housing styles will be implemented and strongly recommended; this will have a positive impact on the game world and positively influence neighbors and the entire community.
What can we say? Paralives aims to represent real life at its best, from green living to social activities, and alas, to expenses to maintain a house. The bill system in Paralives will be challenging: electricity/water consumption based on the lot size or quantity affects the final cost.
Why add one of the worst features of real life into a video game? Well, the team found at least these three reasons!
1️) Adding a bit of challenge to the game, urging us to find sources of income to cover expenses
2) Having to manage and consider how the objects we place in the house will affect costs
3️) Finding interesting ways to reduce bills and cut expenses (investing in renewable resources like wind/solar)
This and much more is in development; Paralives is a title to definitely consider, especially for those who love spending hours building the perfect house and creating realistic stories.
For further details about Paralives, you can read our previous article.
4. The Sims 4
As for Sims 4, EA continues to make updates and release expansions. This makes Sims 4 a game in constant evolution and still valid in the years to come.
The new expansion “For Rent” is scheduled for December 7 and will allow players to manage a rental network and build multi-family properties.
This expansion could lay the groundwork for an expansion similar to what was seen in The Sims 3: “Hotels & Resorts,” which was highly appreciated by players at the time.
For EA, it’s important now more than ever to consider the needs of the community. Perhaps it was precisely the competition that pushed EA to offer players the expansion they were waiting for. From what we know, EA has no intention of abandoning Sims 4. In contrast to Sims 3, which was abandoned shortly after the release of the fourth title.
This has caused dissatisfaction among many players who still, despite the mainly graphical implementations, prefer it to the new title.
5. Project Rene
We still have very few details about the much-awaited “The Sims 5“. What we know is that it’s in development under the name Project Rene and should be released in the coming years. EA has announced that it will be a free-to-play, multiplayer game. This choice hasn’t thrilled part of the community, which prefers not to share its simulations. Therefore, choosing to keep The Sims 4 updated, EA promises to cater to all segments of the audience.
EA’s huge problem certainly doesn’t concern the validity of its titles but the prices of its DLCs. The price of new expansions still almost equals the price of a complete game.
With the arrival of the new titles, EA can no longer afford these choices. Titles like Life By You, inZOI, and Paralives, in fact, promise many of the mechanics that EA sells at a high price, including those from the base game.
We still don’t know if EA will take action on this or if this will lead The Sims to be just a distant, pleasant memory.
Life Simulator – In conclusion
As a lover of the life simulator genre, I can’t wait to try something new. This doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning The Sims universe. I hope that new ideas and healthy competition will lead to improvements and evolution in the history of Life Simulator.
Lovers of other genres such as Roguelike, Metroidvania, etc., have always had many games to choose from and rightly played them all!
Now, lovers of Life Simulators, it’s our turn!”
