#so i'm not dinging it for anything i'm not mad at the sims for

[unfriendlyamazon]

inzoi demo review from someone who fully expected to be an inzoi hater:

tl;dr overwhelmingly positive experience with one negative so bad it broke the game for me

Positives

this one might not be helpful because it will depend on your pc but i own a gaming laptop that is four years old? maybe? expected to get the video card error, but it downloaded and installed easily. the edges are definitely crispy and the cut scenes do not cut scene for me, but i was able to download the demo and play it without too much headache. (this is the first hurdle i assumed i would not be able to pass)

the models are truly beautiful and i have seen people playing with the face capture and i actually think it looks good.

color wheels are easy to use and don't bring your computer to a stuttering halt like sims 3. generally found editing and changing colors to be an easy process with instant results.

do like the presets. i think they have a fun range of presets to choose from. however, presets will continue in the next section.

the face editor is amazing and fun. i had read people's reactions before hand and wasn't sure how much push and pull i would have. for the most part, making average characters, i found it to be easy to edit the face, and i did not yet feel the limitations.

the photo mode is really fun and i can't wait to see what else can be added to it. some controls are not as intuitive as i want them to be but i might be simspilled so i don't want to count that against them.

gender doesn't look too in depth but i was happy to see the men were not blocked from "feminine" hairs and girly clothes. i did a male zoi first and was pleasantly surprised by the selection. then i did a female zoi and that will continue in the next section.

skin tone customization more in depth than i suspected. you can pretty much have any color as your skin tone and it defaults to some pretty dark tones. is it perfect? i don't think so, but neither is any other life sim on the market.

personally when i start a new save i want to be playing the game as quickly as possible. sometimes create a sim can take hoooourrrss and i already want to be in the world. was very much worried the would be the case with create a zoi but i actually found it to be a relatively easy process and i think if the game was fully open i could start playing with a character of my dream without being too bogged down.

the personalities!! i almost forgot to include this. i had read you only have one personality trait and it was based on bs personality tests and found myself unsure BUT ACTUALLY i really like the dimensionality, it seems like the personality will have effect on gameplay (i don't have the screenshot i took but they do affect need growth and how connections are built) and i think it's a well done system that simplifies without sacrificing too much. in actual gameplay? we'll see. but so far so good.

overall the first half of my experience was very good and i was starting to fall under the spell. however......

Negatives

cut scenes and frame rate are definitely suffering with my laptop. i don't know how well the full game will play. again, this is case by case, so despite how easy it was to download, unsure how easy it will be to play the full game.

the ui is cluttered i gotta say it. i have a really large laptop screen and i found it getting in my way. i could not figure out a way to make the left side of the screen fold up so i could focus on editing my zoi. i felt like i had to be extremely zoomed in to play with the features and half my character's face was taken up by ui.

male zoi option vs female zoi. i said i was pleasantly surprised by the male options. then i went to the female zoi and realized she had twice as many options. not overwhelmingly negative, as it's often true of any dress up game, but i have two concerns: 1) that means the clothes are gender locked, they just made two sets to fit the different frames and 2) gender options are extremely limited. you get one female frame and one male, and we will discus the body frames in just a moment i'm working up to it.

clothing is somewhat limited. don't get me wrong, there are a ton of cool customization options where you can change the shirt and pant length, but the clothing has one specific style that, while cool, does not offer a lot of variety. again, demo, this is an easy fix, and you could say the same for any base game life sim.

hairs did feel limited, especially any textured hair.

the big one. the reason i probably won't buy this game. (that is a personal statement, not a moral one.) the body sliders are simpler than sims 4. full stop. sorry the body editing is extremely simple and has so few range and options. muscle mass and body weight are not actually elements to the zoi, and i suspect weight gain will not be a feature in the main game. it seems as tho the game has limited "frames" from which to build bodies. the waistlines are not editable. the weight really isn't either, it actually pulls the body sliders to their full edges, meaning if i want a fat body that is a different shape, good fucking luck my dude. attempted different body shapes for my female zoi and came up short every time. i suspect also, judging from what i've read other people say, that the face presets are more limited than they want you to believe as well, as it seems even the face details are decided by the preset you choose and have limited versatility past that. thanks to lack of separate face detail presets, meaning there is no nose category, or lips, you are really reliant on the original body you pick looking close to your final vision. this gives a lack of player freedom and creativity i find startling. now, i have not pushed the limits of this, and face details i was happy with how editable they were... until i got to the body and started to figure out its limitations.

this is a personal issue based on the way i play, but the clothes are generally also really baggy, so it can be difficult to tell what kind of body shape i am getting with my presets. in general i remove all make up and clothing from a sim when i start to edit them, which is harder to do with the zoi, so i found myself frustrated working through the presets.

to call this final point a negative is a little unfair to the game but it's part of my experience: i was high playing with the face editors and their doll eyes did start to scare me and i had to cover part of the screen. i do think the models look surprisingly good and their expressions actually for the most part look really nice, but after staring at them too long and realizing the limitations, they definitely started to feel uncanny valley.

i think this game is a lot more limited than it advertises itself as. i know it's a demo i know it's an old build i know i know i know i think this is a good indicator of what base game caz is going to look like and i think there are major concerns being raised. i think the people who are primed to like this game will be fully satisfied with the product, but those of us on the fence, i don't know. i feel like in a short play session i started to strip away what i actually enjoyed and became more and more disappointed, but i'm also going to play with it more while i can. so, yes, my volley of emotions from inzoi skeptic to believer to the pedestal being knocked out from underneath it has been an interesting experience.