Huge potential. A good publisher behind it gives me hope that this will be a serious contender and a leading game in the life simulation genre, which has been missing a modern, new entry very, very much, you could even say has been longing for a Sims 4 replacement for 11 years.

The modern graphics, the in-depth and detailed “Zoi” editor with lots of cosmetic freedom, the seamless and really streamlined integration of the community hub where you can share your own creations and download others easily, the open and freely explorable world in which you can even control your own Zoi with WSAD or drive your car ... All of this runs smoothly and stutter-free at 144 FPS on my 280hz max. monitor (DLSS on “Balance”, Frame Generation ‘ON’, all settings on “ULTRA”) and they are all milestones in this genre that - I can't even fathom this - have never existed before.

I also use the maximum possible simulation settings and so far have no problems with the frame rate or other bugs. The same applies to my wife, who plays on the gaming notebook with slightly less powerful hardware due to the nature of Laptops having minimal downgraded versions for heating efficiency I guess.
Mainboard:

• GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER
  
• Hers: ASUS G634JYR

GPU:

• Gainward GeForce RTX 4090 Phantom GS / 24GB GDDR6X SDRAM
  
• Hers: GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop / 16GB GDDR6 SDRAM

CPU:

• Intel® Core™ i9-13900KS
  
• Hers: Intel Core™ i9 14900HX

Disks:

• WD Black SN850X NVMe SSD 4 TB + 12 TB HDD von WD
  
• 1x 1TB SSD M.2

RAM:

• Kingston FURY DIMM 64 GB DDR5-6000 (2x 32 GB) Dual-Kit
  
• Hers: 2x16GB / 32GB DDR5 RAM

Tower:

• be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 , Big-Tower-Gehäuse
  
• Hers: n/a

Cooling:

• ZXT Kraken 360 RGB 360mm Wasserkühlung & be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1600W Netzteil
  
• Hers: n/a

I will continue monitor the framerate and general performance and may update my experience here, but for now, with a powerful system you will be able to enjoy inZoi without any issues - thats at least for my subjective perception.

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Graphics

• 10/10 - Very highly detailed character models, hair and world/objects. Maybe lacks some hair physics, but that doesn't hurt the score.

Gameplay

• 7/10 - Great “Zoi” creator with a huge number of options (hair, clothes etc), a real game changer when it comes to detailed face and body sculpting, with almost no sliders but almost “full freedom” in terms of how it feels when you use it. Clothes and hair can be dyed any color the spectrum allows, clothes and objects can be changed in material, pattern and colors very often.

Zoi-Gameplay

• 6/10 - A good start, especially considering the fully open game world with Zois, cars and general life going on around you. Interactions with yourself and each other are a good basis, but I couldn't seem to play a full on volleyball game at Vollyball Beach? At least there was nothing to choose from. But: The potential and the foundations have been laid, better to spend more time in development instead of adding more rather than less fun to the game as with Sims 4 with half-baked, buggy expansions. 6 out of 10, but a strong and hopeful 6.

Plot-Building

• 7.5/10 - Massive improvement compared to the other, well-known game and with tons of options to customize your house, your belongings, and even download from an incredibly vast library of community-created content... there is still room for potential, still lots of activity objects or decoration stuff missing somewhat, however, this is Early Access, I fully expect to see a big growth of bulding items in the next few years.

That's all for now. 8/10 for sure, worth the money for now. Will - eventually - update the review once I reach 20 hours.

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If you enjoyed Sims 4, if you loved Sims 3, if you adored Sims 2, and are a fan of maximum creativity or like to play Sandbox with your imagination in your head, what are you waiting for? Buy this game. You won't regret it.
9/10 once WhickedZoi mod dropped. If that's not enough of an argument to spend your money right now ... what else could be?

I want to like, no, I want to love this game. I have had a good time in CS1. I have enjoyed using mods in CS1. I bought DLCs - most of them - without hesitation or with regrets after the fact. But that's the key word; regret. I regret my anticipation of the second part. I regret the trust I put in the team behind Cities. Furthermore, I regret that I even pre-ordered the game and I regret that I waited like a stoopid for the mod support instead of immediately and honorably returning the game in protest against this mess that the studio made.

Yes, the game has good aspects, good improvements, good ideas. But it is by no means mature, neither does it pay the necessary respect to its predecessor nor to the many dedicated fans and the large community.

Instead of paid DLCs, you would have had to work 6-9 months on a big 1.1 update where you would have had to add many, many, truly many features, fixes, content and assets as well as provide mod support from outside and via the workshop shortly after release.

But given the current development, the third installment will be released in just 3 years with even more deductions and with illusory graphics improvements to justify an even higher price and forcing always-online as well as loot boxes and/or season pass, because what are we if we remain honest? We are the studios' livestock, with massive udders that demand milking, because that's what we crave. Grab me by the Teats and start pulling and squeezing. (5 € for a bloody.... Radio station? Which means, I warn you, 50 € for each DLC gameplay expansion, with less content than Sims 4 and more bugs).