The big renaissance for life sims that I was expecting this year hasn't happened, thanks in part to a sudden delay for Paralives that was announced a couple weeks back. To ease the sting of delaying just a few weeks ahead of its intended launch, the Paralives team did show off 45 minutes of new, uncut gameplay this week. And you know what? It convinced me that Paralives is going to avoid the biggest flaw in Inzoi's early access: a lifeless Live Mode.
- The daily local newspaper that gives some in-world ideas for activities you should pursue
- Really prominent skill progress bars and skill level up notifications
- Conversation system that encourages you to choose between options, not spam the same interaction
- Personality trait upgrades that give gameplay buffs like playing music to remove sad emotions
- Contextual moods like being embarrassed by walking into a bathroom another para is using
- Walking into shops and buying items on display like plants or furniture
Anyone who's been nose to the glass for every Paralives update for the last few years probably already knew about all that, but seeing it all together in a play session made me feel cautiously optimistic again. It really looks like Paralives offers a lot of little loose ends to a player to help direct their para's life and pursue stories.
My biggest complaint with Inzoi's early access launch in March was its shallow Live Mode that just didn't make me want to do anything with my zois. Everyone else pretty much felt the same way, according to a player survey over the summer. It's gotten several updates this year, but still just doesn't have the little hooks that make me interested in my characters' lives.
I was worried that Paralives could suffer from the same problem, especially when its delay announcement mentioned specifically that playtesters felt "there are still impactful bugs in the Live Mode and a lack of activities to do in the town, which dampened the enjoyment of the players."
As warned by the Paralives community manager controlling the play session, there were some bugs on display: paras phasing through walls, trait upgrades with missing numerical values, and so on. Fundamentally though, it felt like a game where I might actually have fun making up my own goals and orchestrating my paras' messy lives.
Part of this is down to taste, maybe. I'm a Maxis match fan, not an alpha girlie when it comes to stocking my Sims 4 CC folder, so no surprise I prefer the stylized Paralives to Inzoi's hyperrealism. It's a playstyle thing too: something I got to bring up when we interviewed The Sims series boss Lyndsay Pearson for the series' 25th anniversary at the beginning of this year.
Some life sim players want a very open ended experience that doesn't step on your toes, the direction Sims 4 has been heading for years, while others want the Sims 2 experience of a genuinely difficult simulation that throws challenges at you. Inzoi feels like it follows the former school of thought but I'm hoping—based on this new gameplay—that Paralives subscribes to the latter.
Paralives is now scheduled to launch into early access on May 25, 2026, which gives me an entire six months for me to reapply my clown makeup while I convince myself that this life sim is finally going to be the one that juices up the genre.
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