The Sims rival InZoi has 300 people hanging out in each of its in-game cities and they all "interact with each other in real-time"

The Sims has long reigned over the life simulation genre thanks to its spontaneous comedy and ambient storytelling, but incoming newbie InZOI is coming for its crown with a much more realistic take on the genre. How realistic? Well, the InZOI team have stuffed each of its three cities with hundreds of Zois (Sims) that all go about their daily business and even get in each other's ways.

Taking a page from The Sims 3's playbook, InZOI is going the open world route, which I assume means you can send your characters to walk from one side of the neighborhood to the other without any loading screens. But the world is also split between three distinct cities here, from the sunny San Francisco-ish Bliss Bay, the Indonesian-influenced Kucingku, and Dowon, inspired by Korea.

Speaking to PC Gamer Magazine's 407 issue, game director Hyungjun 'Kjun' Kim emphasized just how damn big these spaces are, and more importantly, how densely packed they are, too. "Within the game's city, 300 characters - known as Zois - interact with each other in real-time, leading to a variety of events and narratives," he said. "This dynamic interaction allows players to enjoy a more vibrant and engaging experience."

The Sims is sometimes at its best when you sit back and see what kind of random mayhem the titular characters create. You might catch a neighbor spying on your own Sim through their window before deciding to, I don't know, accidentally enter a cheat that sends the Grim Reaper after them, to put it politely. So, I'm just excited to see that spontaneity unfold on a much larger scale in InZOI's big cities.

We'll see soon as InZOI is hitting early access on PC on March 28.

The director behind The Sims competitor InZOI spent 20 years making MMOs, but he ditched the massive RPGs after playing life sims with his son