author: Zuzanna Domeradzka
Living Open World of Life by You Raises Bar for The Sims 5
New gameplay from Life by You has hit the web. The game's living open world is just what the fans of The Sims would like to see.
The upcoming life simulator from Paradox Tectonic is sure to attract fans of the well-known simulators from Electronic Arts. The twenty-minute gameplay from Life by You, which hit the web a few days ago, shows what the game is doing differently than The Sims even at this point.
A world full of life
The footage is presented by one of the creators of Life by You, Rod Humble, a veteran of the genre with a track record of work on The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. The last such long gameplay from Paradox's game was presented three months ago, so now we can see how far the work has progressed.
Rod Humble started the gameplay in the character creator. He admitted that he likes to spend too much time creating a family, so this time he created Tamara and her roommate - a man named Quincy - fairly quickly. Although the character creator will probably see many more changes before the game debuts in early access, there is already a ton of appearance customization options for avatars and clothes.
After Rod bought the characters a house, he sent Tamara to work. It is at this point that we see how much the world of Life by You differs from that in The Sims. You can look into every house in the town and observe what the AI characters are currently doing.
The colorful people seem to be more interesting than those in the simulator series from EA, as they behave more naturally. This can be seen in the example of Tamara's work colleague, who, without Rod's prior interaction, approached the woman and began flirting with her. As the characters in Life by You do not use an invented language (like the sims do), we can follow the conversation - the dialogues are displayed in balloons above the characters' heads. This aspect further proves that the game teems with life.
It is also worth noting that after creating a character, the player does not need to see virtually any loading screens. So you can manage one avatar at home and another at work at the other end of the city, while watching what's going on in the stores. This sets it apart Life by You from EA's games - even the open world in The Sims 3 didn't offer as much freedom and wasn't without loading screens.
Finally, Rod Humble presented what collecting looks like in the game. In doing so, he assured that in future videos we will see the crafting system in Life by You, which, according to the developer, is really interesting.
There is still a lot of work left to do
Although the gameplay has incredible potential and shows Life by You as a serious competitor to the next part of The Sims (and the still emerging Paralives), it's still not perfect. One fan pointed out the poor animations and appearance of characters. The developers responded to him as follows:
"We intend to continue working on the appearance and animations of characters throughout the development process of the game. (...) Since all character changes affect every aspect of the game (like animations, buildings, interactions), we are aiming for slow and steady progress [of work - ed. note]!"
We will have to wait until Life by You becomes a polished simulator without major bugs. The game is scheduled to debut in early access on March 5, 2024 on PC. Until the full version is released, the developers will improve the game through updates.
