inZOI “Island Getaway” DLC | Impressions

Avid readers of mine, if they exist for some reason, will know that I love summer. I love the burning heat. And it’s the only time of the year anyone in Chicago gets a chance to naturally absorb sunlight (we’re all Vitamin D deficient in this part of town). So, it’s rather painful that I wake up every single day to watch the calendar move slowly but surely to autumn which will then be followed by 8 months of winter. I absolutely despise that—but it’s a good thing video games can keep most of the blues at bay! Take for example inZOI’s first and latest major content update, the “Island Getaway” package, which drops this week to all players for free as a DLC pack. This latest update takes players to the islands of Cahaya, inspired by Southeast Asia’s lovely tropics and adds a boatload of new features and a fair bit of new customisation for your Zois.

When inZOI first detects the installation of the Island Getaway DLC, you will be greeted to a brief introductory window going over the main features of the update. Once you scroll past that, you can either load up your old save and move to the new city or start a new family. I opted to do the latter and brought Ms. Jenny Ayers to the world of inZOI. This young lady, as I’ve so described in her canon, moved from the big city with what little she’s scraped by to find a quieter life in the tropics. No, she doesn’t have a remote job to earn big bucks and live off the cheap lands while jacking up the price for the locals; I’ve made sure she earns her keep as a five-star travel agent.

Ms. Ayers has moved into the quieter parts of town in the top right corner of the map. It’s a humble abode and one she couldn’t have ever dreamt for if she stayed behind in New Zork (yes, Zork, work with me here). After some set up, this young lady decides she wants to do nothing more than to play ZOIBlocks all day. Considering that I’ve given her the “Adventurer” trait, I find this behaviour rather appalling—that’s something I should be doing, not you you lowly little creature. And so I ordered her to explore the beachside on her own while I shower and get some laundry done.

About a good half hour later I came back to this:

Right… Our Zois still aren’t very keen about self-preservation. Or at least trying to behave on their own time.

The Island of Cahaya is a beautiful one. It is largely occupied by water and there are fewer homes to speak of. What can be found here are resorts, fishing, snorkeling, boat ferries (and being able to rent your own), and gardening! There’s quite a bit to do here and it’s actually a fantastic option for your city Zois to be able to come here for a change of pace via the “City Travel” option found via the Zoi’s cell. But if you move in a family like I did, you can get started living the way you want to. A good idea is to get your Zoi a job and start building funds as some of the more expensive options for functions like boat rentals quickly add up.

Now a tradition in all games that I play is that, if there’s fishing, I must sample the fishing. And that I did: by taking my Zoi over to the fishing store near the shore, I purchased a steel fishing rod and some bait and took to the pier in an effort to catch fish. It took quite a while to catch our first fish but a fast-forward later and we’ve added a seahorse to our new collection book. This collection book fills up as your Zois discover new equipment or “special” items like the fish we just caught or the gardens we can now create and tend to.

Next up we’ve got our boating trip! Players can either have their Zois ferry about on a water taxi or take a boat for themselves. The more extravagant the boats available for rental don’t really do much beyond looks, but if you’ve got the cash why not go for the big sails? The boat itself really only takes you to and fro and trying to leave the game world will net you a crash into a digitised wall of sorts, signifying how insignificant life can be within a tropical paradise like Cahaya. You can disembark just about everywhere, however, and that means you can practise snorkeling! Yes, you can explore the sea this time around, but you’ll need to level up your Zois swimming level before you can really explore. Oh, and watch out for sharks…

All this adds to the atmosphere of Cahaya, just as how the resort offers a slip ‘n slip your Zois can take that plays out a short cinematic in the first-person as they’re tunneled into the waters below.

Said resort has quite a few activities for your Zoi to sit back and relax with. But I spent most of my time trying to fish and mine. You can now mine in inZOI, allowing you to level up a Gathering skill which can net you expensive jewels. I’ll give you a little starting tip once you get ahold of the DLC yourself—head towards that small island in the distance. You might find some cool stuff up there to get started with. Plus, it gives you a great view of the sky, especially at night! Turn on those fireworks and watch the magic happen.

inZOI’s Island Getaway DLC feels like an expansion pack in its own right. Besides the new activities, that aforementioned moving feature I mentioned is also a bit of a game changer. It lets players take parts of a Zois family elsewhere for a change. The Zois that have moved will grow older as will their family, but when they return, they’ll find their old abode totally untouched just like the rest of the town. Talk about really feeling your years coming on. Plus, this DLC adds a few new hairstyles alongside a boatload of furniture, but we really need more kinds of hairs available down the line.

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