A new trailer for the social simulation game Life by You gives gamers an overview of the different options that will be available to them in developer Paradox Tectonic’s challenge to The Sims. While many gamers are likely familiar with parent company Paradox Interactive’s acclaimed simulation game Cities: Skylines, the Sims-inspired Life by You looks to be focusing less on city planning and more on family planning.
Gamers first learned that developer Paradox Tectonic was working on a social simulation game during Paradox Interactive’s 2023 Announcement Show earlier this month. Announced with a short teaser trailer, Life by You appeared to draw heavy inspiration from Maxis’ legendary series The Sims. Though only brief snippets of gameplay were shown during the show, it was revealed that former The Sims 2 executive producer Rod Humble would be leading up the game’s development. Even though social simulation games are a new genre for Paradox, it was clear from the announcement of Humble’s involvement that the publisher was serious about taking on EA’s massive The Sims franchise.
Much of the gameplay shown in the full trailer for Life by You will be familiar to anyone who has spent some time with The Sims, showing characters going about everyday tasks like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of chores. Other staples of the genre, like customizing characters’ houses and even falling in love and raising a family, also make an appearance in the trailer. Even though many of these features may appear to be treading familiar ground, where Life by You appears to differ from competitors like EA’s upcoming The Sims 5 is in the sheer scope of the game.
Rather than limiting players to a small number of lots to build on and characters to control throughout the game, Life by You features an open world that lets players take direct control of any character at any time. Another unique feature, and one that’s sure to be welcomed by players who’ve grown tired of the nonsensical Simlish spouted by characters in Maxis’ genre-dominating series, is that characters in Life by You will speak and have conversations in real languages. The trailer also promises extensive customization and mod support, with players able to tweak everything from the color of their in-game house to the dialogue of their characters.
With a proven developer at the helm and featuring unique gameplay mechanics that buck some long-established norms of the genre, Life by You has the potential to be a serious contender to The Sims when it enters Early Access later this year. Knowing that sort of competition is just over the horizon, it's no wonder some infants in The Sims 4 have been having a midlife crisis.
Life by You is in development for PC and enters Early Access on September 12.