As someone who is slowly burning out on The Sims 4 and bounced off the uncanny sameness of Inzoi’s world, Paralives was my last hope for a new direction in life sims. No pressure to the small indie team at Paralives Studio, but I was feeling very “this hits, or I’m over the genre for a while,” so thank goodness Paralives feels like it’s got the makings of a winner.

It’s got the early access jank, sure, but even those day-one bones outline something I’m finally excited for—a life sim that isn’t a bland attempt at recreating the success of The Sims. Instead, it’s real admiration for the original Maxis formula, which includes a few features outlined in the Paralives roadmap that have me hopeful the team will go back to expand on more features its cousin abandoned years ago.