Today’s games industry is so full of shooters, RPG’s, and retro throwbacks that it’s easy to forget that there are games out there for fans of other genres, too. Thanks to increased visibility provided by Steam, the ever niche transportation sim has carried along for the last few years with a humble but growing audience. The latest offering is Bus Simulator 18 from stillalive studios and publisher astragon Entertainment, allowing players to drive into the world of public transportation by operating their very own city bus company.
It isn’t called Bus “Simulator” for nothing. The attraction of this game comes from the thorough effort stillalive makes to immerse you in the world of mass transit. At its core, Bus Simulator 18 does a great job with its gameplay and customization options, which are essential for personalizing this experience to the player’s liking. This is a game for those who appreciate small, technical details in their gameplay, right down to operating separate bus doors, ramps, and lights; calculating ticket fare in real time; and keeping an eye out for road hazards and sneaky passengers trying to dodge paying.
The attention to detail in gameplay becomes even more apparent when playing in “Realistic” mode. Suddenly everything right down to removing the manual locks on the front and back doors of the bus becomes a necessary part of procedure. The parking brake must be engaged and the back doors closed before extending the ramp for wheelchair bound passengers. The bus requires manual gear shifting instead of cruising around with automatic, and breaking the speed limit adds a penalty to daily performance. While Bus Simulator 18 is never close to being an arcade experience, the convenience of being able to play without some of the extra realism makes it a bit more approachable for those who are casual fans of this type of sim.
Like any good business simulator, there are always goals to pursue and finances to balance. Multiple buses can be bought and operated simultaneously by hiring additional drivers. Routes can be expanded, customized, and optimized by the game for time and profits. All of this aims towards establishing a large and successful public transportation business. One of the more enjoyable aspects of the game is the option to introduce more or less random factors into the bus routes. If clear, sunny days are all the player ever wants, the game will oblige. More fun, though, is setting up random times of day and weather so that the experience is never the same thing twice in a row, forcing the player to adapt.
The environments look good but are hardly impressive by 2018 standards. The level of detail at the highest graphical settings feature some nice reflections and lighting, especially during rainy days, but most of the urban and natural textures are just nice enough for the purposes of immersion. Human NPCs look decidedly less nice, and seem to be a decade old, visually. While the interactions with passengers are frequent the most important visual cues are whether they need assistance (i.e. wheelchair ramp) or whether they’re blocking a door. Both of which can be determined at a glance, leaving the majority of the time playing spent watching the road and taking in the surrounding world. The game’s frame rate is somewhat inconsistent and tends to stutter for a few seconds after loading a new area before settling around a 40-45 FPS average, regardless of changing the standard graphical settings around. It’s not too distracting once busy with driving from stop to stop, but it’s a noticeable weak point in the game’s presentation.
Sound design is mostly a mixture of ambient urban sounds, chattering passengers, and the various noises of the bus, ranging from humming engines to beeping ramp indicators. Music mostly exists in the game’s menus, which leaves the gameplay somewhat quiet but also focused on the task at hand: driving passengers from stop to stop. The voice acting of the riders is adequate. They speak clearly so the player can determine if there’s a problem or request quickly, but the dialogue also tends to sound canned. That said, the voices are never annoying, which one comes to appreciate quickly on long routes.
The game supports gamepads, but during the playtime for this review the controls tended to be uncooperative and imprecise compared to using the standard keyboard and mouse setup. Bus Simulator 18 feels like a game that was not intended for gamepads because of the tremendous convenience of quickly accessing multiple buttons and shortcuts on a keyboard to keep your bus operating smoothly and your passengers happy, especially with the additional realism features activated. It takes some time to grow comfortable with all of the bells and whistles available when driving the bus. It can even be a little overwhelming at first, but after finishing a couple routes the processes of signalling, opening and closing doors, flipping between checking ticket fares and watching for passenger needs, and driving around cities on a timer becomes natural.
Bus Simulator 18 delivers exactly what its name implies, and there’s no question that it’s an acquired taste for agnostics of the genre. There’s little flash or fuss here. It’s a game of oddly compelling calmness thanks to its grounded realism and peaceful gameplay, and sometimes that’s exactly the sort of experience one doesn’t realize they want until they try it.
7/10
Check Out the Bus Simulator 18 Release Trailer:
Bus Simulator 18 for PC is now available at a price of 29.99 Euro, 34.99 USD, 26.99 GBP in retail and digital stores. On Steam there is a special launch offer for at least the release week including a 10% discount as well as a bonus interior for the Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses.
I've been gaming for 22 years, ever since my mom picked up a secondhand NES, and I've played on just about every gaming platform out there since. I think video games are one of most innovative and artistic mediums in the world today, and I'm always curious how developers will surprise me next.
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