Please have the exact fare ready as it is time to play Bus Simulator on PS4 from the team at Stillalive studios.
Bus Simulator is a game in the ever expanding genre of “Simulator” titles that has you start off with humble beginnings and go on to forge a mighty business empire. Players start off by learning the basics in a bus supplied by your new city council that wishes to develop more public transport. Starting off with a single test route outside of the main city, players learn all the knowledge required for the daily operations of a bus driver. As a driver, players are required to maintain a bus route correctly by stopping on time, opening the doors, lowering the bus, taking fares, giving change and deal with any disruptive passengers. While this may all sound rather dull it actually takes quite a bit of concentration. After learning the basics though it is possible to hire other drivers and buy extra buses to create more routes. After showing the city council what a wonderful job you are doing it is possible to expand your routes to various other parts of the city or create whole new ones.
Buses are naturally far more complex machines than the usual vehicles we are all used to driving and every single button on the controller is used to its fullest. Between the use of actual buttons and a pop up radial wheel, controlling the lights, wipers, turn signals and doors are all spread out in a way that can at first feel daunting but becomes second nature after spending a bit of time with the game. Various buses are available to unlock and buy from the simple double door design buses to full accordion buses that take some serious skill to maneuver around the city. Buses can be customised with different paint jobs, colour schemes and decals to make each one unique or make your fleet all superbly uniform. It is also important to note the deep and rich business sim aspect of the game that will have serious entrepreneurs weighing up every buses positives and negatives to make sure their business is profitable and each route is planned perfectly for maximum efficiency.
As with other games in this genre, the vehicles are finely detailed but the environments are simple and basic while still feeling like a natural city. There is a lot of good humour spread throughout the world too and some of the little details are fantastic, well worth the time to leave the confines of your chosen bus and do a little exploring when possible.
Bus Simulator is a terrific “podcast game” that will have you engaged enough to never feel bored but also relaxing enough to help players unwind after a long day with the help of a good podcast and a nice cup of tea. Fans of buses, Sim games and efficiency will definitely love all Bus Simulator has to offer.
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Mat Panek, Chief Reporter
Retromancer – Collector, repairer & fan of retro games & tech. Atari to Amiga, Nintendo to Sega! LD, Zip, Beta and a proud dad! One half of the TiredParents on Twitch.
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Disclosure: Bus Simulator [PSN Store code] was kindly provided by Homerun PR for this review.
