Bus Simulator 18 Review

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 17 Jun 2018

Story: Well, for this game, you are a bus driver of your company, creating and running routes over the City, initially called Seaside Valley.

Game Play: You have the option to have bankruptcy (on/off) and to set the drive mode (simplified/Realistic). Currently, there is only one City called Seaside Valley, but it seems there may be more coming. You can create your character; it allows you to change your gender (male/female) and set your outfit (uniform 1/uniform 2). It allows you to set Primary/Secondary/Tertiary and hair color along with skin tone. There is no control over the face or body size.

When doing routes, you can change several options from Environment Setting, which controls the weather and daytime (Random/Day/Night/Dawn/Rainy/Sunny or Rainy). The next option you can change is Drive Start Setting, which either starts at the first bus stop or from the Company’s bus garage. Following that is the Route Settings (Reverse Route/Loop/Round Trip). Following that, you have the in-bus settings Enable Too Early Event, which means you will be penalized if you arrive at the bus stop too early.

The other one is Enable Cashier, which allows you to activate the ticket machine, which is very nice and simple. But, as fellow gamer/streamer StevenKiberton pointed out, it could be all set on one screen, eliminating the need to move to a different screen. That option would be nice too. But the way it is, it is a simple plus; when giving change, it even counts down how much you have to give back, which is neat. The last option is the Simulation Setting, which is the Driving setting. Simplified activates several helper features like (automatic gears/speed limiter), Realistic turns all helpers off, and you have to shift manually. Personally, realism is not difficult to learn.

When driving, there are many things the game will praise you for, like (arriving on time/good parking/using your indicators properly). Still, there are also things it will penalize you for (late arrival/going over a speed bump too fast/hitting a pothole/hitting the curbside). Other things can happen like (hitting another vehicle/hitting a pedestrian); these will get you a monetary fine.

Customizing your buses, each time you level up, you get more access to (Bus Colors/Skins/Interior/Decals). With this, you can design your bus to what you like. Now, talking about buses, you can buy new buses too. This will allow you to expand your fleet; this is done from the garage and customizing.

Now you can hire drivers for your buses and routes you create. This is done from the Employees section. Here it gives you a list of Employees you have and a list of Applications which gives you information to read, e.g., (Name/Experience/Rank/Salary). It also gives the option to (Dismiss/Hire). So choose wisely.

There is also a Statistics section that gives you a summary of your company’s income and expenses in the game. Along with total (Company Value/Routes/Total buses/type of bus/drivers/ads), just to name a few, there is a nice amount of information.

Multiplayer is fairly straightforward to use. Playing with friends driving on the routes and seeing them even on their bus and checking tickets is pretty neat.

Controls: The wheel works well with this game’s game-pad, and even the keyboard and mouse are effective. There is plenty to work with even in the options, and the option of track IR is good for driving games.

Graphics: The buses look really nice. The City and the areas outside the City look nice too. The road is doable. The NPC’S and the driver look good, but I think there’s room for improvement. There are plenty of options in the graphics section.

Sound/Music: Music in the game has always been nice; it fits the game. You can control a lot of the sounds in the game from the obvious master volume through bus, NPC vehicle, dialog, and UI volume.

Replay Value: Well, if you like driving buses, then I say this game is worth it. You even have mods that are accessible from the steam workshop, which will bring in some interesting work from mod makers.

Overall: So for this installment of Bus Simulator, I have to say there has been an improvement. Story-wise it’s straightforward for a sim. Gameplay has a lot there; detailed options for route customization are present. Driving is no issue. Managing the funds side is simple enough to follow. Controls are simple and easy; multiple devices can be used to drive, which is nice, and the use of Track IR is beneficial. Sound music is perfectly fine. Bugs and glitches are simple things that can be ironed out. Replay value is there for sure, even with the multiplayer feature. So, my score on this installment of Bus Simulator 18 is nine paws out of 10.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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