Astragon Entertainment recently released their Bus Simulator on consoles making it the first bus simulation title on the consoles. Astragon has been in the bus simulation genre for a long time however this is their first venture onto the consoles. This very variant of Bus Simulator was earlier released on PC as Bus Simulator 18 which received an official map expansion earlier this year. The following review of Bus Simulator was made on the PS4 version of the game.
Bus Simulator is set in the fictional city of which comprises of various districts. Each district is unique and offers various different types of scenery for you to drive your bus. Each district offers new challenges for you to manage and you will often need to switch out to a more suitable bus according to your area in which you are driving. You can choose to create short routes or make them longer to cover as many districts as possible. There is no restriction.
However, unlocking more bus stations depend on your progress and you have to clear certain objectives in your currently unlocked area before the mayor of the city grants you access to more districts and areas. Once you have unlocked a new district, you can move to the new area yourself or hire some drivers to drive your buses on the new routes that you create. Continue to complete more objectives and pretty soon you have the whole map unlocked and a healthy fleet of buses running around generating income for your bus company.
Since your main goal is to run a bus company, you can also hire other drivers to drive on routes created by you. There are no restrictions on how many routes you create in the game. You can have as many buses and hire drivers to drive them on their assigned routes. However better drivers demand more money and as you purchase more buses and hire more drivers, your maintenance and wages expenses will also increase. You will need to manage your income and expenses well if you want to continue to purchase more buses and hire more drivers.
Bus Simulator features real licensed buses from various manufacturers such as IVECO, Man, Setra, and Mercedes-Benz. You start from compact buses and then purchase better and more spacious buses as you continue to play the game. You can even purchase articulated buses for increased mobility in tight city streets and for making sure that you have enough space for all the passengers waiting for your bus at the stops. You can also modify the look of your buses by choosing colors and decals for them to create a unique theme for your company.
The console version of Bus Simulator also brings the multiplayer to the consoles. You can easily invite up to three of your friends to your game and all of you can run the company together. The multiplayer is not really smooth at this moment and there’s no matchmaking in the game so you need to have friends to play the game online. There’s no PvP here and multiplayer is strictly co-op. Not a very strong suit of the game but surely helps in being there for people wanting to play the game with some friends. For me, I preferred playing offline.
Another great aspect of Bus Simulator is the fact that the world of the game is extremely active and vibrant. You will never see empty roads. There is always some traffic in cities and on the highways. Depending on the time of the day, you will also see some traffic jams here and there which really make you feel like you are driving in the real world. Sometimes you will also find some random roads closed for construction and so making it feel full of life and activity.
Normally when developers release a console port for a PC title, they include all DLC released in the game which was on the PC version but it seems like this is not the case here. The Official Map Expansion was a great release and it was released earlier this year for the PC version. However, for some reason, astragon decided that they don’t want to include the expansion on the console release. We are sure that it will arrive later as a paid DLC but it would have been better for the developer to release the full experience for the console players.
The game ran smoothly for me most of the time however there were a few frame dips here and there. I did not try the game on the Pro variant and I stuck with the basic PS4 model. The game is not too graphically demanding as well which makes the stuttering a little worrying. Due to the graphical stuttering, the sound was a little messy at the same time as well making the overall experience a little weird.
Another problem with the console launch is controls. There are just not enough buttons on the controller and thus you have to use a circular menu to choose some advanced options such as lowering the wheelchair ramp. It is not really a problem with the game but when compared with the PC version of the game, it is just an extra chore where on the PC, you can simply press a button to extend and retract the ramp.
The console launch was a little messy and there were a lot of glitches here and there. When I first received my code, I was unable to progress in the main story after a game-breaking bug prevented me from progressing in the missions. However, it was patched up by the developers and the game is still getting updates. I would still say that the PC is the best place to play Bus Simulator. The console release is a decent option for players who don’t own a PC but the best place to play this game is PC.
Final Verdict:
Bus Simulator is a decent console port and that is all. It lacks the accessibility of the PC version and is certainly more glitchy than the PC version as well. The occasional frame dips are annoying and the controls need some time getting used to. The developers are working to fix the problems with the game as soon as possible however If I were you, I would either stick to the PC version of the game or simply wait a little longer until all the bugs are patched out of the game.
Final Score: 6/10
