Bus Simulator 2018, the title of the game completely gives away what this game is about. You take on the Job of a bus driver. At the start, you take it easy and just do a few tours with your first bus to get to know it. However, in the very beginning, this isn’t as easy as that. You will have to go through the complete sequence of actions that you would need to do if you were to start a bus in real life. Get in the bus, make sure the hand brakes are turned off, make sure the bus is in gear, flipping the actual engine on, make sure to put on your lights if it’s dark, really everything is manual and has to be done before the bus even moves an inch.
Of course, the fact that you have to do everything to simulate a bus driver is completely normal since we’re playing a bus simulator. And in that regards, I find it amazing how they managed to get every single button and switch at the exact correct spot that it would be in if it were the real bus. That means that if you buy a new bus in the game you will have to find some of the switches that might be in a different location.
Another great aspect about Bus Simulator 2018 is the fact that you can customize your driver and your bus(ses). For other Belgian players out here, there is even a mod you can download to give all your buses the look of our own “De Lijn” Bus company. Which is fun for a while but pretty bland compared to designs you can make yourself.
So, then we start actually driving the bus, we give ourselves a route and take off. Our GPS nicely shows where we need to go. Don’t forget to use your turn signals though you get extra points for every perfect turn you take etcetera, but you will lose money if you make mistakes, these are like fines with the biggest being the fine you get for killing a pedestrian.
That can really take a toll on your income for that day. When we get to the first bus stop, we have to manually open the doors and sell some of the passengers tickets. Some of them will have bought them online or have a subscription.
Beware of the people that try to ride your bus without paying, it’s beneficial for your income to come out of your driver’s seat to manually check every passengers’ ticket in order to fine the people trying to get away without paying. However, this takes time and your GPS will tell you how much time you have left to get to the next stop. And nobody likes a bus that isn’t on time, so only do this when you know you can afford to do so.
Another great feature of the game is the fact that you can hire additional drivers, and buses to start your own fleet. These drivers will earn money for you in order to hire even more drivers and so on. Also, there is a good day/night cycle and weather also has an impact on your traction and driving overall. This brings a lot more variation to the table, but is it enough?
So, we have a simulator game that perfectly simulates everything a bus driver has to do on his day job. But once you have a few drivers and you have seen almost all routes, experienced weather shifts and did this all overnight as well, you have kind of seen it all. Once you have all the mechanics down and played the game for a few hours, there isn’t much new to find out. The game is very well made but a bit expensive for the amount of gameplay there actually is. It kind of starts feeling a bit like the Taxi-driver missions in the old GTA San Andreas game. Which was of course only a very small (and optional) part of a much bigger game.
