Despite being the site’s sim fan, sometimes I’m not sure what to think of the genre. I know they’re perceived as “boring” by others, but there’s something I love about a lovingly-crafted realistic experience that lets me drive a bus, or a train, or cranes. Yes, there’s often a lot of repetitive “work” associated with these games, but I find it quite relaxing and meditative, and I play these games to switch off. Bus Simulator 27 is the latest entry in the series from Simteract and astragon Entertainment, and while I’ve found some of the previous entries mildly enjoyable, this latest one unfortunately left me dinging the bell, desperate to get off.
You start with the obligatory set-up for the story, with you arriving in the city of Mequina to set up a new transit company before you complete a few tutorial missions that teach you the ropes of driving the buses and running the business. The game lost me almost immediately here, as not a single element felt well put together or enjoyable to engage with.
Let’s start with the driving, which I think is the most important part of the experience. I’m not looking to race around a track, I just want to drive a 5-ton behemoth while I try to stick to speed limits and deliver my passengers to the next stop safely. The driving in Bus Simulator 27 feels suitably difficult to control, but that’s about the only thing it gets right. They vibrate while driving, like they’re not actually connected to the floor and move in a way that feels more like gliding. I do like the fact that the game gives you control of kneeling and ramps which adds an extra dimension when pulling into a stop, but it’s a small win that gets overshadowed by how unenjoyable the rest of the driving experience is thanks to poor handling and controls.
As a simulator that tries to give you total control over the vehicle, the developers have tried to create a quick menu system that accommodates this Hitting square brings up a menu that’s meant to give quick access to things like the ignition, air conditioning, lights, doors etc. You can see they’ve tried to structure it in a way that similar elements are grouped together, but it’s far too unwieldy with too many options on it, each with its own set of options to scroll through while driving. When you’re trying to drive and a passenger is moaning it’s too hot, trying to turn the air con in is an ordeal that left me baffled each time I tried to navigate this system.
Bus Simulator 27 goes one step further too though, by emulating the experience of dealing with the public. You not only have to sell tickets, which is boring but largely unintrusive, but also deal with antisocial behaviour on your bus. NPCs regularly fall asleep, play music loudly or just harass each other, and it’s up to you to stop them. The game tells you that you can use the passenger mirror to do this, and the game lets you use it to shout at people, but in practice this didn’t work once for me, which I can only assume is one of the many bugs I experienced. I had to get up from my seat each time, find the person being an asshole and interact with them personally to resolve the issue. It’s incredibly annoying and just contributes to the experience being devoid of any satisfaction.
You could argue that this is what I signed up for when choosing to play a bus simulator, but I think the focus on busywork (plus the fact it’s often broken), just detracts from the experience of driving these big, licensed and lovingly recreated vehicles. Of course, the fact the driving itself isn’t great does this too, but it highlights that perhaps more time should be spent on the fundamentals before worrying about the non-essential bits.
This would have, hopefully, meant the game was more consistent with its penalty system too. You get penalised constantly, whether it’s for pulling into/out of bus stops without indicating, not putting the ramp out or even for having the bus warmer than customers want it. It’s exhausting, partially because the game seems unable to understand its own rules a lot of the time, especially when it comes to indicating, which feels completely broken. I was constantly getting penalised for not indicating when leaving a bus stop, or driving with them on as I approached a stop, to the point where I just accepted I was going to have a low driver rating every time I got behind the wheel.
When you’re not driving the bus you’ll be managing the business, which involves buying buses, setting up routes and assigning drivers. This stuff isn’t bad, despite some dodgy UI that makes it confusing to work out what you’re actually doing. It all works fairly well though: you recruit new drivers based on their driving and passenger skills but once they’re in the business you learn about their work ethic and if they’re actually the right fit for the company. Setting up routes is largely stress-free, although again the UI leads to some complications which meant I opted to keep these as simple as possible. Although these systems are largely inoffensive, I can’t help but echo my previous sentiments about focusing on fundamentals: it’s more important that it’s fun to drive the buses than it is to manage a bus company.
Mequina and its neighbour city are supposed to be sun-drenched Mediterranean hubs, and while they’re bright and cheery, they’re not particularly inspired. Bus Simulator 27 is not an attractive game, whether it’s the plain, lifeless streets, the cookie cutter NPCs that populate your bus or the rather ugly visuals it’s all rendered through. It’s absolutely riddled with technical issues too, from awful driver AI which means other cars are hilariously crashing into each other constantly, to passengers whose feet stick through the floor of the double decker bus, popping up next to your mirrors, or who get stuck in a seated position even as they leave the bus. The game feels like it’s held together with gum scraped from the underside of the seats, and it’s impossible to feel even a modicum of immersion as it’s constantly being undermined by poor mechanics and excessive bugs.
Bus Simulator 27 is not a good game. This is particularly noticeable in a year where Bus Bound released, which was such a breath of fresh air for the genre, putting the focus firmly on driving and using that to engage with the world around you. Bus Simulator 27 doesn’t manage to do any of this, instead choosing to bombard you with non-essential systems and details in a bland and buggy world. Just like real life buses, you wait for ages and then two show up at once, and in this instance you’re better getting on the former rather than the latter.
