Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 24/Jan 03:33

Bus World – Review

We have mentioned this quite a few times before, but simulation titles come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from big, realistic projects to more silly, bite-sized titles such as Goat Simulator. Some titles pride themselves on recreating realistic situations for those who might want to experience a profession they can’t in real life, while other games emulate a ludicrous what-if situation that is aimed at a niche audience purely for entertainment. Bus World first seemed like a fairly generic simulator title in which you drive around a bus in different parts of the world, but it does try to do things differently. In Bus World, you’ll be driving a bus, not only in regular settings but also in disaster scenarios. Even though the concept did have some charm, this console port of this three-year-old PC game ended up being disappointing. Story While Bus World doesn’t necessarily come with a story mode, you do have scenarios you can play through that take place in three different countries: China, Iceland, and Ukraine (when it was still under Soviet occupation). Here you’ll play through different scenarios, ranging from a tour near geysers to evacuations when disasters strike. It’s a fun concept for a bus driving simulator, but the concept alone is not enough to distract from the many issues with Bus World. Graphics While some effort was put into asset diversity with the different bus models, maps, and even commuters, the game still ends up looking very dated and rather ugly. The game looks like something that would have been acceptable on PlayStation 2 or 3, albeit with a few decent textures here and there. We do have to commend the developers for basing the Ukraine scenario on actual maps, making it an even bigger shame that the rest of the game didn’t receive a layer of polish. Performance while playing was okay for the most part, at least until we turned the option on to actually have working rearview mirrors. This immediately dropped FPS considerably, and the renderings in the mirrors would only move a few frames per second, making things look extremely choppy. On top of that, the loading times are horrendous, and we often wondered if the game had crashed or not. Sound The sound design isn’t necessarily too bad, it’s just perhaps too basic. You’ll simply have to make do with some environmental noises, engine sounds, and a few other SFX for the duration of the game. The game is pretty much devoid of music, which is a shame, as it would make a few longer missions a bit more pleasant. There are a few instances where a random song starts playing out of the blue, however. On top of that, there are a few lines being spoken via announcements, but that’s also it. As stated before, the sound design is functional but very basic. Gameplay Bus World is a simulation game in which you’ll be driving a bus, albeit in uncommon situations. Where other games would put you in standardized settings where you go from one stop to another, Bus World has you complete evacuation missions or even tour guides. That being said, while the concept is cool, everything still boils down to going from one stop to another to pick up and drop off passengers. Sadly, even with the interesting premise, the execution is flawed. The player has the option to play through scenarios or delve into the free play mode. You will have to play through the scenarios to unlock more content for the free play mode. The thing is, as we have stated several times before, the concept is nice, but the execution is just extremely janky. The controls are dodgy, manual transmission doesn’t even work, some button prompts are not correct, several objectives are not explained, and everything just feels very rough around the edges. This also includes a penalty system that doesn’t always make sense, as when you accidentally park outside of a designated spot, you might already get a fine for leaving your stop too soon. We also experienced bugs with passengers getting stuck in the bus, without actually getting on, which was also annoying. All in all, the game feels more like an Early Access project than a full game. There is also not that much actual content to play through. Conclusion On paper, Bus World sounded interesting with its original scenarios, but when we actually got our hands on the game, we ended up extremely disappointed. The game felt extremely rough around the edges, had dated graphics, suffered from extremely long loading times, and simply had undercooked gameplay mechanics. It’s a shame, really, as this is one of those titles we would have loved to recommend as an interesting entry in the genre, but sadly, we cannot.