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Bus Simulator 21 Review (PC): Build Up Your Public Transport Empire

The latest installment in the Bus Simulator series is bigger and better than any of the previous titles, yet it’s far from being perfect. Bus Simulator 21 offer players the opportunity to be a bus driver and a business owner at the same time. Although the game allows you to manage your business from behind the wheel, expanding your transportation empire will require more than just a couple of minutes of planning.
Bus Simulator 21 key art 31 photos
Photo: stillalive studios
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Thankfully, the biggest part of the game involves driving a bus around town and do all the things a bus driver typically does apart from masterfully directing a rather lumbering vehicle through the meanders of a city teaming with life: sell tickets and offer change if needed, ask passengers to turn down their music, make sure they stand clear of the doors, wake them up at the end of the line, or ask for their tickets if you believe they have “forgotten” them in their other pants.

Having to manage all the stuff on top of driving your bus routes might sound complicated, but it’s actually a great way to relieve some of the stress coming from heavy traffic. Although you’ll be starting small and the traffic won’t give you any headaches, once a district levels up, so will the traffic.

In Bus Simulator 21, you start off in the new open-world map of Angel Shores, a fictional city in the United States. The entire city is in dire need of public transportation, and the mayor decides to hire a company that can serve the citizens.

The first thing you need to do in Bus Simulator 21 is to choose your first bus to drive your first route around town. Bus Simulator 21 has 30 officially licensed buses, but you’ll have to pick one of three at the start of the game. As you keep acquiring new buses, your fleet will increase, and once you hit 100, the maximum number of buses you can own in the game, you’ll unlock the ultimate bus, the double-decker Alexander Dennis.

Bus Simulator 21 screenshot
Photo: autoevolution
Driving in Bus Simulator 21 is a mixed bag, and it will take some getting used to, especially if you’re a newcomer to the series. It becomes even more complicated when you’re trying to drive a large bus on a very narrow street or you want to take some steep curves.

Buses are probably the least graceful vehicles that you can drive in a city, and that’s certainly one of the aspects that developers perfectly captured in Bus Simulator 21. I strongly recommend using a controller or a steering wheel when playing the game, otherwise you’ll be overwhelmed by the many controls that you have to click almost religiously at certain intervals. Also, driving a bus with keyboard and mouse in Bus Simulator 21 is like playing the game on the highest difficulty level.

Within the first hours, you’ll familiarize yourself with many of the game mechanics, thanks to the pretty decent campaign mode. You start small with a single bus and one route to complete and expand your fleet with new buses and add new routes shortly after. Once you have more routes, you can choose which one to drive and which ones to let your employees complete.

The performance of your employees will increase, and you’ll be able to upgrade your bus stops the more often you complete routes with your driver. Upgrading bus stops will allow them to serve more routes, and will ultimately lead to increasing the district’s level.

The higher the district level, the denser the traffic and the more people will need public transportation. Here is where your managing skills come into play, as some routes will need extra buses during peak hours. You’ll have to determine which routes require more buses and during which hours.

Bus Simulator 21 screenshot
Photo: autoevolution

Conclusion

Bus Simulator 21 starts simple and can become truly stressful as the game is trying to recreate the heavy traffic as accurately as possible. The difference is you can stop playing at any time or simply switch to a more “relaxing” route if you just want to go sightseeing.

It might not be the most interesting take on the bus simulator genre, but it’s the right one. Bus Simulator 21 lets you choose what, where, and when to drive without punishing you for not playing to win. It’s definitely a weird experience that can be stressful and relaxing at the same time, so play this at your own peril.

Rating: 70/100
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Editor's note: Review based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.

 

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