We are back with another game that could be of your type if you like car simulation games. Over the past few years this genre has been growing steadily, and developer of today’s game, Ovidiu Pop, has shown great interest in this genre. One can confirm this interest easily from Ovidiu Pop’s profile as all games they have developed yet belongs to the same simulation category.
It’s second game from Ovidiu Pop that I’m reviewing. Truck Simulator 3D was the first one and I was not at all impressed by that game, and that bad impression was mainly due to too many bugs and poor gameplay but Car Driving 3D was launched after a year hence I’m expecting many improvements which may or may not be there.
School Driving 3D has top developer’s tag, with more than ten million downloads in 2016 and 4.1/5 stars users rating, which is good. The developer boosts this game as real simulator where users can learn real life road rules which can help them in their everyday life. This game offers plenty of Vehicles, maps, and game modes to give users different scenarios to test their abilities. Get it on the App Store or the Google Play Store.
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There are three game modes. First one is carrier. In this mode, users will go through six different maps. Each of these six maps are designed to test user’s driving skills in different environments, for example, there’s a map to test driving in bad weather conditions, heavy traffic, inside a city, and more variations familiar to these. Each of these maps contains eight different test. First seven of these tests are normal while the last one is an exam.
In exams there is a limit to the maximum possible mistakes which can be made by a user, on the other hand in normal tests users won’t have to worry about. There is small issue here that if exam says that user can make three mistakes then it means that at third mistake user will fail the exam. The length of the tests increases, and final exam is the lengthiest and trickiest of all.
In Carrier mode, user only gets those XP that is earned by obeying rules, and if total earned XP are negative then they reduce XP balance. Except for the final, there aren’t any additional XP for completing any tests.
Second game mode is Free Ride, or more precisely we can say it as open world mode. Open world mode isn’t common in mobile games. There are five maps in this mode and no tests or any sort of missions here. Users don’t have to worry about rules or anything and they can explorer the city on their will, smash other cars, and do whatever they want because there isn’t any XP counter in this mode hence user cannot earn or lose XP.
Last game mode is called Challenges. This mode is hardly any different than final exams of carrier mode. There are a total of eight challenges and each challenge gives user a varying number of XP as reward. These challenges includes passing without making any or sometimes limited mistakes, or driving your car economically. Use can complete these challenges again and again to earn more XP.
These gameplay modes is one of the major distinguishing factor between this game and Truck Simulation 3D, now the developer know that variation in gameplay is a requirement; so that users don’t get bored from it.
Whenever user will start carrier or any other mode, a choice is given to user to select vehicle. There are three categories of vehicles, car, bus, and truck. There are ten cars, three buses, and three trucks to choose from. At first only one car, and of course the weakest and cheapest of all, will be available. After selecting car, a small tutorial will guide user through the basic rules.
These rules includes putting on seat belt before driving, use of blinkers while changing lane or overtaking, switching on car headlights during low light, taking care of traffic signals, keeping the vehicle below the speed limit, not crashing your vehicle into another one or into anything which can damage it, watching out for pedestrians, and many others. This time developer has covered more rules as compared to Truck Simulation 3D.
The gameplay looks extremely simple on paper, all a user have to do is tuck in seat belt, start the car, follow the blue arrows to the destination, and park the car as per the recommendation, for example, in reversed direction or any way, but what users have to do between the destination and the starting point requires care, and is slightly difficult, but thanks to God tasks aren’t lengthy as they were in Truck Simulator 3D.
I’ve mentioned XP or more precisely experience points several times previously, they are more like currency in this game. Whenever a user follows a rule they gain experience points and they lose them after breaking, for example, minus two hundred XP for not wearing seatbelt or minus hundred for breaking a traffic signal etc. These XP are required to unlock all vehicles, last car is unlocked at one hundred fifty thousand XP, first bus is unlocked at forty thousand XP, and trucks range from sixty thousand to two hundred thousand XP.
So once again developer has taken a step up, now there are many different choices for vehicles, more driving rules and above all tasks aren’t lengthy and hectic as they were in in their game which I reviewed previously. Although there aren’t those fuel recharging, resting system etc. but I believe they aren’t even required as this is a Driving School.
In the GUI of gameplay, you’ll find controls for steering, shifting, blinkers, seatbelt, brake, acceleration, and camera angle. Absence of horn doesn’t make any difference but I would have loved Cruise Control again.
There again are three steer controlling methods, which are tilting, buttons, and steering wheel. Default method is tilting. In this method gyro sensors are used to control the steering of vehicle. In Buttons, the steering is controlled by two button rather than the gyro, and if we replace buttons with steering wheel it becomes the third option. This time developer has provided three transmission modes too, which are automatic, manual, and H Shifter.
In automatic, users only gets to choose the direction of acceleration, forward or reverse. In manual and H shifter, users will have complete control over shifting. The difference is that in simple manual transmission there are two buttons to shift up or down while H shifter’s layout is more like a regular car’s gearbox; hence user will have to move the gear stick to change the gear. These two manual shifting options can be helpful to keep the car within speed limit. Sensitivity can be adjusted from options and I don’t think so any increment in sensitivity is required in this game.
School Driving 3D features mods and literally it is the first time that I’m witnessing this in a mobile game. Via mods users can add new vehicles, customize their Body Color, Horse power, Torque, and Weight. Users can get these vehicle Mods from developer’s website, www.ovilex.com/mods, or create their own using 3rd party softwares and test them in this game. Installing mods isn’t tough, steps to install them are as follows:
This game grows around freemiumness. Hence it has stuff like annoying ads, which covers pretty decent area and disturbs a lot while driving, and difficulty to unlock high-end vehicles. Although there are few goofs that can be exploited to achieve XP required to unlock those vehicles but there is a shorter way to achieve them and that is by using in-app purchases. There just four options in the store.
First one costs 1.99€ and unlocks all cars and removes ads too. Second option unlocks all buses and removes those stupid ads too and price is again 1.99€. Just like the first two, third one also cost 1.99€ and unlocks all trucks and remove ads again. If user is certain that he can unlock vehicles without spending but only want to get rid of ads then user can do that for just 0.99€.
This review is based upon 1.9.4 version of Driving School 3D, updated on 20th July 2015, same as Truck Simulator 3D but there is too much difference between the two, especially when it comes to bugs. The issues that I’ve found in this version are no damage effects as mentioned by developer in this game’s description, and pre-crashed cars which blocks the road, other than these there isn’t any issue which holds a figure.
This game is graphic intensive; hence requires a moderately powered devices. All new devices shouldn’t face any problem but the old one might not be able to provide lag free experience. Minimum OS requirements are Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or iOS 5.1.1, making it available to bunch of devices out there in the market.
This game does feature option for Facebook and Google Play Games login, and if you’re looking to cloud save your game data then Google Play Games is your only option as Facebook cannot save your game data. There are just eight achievements for users in Google Play Games, and all of them are related to earning specified number of XP, for example, reaching eighty thousand XP in game will get your Play Games account ten thousand XP etc. There are leaderboards too but the ranking will only be between your Facebook friends or Google+ circle.
School Driving 3D is one of the most dominating games in Google Play Store; hence it should not come as a surprise if I say that there is a modified version of this game easily available on internet. This modified version should give the users unlimited XP, which also means that all cars, trucks, and buses will be unlocked, and lastly improve the gameplay experience by removing the ads from the screen. Steps that need to be followed for installation are:
As not all people go for the modified or hacked version, I’ve found an exploit to get XP easily. This trick works more efficiently with car having a smaller foot print/width, and only works on two-way undivided roads with just two lanes, for example, Outside Day Driving in carrier mode. All you have to do is turn on your left blinker and drive on the wrong/left lane, this way you’ll get hundred XP after every few seconds.
I’ll say that Ovidiu Pop is finally back in the business with this game. School Driving 3D is a better than Truck Simulation 3D in almost every regard. Let’s start with the artwork first. Artwork in this game more defined than Truck Simulation 3D. The colors scheme developer has gone for isn’t dull.
All the vehicles are beautifully designed, and I’m extremely impressed by the smooth edge of all textures, especially vehicles. Developer has tried to give a different taste by including varying weather condition, for example, fog and rain etc. There are few issues in this game too, there is micro-shuttering, building still do appear late but they aren’t very obvious, and luckily vehicle cannot fall inside the surface.
I personally believe that the gameplay is the most improved department in this game. First of all there is variation in tasks, for example, economic driving, limited mistakes etc. Secondly, there are different gameplay modes, users can play and explore too, and the third and biggest difference is the length of the tasks.
Here exams are relatively lengthy than normal tasks but they too don’t last for more than five minutes as opposed to minimum twenty minutes per job in Truck Simulator 3D. Developers could have included Map or completion status to aid the users. There might not be any vehicle customization option in School Driving 3D but mods is a unique and nice touch, giving users the ability to try their favorite car.
While rest of the game progressed swiftly, the UI still haven’t improved much, overall it is better than previous game but there still is too much flatness in UI. Although there are animation and smooth too, but they aren’t much. The control layout is still the same but controlling was sensitive more easier this time, which would have been even more if the direction keys covered more area and H Shifter’s working area was more defined.
Sound department is slightly better. The soundtrack of main menu is different but still isn’t attractive but I liked the vehicle noises in this one more.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and this one is more of a simulator than the previous game offered by developer in 2016. There aren’t much bugs in this one except randomly crashed cars and sometimes flipped over cars are moving on the road, and i believe everyone can ignore these. Overall this game is highly playable and recommendable.
Ratings
Artwork: School Driving 3D gets an 8/10 for its artwork. Finally developer looked upon issues and solved them in this one. I liked vehicles and especially their reflection update, they are on level with high-end games like Asphalt. Except for late appearing issue, everything is beautifully designed and executed.
Music & SFX: I’ll give School Driving 3D a 7/10 for its music & SFX. Developers still need to improve the soundtrack of the game, because it still feels soundtrack is decades old and fails to keep the users in the game, but the sound details during driving are good and certainly enough to make the driving enjoyable.
Story & Originality: I’ll give this game a 6.5/10 for its story and originality. While Truck Simulator was unique in its time, this one isn’t. There are many other games which features the same Story and familiar gameplay.
General Gameplay: School Driving 3D gets a 7.5/10 for its gameplay. I never expected to enjoy this and my initial hopes we low on this but this game managed to surpass almost all of them. Controls are better in this one, there are different gameplay modes although they aren’t much different, variety of good looking vehicles, strict and almost all rules are there which users need to follow. The only thing which turns game a bit off is ads otherwise it’s good to go.
Addictiveness: I’ll give School Driving 3D a 6.5/10 for keeping the user in the game. Huge improvement here by the developer, inclusion of non-repetitive tasks helped here but this is the department where I think that simulator games will always struggle. I’m not saying it is bad but I believe people including I are more into action and competitive racing games rather than simulation types.
Overall I’ll give School Driving a 7.5/10, and I personally believe that it could be used to teach kids about the driving rules.