If you were or are one of those kids who were always fascinated by the seat of bus driver or, although it seems awkward, wanted to be a bus driver then you have come to right place as we have brought you guys a game that will put you into the shoes of a bus driver and let you experience something that always have been a mystery for you. The name of the game is Bus Simulator 2015, and was released on February 2015.
At 4.1/5 stars users rating, this might not be the highest rated game but it’s downloads in Google Play Store lies somewhere between ten and fifty millions, and above all it achieved that in a short time. I found his game to be enjoyable with decent graphics, simple UI but there are frequent ups and downs which keeps this game to give its best. Get it on the iTunes Appstore or Google Play Store now.
Developer of Bus Simulator 2015 is Ovidiu Pop. This is my third game that I’m reviewing from Ovidiu Pop and this developer doesn’t make any game other than Simulation. The difference between their initial games like Truck Simulator 3D and those released before Bus Simulator 2015, for example, School Driving 3D, was clearly visible, but they aren’t able to make any mentionable mark between Bus Simulator 2015 and those released immediately before this.
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The sole purpose of this game is to pick passengers from different bus stops and drop them off to another stop, and I still cannot believe why would people want to do that? What’s the usefulness in that? I think there’s hardly any kid who will want to become a bus driver on purpose!!
There are three different gameplay modes, arranged exactly the same way it was done in previous games made by the developer. Actually there’s a lot in common between every game made by them. After selecting any gameplay mode, a choice is given to choose bus. There are seventeen buses, ranging from different school buses to gorgeous looking double decker buses. Vehicle design is the place where developer continuously surprised me in all their games and this one isn’t any different. Vehicles are neatly made with defined edges and attractive color selection. Instead of the first bus all are locked initially and XP are required to unlock them. The cheapest one is for five thousand XP and the last one is for one hundred fifty thousand XP.
Every game mode is similar till bus selection, and is a bit different onwards. Let’s start with Career, which is the first of three gameplay modes.
Once bus selection is done, user has to select map. By far, this game has the widest range of Maps. It lets the user to experience eleven of the best cities of the world, for example, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Berlin etc. After selecting map, user will select route. Each city contains up to five routes and user need to complete available routes to unlock new ones. The very first route in the Los Angeles is tutorial. The tutorial again is exactly the same way as it was in the first game by Ovidiu Pop. Developer didn’t even bother to change any layout or anything. First a prompt will come up to with different options for steering. Then another one will tell user about the gas/acceleration, brake, gear drive, gear reverse, opening and closing door. There isn’t a navigation map in Bus Simulator but instead of that users will find indication arrows to lead them to correct bus stop.
Just like rest of developer’s games, users will have to follows traffic rules, but they aren’t that much strict here, which I believe isn’t much right because rules are the something that really can make this game a lot more than driving aimlessly on a road. Users cannot crash bus into anything, they have to avoid handbrake, and lastly follow traffic signals, and these are the only rules which users have to take care of.
After reaching stop, user will open doors to let passengers in or out, and close doors afterwards. Game mechanics aren’t simple as they seem. Users have to keep their passengers satisfied. There’s a passenger mood indicator at the middle-bottom of the screen, which will change to Happy, normal, or angry with the quality of driving. There’s also a brake pressure meter, which indicates the harshness of brakes. Users have to make sure that this meter doesn’t go into the red zone, otherwise it will result in a handbrake. Users will find a time counter in the dashboard. It is just an indication of how much time is left before which users have to reach next bus stop, and it doesn’t matter if you reach a second or minute before the counter goes up because reaching a stop resets the counter, previously saved time isn’t added up. Once a route is complete, final XP points are calculated, which depends upon the number of passengers served, mistakes made, and on time stops.
Free Ride is the second gameplay mode. This mode is similar to open world mode of School Driving 3D. Free Ride is more like going off duty but with a bus instead of a car, users don’t have to care about rules, stops, or passengers, they can do whatever they want without being afraid of losing any XP. This gameplay mode doesn’t offer much flexibility when it comes to maps, as it offers only six of them, but it gives users more control over the climate. Users can select a combination of conditions which includes a complete day and night cycle, and any of four weather conditions, which are snowy, rainy, clear, and foggy.
The last gameplay mode is Multiplayer, and none of previous games that I reviewed from this developer featured it, above all it still is in beta mode, and maybe that’s the reason why I wasn’t able to get it working. Multiplayer gives user option to either join a room/map randomly started by any other user or create your own room. For creating a new room user needs to select the map, number of users to be auto-picked by game, and/or add nearby users or friends by using your mobile’s location. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get this mode working, sometimes got error of insufficient players to start game, sometimes it just took me back to the main menu.
Controlling schemes available are tilting, steering, and buttons. Except steering control, everything is common in all three. In tilting, Gyro sensor of device is used to steer bus. The Steering mode places a small steering wheel on the left bottom of the screen, and in Buttons mode, steering wheel is replaced by two buttons to change the direction. Other than steering, there are buttons for blinkers, horn, windshield wipers, changing gear, headlights, hazard lights, view angle, and off course acceleration and brake.
There are four different view angles and I personally liked the default view in which complete vehicle is visible. Blinkers, horn, windshield wipers, and hazard lights are totally useless, as they are not at all required to play game nor affects the gameplay in any sense. Users can also disable engine auto start after which users have to start bus manually every single time. Lasts two control customization option available are transmission mode, user can select either automatic or manual, and sensitivity which can be increased or decreased depending upon user’s taste.
Bus Simulator 2015 also features leveling system, different counters for distance and no of hours driven. After Every hundred km, driver’s level rises up. I tried to reach hundred km mark so that I can see the effect but the game was to obvious and repetitive, because of which I lost interest in reaching that mark but I can make a guess that after leveling up previous routes in carrier mode will reset and users will have to carry more passengers in lesser time.
This game also features in-app purchases for those people who don’t mind spending money to boost up their game. There are three types of in-app purchases in this game. Firstly users can get rid of ads just for $0.99, and these ads are literally a pain. Secondly user can unlock every vehicle separately for $0.99 each, which seems a bit illogical as best buses and normal ones too costs same. Lastly users can unlock all vehicles for just $9.99, which seems more economical if the user is a bus collector and wants to try all buses.
Bus Simulator 2015’s 1.9.1 version was used to review it, which was updated on 4th May 2015. There aren’t any solid bugs except that I couldn’t get the multiplayer mode working nor there are any realistic damage effects. This game is available for Android and iOS only. Windows Mobile again have to miss another game but I think this game is one of those whose presence or absence will not make any figuring difference. Android 2.2 (Froyo) and iOS 5.1.1 are the least OS required to run it and this game requires a moderate device to give experience with minimal lag.
Bus Simulator 2015 can be synced with Google Play Games, and also offers eleven different achievements, most of which are related to driving time and distance covered, for example, drive ten km, and drive for ten hours etc. Lastly, leader boards are also available but they are restricted to your friends and people within your cycle.
Just like its predecessors, Bus Simulator 2015 was able to attract hackers and game modifiers, and because of that users like me can enjoy unlimited XP, buses and get rid of those annoying and visibility reducing ads. All you have to do is google modified version of this game, download it, and install it on your device. I cannot say anything about iOS but there is modified version for Android.
I’ve just got a single tip and it’s about the most difficult part of this game, braking. Normally users will think that they cannot stop bus suddenly without applying handbrake but there is a small exploit which can help users to stop buses quickly as compared to brakes. Users only have to make sure that bus is in automatic transmission mode, and whenever users need to stop bus all they have to do is change the gear direction to reverse and press accelerator, this way handbrakes wouldn’t be applied and bus will stop even earlier.
This game has a lot in common with developer’s previous titles. The User Interface and arrangement of the controls are a ditto copy. The color scheme, fonts, even their size are totally same. Small differences visible are that the transitions and animations aren’t smooth, they were a lot better in their previous game!!, and secondly the controls are worse than ever!! Controls where completely usable in School Driving 3D but in this one they aren’t. There were frequent acceleration, brakes, and steering mishits. Game often wouldn’t detect pressed keys, and sometimes I did see the acceleration pedal pressed but there wasn’t any acceleration. Developers seriously need to look into this issue because how can anyone drive a car without a working steering.
Let’s talk about the artwork now. Just like its predecessors, there are different weather and environmental conditions, which does look good. This game also features more maps, which is also a plus point. Maps and Vehicles features the same level of graphical details, perhaps they might have used the same engine as this game too takes same time to load a map and one can clearly see the map loading while driving.
Soundtrack, again, isn’t much improved but this time I didn’t feel the need to lower my device’s volume down during main menu, in short it’s hearable. Buses’ noises are more like a copy and paste from Truck Simulator 3D or even School Driving 3D, as noises are same. Relatively major difference here is screaming voices of passengers, which I found hilarious but only for couple of minutes.
Lastly, the only thing which I believe made a real difference today is slightly varying game mechanics. Although there aren’t any variations in tasks, length and time are the only two things that changes between two tasks, but because of inclusion of moods, and opening and closing doors, this game is somehow bearable, which could have been even better if it wasn’t because of the useless controls’ layout and if this game offered any bus customization or mods just like in School Driving 3D.
I was extremely impressed when I reviewed School Driving 3D because it was something different than their previous game, but Bus Simulator 2015 failed to surprise. It looks more like a trimmed down version of Driving School 3D just with slightly different, not better, maps. The only visible difference, which actually can be considered as difference lies in game mechanics. All games from Ovidiu Pop lacked one thing whose presence can actually make a difference and that is AI or more properly artificial intelligence. They need to work on that because horn is good as useless as other vehicles doesn’t give way, traffic signals are always red upon arrival, they are never green!!!, and many other goofs.
Developer seriously need to get out of their socks and do something new rather than providing us rebranded version of their old games.
Ratings
Artwork: I’ll give Bus Simulator 2015 an 8/10 for its artwork. As developer is using the same engine, there isn’t anything new or surprising. Buses are cleanly detailed, and climate changing does gives a nice and attractive effect but again they haven’t improved geometry’s late appearing issue.
Music & SFX: I’ll give Bus Simulator 2015 a 7/10 for its Music & SFX. Finally a less teasing menu’s background music does made a difference but it still isn’t enough as most of the time user is in driving mode and there isn’t any change in sound & SFX while driving. I still don’t get why developer doesn’t go for soundtracks during driving? Soundtracks can literally add a different mood to the game and make it certainly more enjoyable.
Story & Originality: I’ll give this game a 5.5/10 for its story and originality. There’s neither a proper story nor originality. Story is just about becoming the best truck driver which isn’t breathtaking, and it’s a replica of developer’s own game with just a changed name and with few things stripped down.
General Gameplay: Bus Simulator 2015 gets a 7/10 for its gameplay. Although I have said that few parts of game mechanics are better than previously released games but this doesn’t take us from the fact that this game doesn’t feature any variations in gameplay because of which it gets boring. Complete rules aren’t implemented and reaching a hundred km for a level upgrade isn’t cool either, and whatever remains is ruined by poor controls, wrongly positioned ads, and weak AI system because of which traffic vehicles keep on slamming into each other.
Addictiveness: I’ll give Bus Simulator 2015 a 5.5/10 for its addictiveness. The reasons for the downfall here are same as those of Gameplay. Game needs to provide different and attractive stuff to keep user’s mind inside the game.
Overall i’ll give Bus Simulator 2015 a 6.5/10.