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In Bus Driver, your job is to transport passengers
around a city. You must drive to a timetable on a planned
route, whilst obeying traffic rules, and taking care not to
upset or injure your passengers. This makes Bus Driver
unlike any other driving game - the experience of driving
a bus is very different from blazing through a racing circuit.
There are 12 different kinds of buses to drive, an expansive
city environment with various districts, and 30 routes with
varying weather conditions set at differing times of day...
Bus
Driver puts the player in the driving seat of twelve different
buses, each inspired by real life buses in use around the
world. These include: London double deckers, American-style
school buses and European low-floor city buses. As you manoeuvre
each of them around the city you'll need to keep to planned
routes and to within the restrictions of a very busy timetable.
You'll
start to learn the basics of professional driving by obeying
the Highway Code and treating your passengers' safety
as an absolute priority. Unlike other driving games, Bus
Driver's focus is on securing the well being of your passengers
at all times and on the reliability of the service you provide.
You drive around an expansive city environment featuring different
suburbs and districts. Each one contains varying styles including
modern, old town, residential suburbs, an airport and the
local harbour. There are 30 routes to negotiate which are
staged over five tiered levels of increasing difficulty.
Multiple
duties include driving a school bus, transporting tourists
and sightseers. There are varying weather conditions and each
mission is set at various times throughout the day.
There
are a number of things that let this game down - which is
a shame, because with a little more attention to detail this
could have been an instant classic. Firstly, as this is a
simulation game, it's an absolute crime that you have no option
to change the view so that you are actually sitting behind
the wheel. Instead the camera is situated behind the bus for
the entire game - which makes it difficult to see many obstructions
and the traffic lights until it's too late.
It's
also odd that you have to have a decent spec machine to run
this. The graphics are nothing special and there's not much
traffic on the road. Microsoft Flight Simulator this
isn't - so what on earth eats up the memory? On all but the
highest spec machine we found the action to lag noticeably,
which is extremely annoying.
Then
there's the slight problem that you are awarded points when
you do the wrong thing. An example of this is when you have
to turn right at the traffic lights. Unless you are crawling
you will swerve across into the oncoming traffic. But you
don't get penalised for this. It's not a problem to get back
on the right side of the road either - there are hardly any
other vehicles on the road. Yes, it appears this game is set
after a nuclear holocaust as the London streets are eerily
deserted.
Oh,
and while we are on the subject of London streets... why bother
to set it in London, with real London districts and bus stations?
In this London everyone drives on the right hand side. Yes,
I know that most nations that will play this game will be
driving on the right, so why not set it in America or some
European city other than London? Oh, and did I mention that
this London is far removed from the gridlocked capital we
all know and love? Yes, well I think it's worth mentioning
again. If the streets had been busier this would have also
provided an extra challenge to the game as you try and arrive
at each bus stop on time.
Another
issue I had was the fact that the game doesn't actually seem
to get that much harder as you go along. As long as you complete
the route the computer accepts that as a pass. So, pass a
set number of routes and the next level is opened. It's not
really what I'd call challenging. The end result is that you'll
be onto the fifth, and final, level before you know it. And,
if you want to increase your score, simply keep indicating
and switching lane for no reason. You don't get penalised
for swapping lanes every two seconds and causing a potential
hazard. As long as you indicate you are rewarded for it.
And
finally, none of the PC compatible steering wheels we tried
worked with this game - which is another huge let down.
If
only these issues had been ironed out before the game had
been released. As it stands I'm sorry to say that I really
can't recommend this game. It's a hairsbreadth away from being
a good game too.
Nick
Smithson
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£14.98
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£14.99
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£14.99
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