Bus Bound comes from the creators of Bus Simulator 21 & 18, compared to those two it's a more driving-focused sim set in the fictional but very alive-feeling city of Emberville.
Busbound has a day/night cycle and variable weather conditions. Unlike previous trucking, bus & taxi sims I've played, this is probably the most alive feeling city this side of Los Santos (GTA V) or Night City (Cyberpunk) thanks to plentiful traffic and pedestrians–many of whom can become passengers on your bus.
From your first drive in Emberville you'll realise this is no racing game, the town has bustling intersections and plenty of traffic, stop signs and traffic lights, the fastest you'll go (legally) is 45mph, but it'll feel like 100. Your aim is to establish a bus service in all districts of Emberville. When you make a stop you'll earn a thumbs up, and after collecting a certain number of them you'll be awarded with a Star badge. Each stop can be upgraded multiple times.
As you complete routes you get scored by the passengers on the quality of your driving, on everything from stopping correctly, braking smoothly, not speeding and even stopping neatly at bus stops. You'll even get vocal comments on your driving–be it good or bad! Bumping over kerbs is obviously a no-no, as are collisions with other vehicles. Clip a parked vehicle and the chances are that the passengers will give you a caustic comment, the vehicle's alarm will go off and you'll get penalised for it. Run by run, good driving will earn thumbs up ratings, generate good will with your passengers, improve the city and unlock new buses, paintjobs and modifiers.
If you're not familiar with driving on the wrong side of the road like America and most of the rest of the world does, there's a detailed Driver's Guide that explains just about everything, including turning right on a red light, the approving 'thumbs up’ multipliers, earning new buses, adding modifiers and the basics of editing lines (bus routes.)
While playing Busbound I find myself wanting to hop out of the vehicle and beat the other driver to death if they blare their horn at me, no matter how bad a manoeuvre I've pulled. Could this be GTA V influence/conditioning creeping in? The town is so interesting that you'll wish that you could hop out and explore–possibly in a stolen car–more GTA influence?
The driving controls are standard (Accelerator/Gas on Right trigger, Brake/reverse on Left trigger) with some important extras. You soon get used to using the indicators/blinkers ('LB' & 'RB'), the stop brake (hand/parking brake) and door controls. Other handy driving aids are the Speed Limiter and Retarder (off-accelerator/gas applies an adjustable amount of braking-this is much more apparent with electric-powered buses). Unlike most driving games you'll also need to use the Right stick all the time to look left/right, checking for other vehicles and checking your mirrors. A nice feature is that your mirrors pop-up on the HUD when you indicate that you want to turn or pull out.
You upgrade a district simply by driving the routes. The better your driving, the quicker it gets upgraded. As the district grows, you're awarded with a new bus and a new customization option.
I was surprised that although the general traffic vehicles don't appear to be licenced (they're all approximations of real cars & trucks in a similar way to GTA, there are Porsche, Crown Victoria and Ford F-150 lookalikes to name but three) the buses themselves are true-to-life vehicles from top American manufacturers, including the New Flyer Xcelsior 40ft CNG, the Blue Bird Sigma, the Horizon Sightseer (open-top double-decker) or the fuel cell-powered Horizon 60ft “bendy-bus”–making a total lineup of 18 vehicles at launch plus more likely via DLC.
The buses are highly detailed, with accurate cab controls, many of which work, working mirrors, windows, headlights, wipers, blinkers and nice touches like automated passenger info announcements (next stop), dynamic destination boards on the front of buses, ‘kneeling’ (the suspension lowering as the doors open), entry courtesy lights at night and even a bike rack for lazy cyclists on the front! Should you crash there's no visible damage, but they're really jarring! This is no doubt an early design decision rather than an omission, the same as not allowing pedestrians to be “Deathrace 2000-ned.” I'm not sure about removing some of the “fluff” from the earlier Bus Simulators, like character customisation, walking around in first person, buying new buses (rather than being awarded them with progression), driving lessons and ticket collection, as I'm sure some console gamers would have loved that.
The weather and lighting FX are superb. The three shifts (morning, afternoon and night) are all very distinct because of the quality of the lighting–despite the fact that the sun appears to rise in the north in Emberville, the lighting and also the dark is really believable. Emberville has the best dark, foggy nights this side of Silent Hill!
99.9% of the traffic AI is very good, and for the most part they seem sympathetic to the bus driver's lot, and make way for you if your blinkers are on and will even let you out of a junction sometimes. However, occasionally the traffic is dense enough that you'll be stuck at an intersection just praying for a gap–it can be very realistic, and just as frustrating as real busy town/city driving. The traffic includes cop cars, tow trucks, taxis and ambulances–you'll even glimpse a freight train rumble through the town on an elevated track.
You can also customise the game with modifiers, making positioning at stops stricter, playing with the cockpit camera only (so no dashboard info on the HUD!) and adding a whole new difficulty level–removing the navigation arrows! (which obviously means you're either going to have to learn each route, or constantly refer to the map.) Using the map would be fine if it weren't for the fact that the cursor indicating your bus's position is extremely misleading–a GTA-style minimap may have been better. Add to this the fact that "stricter positioning" seems to make some stops almost impossible (without jiggling) and the modifiers don't really seem to work very well, they make the game way harder and reward you with more approving thumbs up, speeding up progression but making the game harder and probably less enjoyable–swings & roundabouts/snakes & ladders.
Busbound is without doubt the best-looking Bus Simulator I've seen, Emberville is a great-looking town and plentiful traffic and pedestrians look good and move logically and smoothly. The passengers are varied and so is their clothing–although skinny jeans seem very popular in Emberville. When boarding the bus they actually take their seats, or stand if the seats are all full–these folks knock most sim passengers into a cocked hat. Even the numerous parked cars and trucks make the routes feel more realistic.
But Busbound is not without its problems, AI vehicles randomly disappear and stop for no reason (I think they have problems pulling into the oncoming lane to pass roadworks and just sit there). Another issue is that when being part of random obstructions like roadworks, cop cars and poorly parked trucks, AI vehicles don't react properly to kerbs and sink into the pavement and/or sidewalk. Another, rarer problem is that sometimes passengers waiting for your bus will stand in the road at bus stops–fortunately they just clip through the bus if you don't avoid them so there's no penalty or squishing, but it looks shoddy.
Busbound plays well with our Thrustmaster steering wheel but for convenience's sake I found myself playing it mostly with a standard controller–which is beautifully optimised. The handling of the buses feels very realistic, they feel suitably heavy and the physics are mostly good, you really know when you're going up or down hill and the steering is accurate.
Vibration rumble varies from good on cobbled areas and speed bumps to over the top when you scrape a kerb, as do the physical reactions of the buses due to overly brutal collision reactions when you clip a kerb‐even made light of by the game itself when the pop-up “thumbs down” comment for brushing a kerb says “Invisible barrier 1–0 bus”...
The control mapping is fully customisable and I swapped door opener (X) with the stop/parking brake (B) because it felt more instinctive. I also mapped ‘driver's seat forward/backwards’ to up/down on the left stick as it gives you better visibility when pulling out of side turns into busy traffic lanes–kind-of like being able to lean forward for a clearer view.
Emberville has a good mixture of roads, with many tight turns and narrow streets downtown, wider street linking areas and even a couple of freeway sections. Unlike many driving sims, Busbound can boast a realistic and believable road network, and I have only found one 90° corner so tight that it's impossible to round without either riding over the kerb or by using the incoming lane.
If you get fed up being the only bus in town, you join up with up to 3 other players. You can tackle multiple simultaneous routes or all service the same one! This can greatly help your host’s overall game progression, while improving your own bus mastery. It can certainly add some variety and unexpected moments to the game.
Other than a couple of niggles and 2 silly grinding achievements (driving 500 miles feels more like 5,000, and transporting 10,000 passengers feels more like a million) it's difficult to think how Busbound could have been improved, but I did think being able to take a drive around Emberville in a car or truck would have been a nice reward for all your conscientious driving. If the minor issues are fixed Busbound would be a top sim. As it is, right now it's the best bus simulator around anyway.
Many thanks to stillalive studios, Saber Interactive and PressEngine