Bus Bound Review: Explore a Living World as a Bus Driver

From the name alone, Bus Bound is what you'd expect it to be: a bus driving simulator. At the same time, it offers more content than I went in believing it would have, and my assumption about what I was in for changed rather quickly when I saw the file size for its installation.

On top of driving bus routes, you get to see how your public transport company is able to improve the city as you unlock additional stops and customization, opening up the map the more you play.

I love simulators, and I have positive opinions about accessible public transport, since it was a huge relief to have students receive free bus passes when I was at college, making it easier to get around campus and the city it was in.

This felt like a great game to play as a result, and I think it could be useful for people who are neutral or negative toward public transport to see its potential benefits, even just in video game form. Also, Bus Bound is simply relaxing. I could drive for hours without feeling like that much time had passed.

Bus Bound Progresses Through Passenger Feedback

As a simulator, Bus Bound isn't exactly heavy on story elements or using levels to make progress. Instead, you earn money to purchase upgrades, and the money you earn depends on how your passengers feel about your driving. The better you do for each shift, the more bus stops you unlock, and that opens up the map.

While you go through your shift, you'll see both positive and negative comments from passengers appear on the right side of your screen. These give you some indication of how to improve your driving, but sometimes they're just from passengers being picky, such as the one who complained about my excessive honking when I was honking to get a car to move because it was blocking the road. Overall, it was still easy to get enough likes from passengers to unlock more bus stops. The game is forgiving with this feature, and it's clear that you aren't meant to be stressed when you play Bus Bound.

The comments during the route can be about any aspect and aren't always consistent. Some bus loads had no issue with me speeding, but others complained if I went even a little over the speed limit. You don't have any way of telling what kind of passengers you're hauling until they're commenting, and that makes being consistent the best strategy overall. Although my passengers have consistently not cared if I start driving into oncoming traffic, which is strange when going over a speed bump just a little too fast seems like enough to ruin their day.

When you stop to drop passengers off, you might see a thumbs-up appear over their heads. This is your indication of how many passengers liked your driving, and the number of likes you get decides how much funding the city gives you, which then decides how quickly you progress. It feels like a lot during the tutorial because you have information about controls and other aspects being thrown at you at the same time, but the gameplay and concept are all straightforward by the time you finish your first route.

I did find that the shifts felt short, especially at the beginning. I would stop at maybe three bus stops, and then it would give me the notification that my shift was over and take me back to the office. On one hand, I think this is a nice design for people who want to play the game in short doses, or those who don't have the time to sink endless hours into it. But I also understand that I would play far too long without the in-game stops that come from this style. At least there's a free roam option where I'm not bound by that limit.

Bus Bound’s Vehicles Don't Handle as You Expect

Since I'm driving a bus, and buses have a lot of mass to them, I thought that it would be tricky to handle, as in slow to turn and overall not too responsive to controls. That's not the case.

The controls are very sensitive when you're turning, but less sensitive for accelerating and braking, which takes some getting used to. With the help of the speed limiter and gaining familiarity with the handling of turns, I eventually got to a point where I'd dare to say my bus driving skills are acceptable enough that no pedestrians will be dying from my driving.

Using the view from inside the bus changes the feeling of how the bus handles as well, which is interesting. I don't think that it actually changes the reactivity to input, but the shift in perception makes it feel that way.

While having the camera outside the bus is my preference, I love the option of making the game more difficult by using the inside camera, which would pair excellently with a steering wheel controller. That being said, the outside camera gives you better spatial awareness, so I would suggest using it at least for the beginning drive for the sake of adjusting to the controls and the city.

The World Feels Alive in Bus Bound

This is a feature that isn't true for every simulator, but I was happy to see that Bus Bound's world feels alive. You see characters walking on the sidewalks and going about their lives. Plus, the graphic quality makes the city beautiful even without playing on the highest settings. These qualities make me glad that free roam is an option, and I find it relaxing to just explore the map in general.

The map is huge as well, which lets me get lost in the world. I thought that it would be a stressful simulator, since driving in general can be the biggest stressor of my day, without being responsible for getting other people to their destination safely. Instead, the game feels peaceful for the most part, except for a few times when other cars are not obeying traffic laws and almost hit me, then the passengers blame me for being hit.

In some ways, the passenger feedback makes it feel like you have real people on your bus. However, that isn't entirely true, because there are definitely times when I should have received universally bad feedback from my passengers for my reckless driving, but they had nothing to say about it. I think that this element needs some tweaking, especially since I would also get negative feedback for running stop signs despite stopping at them for an extended period of time.

Bus Bound is the type of game that you'll love if you love simulators, but you might enjoy how peaceful it feels even if you don't usually play this style of game. It's a polished game that delivers what you expect and more. The world alone is beautiful to look at, and the number of pedestrians and other cars makes it feel alive. Aside from a few issues with handling and passenger feedback, the only complaint I have is that I didn't get to try the game with multiplayer or while using a steering wheel controller.