Bus Driver, a new sim from Meridian4, is heralded as a game that is “all about driving buses”— while there’s no question that this mostly offers the kind of authentic experience one would expect from driving a city bus, there are quite a few gaps in the gameplay. After all, a bus driver’s objective is to timely pick up passengers at point A, drop them off at point B, and repeat ad-nausem A simple concept, but one that is rarely care-free (as any real-life bus driver will attest to). The problem is that the game focuses almost exclusively on the basics of people-delivery, with comparatively little attention going towards the other challenges of bus-driving, and in the process sacrifices authenticity in the name of family friendliness.

To summarize the experience, the game has a complete city built up around it with a real-time traffic system, a relatively convincing city layout, and even weather systems. The focus of the game is on a series of challenges; first, some basic tutorials to get you started, followed by an array of missions that gradually increase in complexity (across five “Tiers” of missions), and focus on a different story and bus to drive. Playing these missions, the game then challenges you to go to assigned bus-stops, pick up the passengers there, and then deliver them to another bus stop, potentially picking up more passengers along the way. The challenge is complete once all waypoints are reached, after which you are then scored based on your performance and the number of horrific traffic violations you incurred, such as not engaging the appropriate turn signal when moving into another lane, or for ramming into other vehicles while trying for your own virtual re-creation of the movie Speed.

And this is actually all well-and-good; the game seems very much aimed at taking an educational approach to gameplay, rewarding players for adhering to the same rules bus drivers have to cope with, and realizing their multi-ton behemoth actually takes a good deal of effort to slow down (never mind that braking too hard will cause your passengers to get ticked off). The problem is that I don’t feel the title does as much as it could to deliver the ultimate bus-driving experience; a potentially crucial flaw for a game focused exclusively around this style of play.

Take for example the passengers, who exist as the life-blood of any bus driver. The streets in the game are surprisingly barren of any pedestrian activity, with the only visible people in the game (apart from other vehicles) located in a cramped bus stop or depot. Upon pulling up to said bus stop, the passengers then simply teleport into or out of your bus, with no intermediate animations for getting on or off. I can understand how budget limitations may have reduced the availability of graphical flair somewhat, but this still struck me as a jarring limitation for a game where you do nothing more than move passengers around a city. Once on your bus, the only interaction you have with your passengers is a little icon on the HUD showing their “mood”. Beyond this, passengers will obediently stay seated until you pull up to the next pre-scripted bus stop and open the doors.

Furthermore, the overall level of detail and complexity is pretty low. While ramming something else induces a sizable point deduction (and elicits suitable screams from anybody onboard your bus at the time), there’s no other impact or damage to your vehicle beyond that. The game also never explores random problems like flat tires, abusive passengers, or more creative scenarios; the only focus is just on clean, basic, fun. Like I said earlier, I can definitely respect the game for keeping an educational “family” appearance and wanting to keep things accessible, but the sim gamer in me is disappointed at how the potential of this game is almost completely wasted because of it. I’m not asking for a modern bus-oriented rendition of Carmageddon, but if the game had a lot more detail towards the bus / passenger relationship and the challenges in managing such things, it could easily be a much more enticing experience.

Upon first booting up the game, I was expecting to be dropped into a slightly complicated-looking 3D driver’s seat for maximum immersion. Instead, the developers chose to break away from the tradition laid down by other sim titles by providing only a third-person view. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that the average gigantic bus already obscures most of your forward vision, but things are worsened still by a surprisingly constricting heads up display that consumes way too much screen real-estate.

If it sounds like I’m being harsh on Bus Driver, it’s only because I’ve been recognizing the trend of increasingly complex sim titles (like the recent Ship Simulator 2008) and was expecting something along similar lines. And again, I have nothing against casual edutainment titles that are fun for the whole family, but the marketing behind the game led me to believe I was getting into something more complex. If the developers decide to revisit the concept and expand upon it properly for the future, I’ll be first in line to give it another go.