Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop Reviews

Very fun!

good game

Pointless DLC's and all for nothing, this is the bus version of Train Sim World/Dovetail Games

Very great graphics, A lot of trains to choose from and you can download 3rd party train content

It's a very pleasent and fun game and truly a one of a kind in this genre of bus games. With great graphics, mechanics and NPC passengers it makes it truly an awesome experience to play. One thing is is it gets pretty repetitive especially if you're not playing with friends.

Fairly average game tbh, i like playing it but dont get me wrong its not amazing, the physics... well there aren't any.

This game is pretty good for what it is. When I want or feel like pretending to be a bus driver, I just play this. There's a lot of options for busses and to run your own bus company. It's a very chill game that I enjoy to relax. Sometimes the ai is a little finicky, but it doesn't take away from my enjoyment. Buying this with the tram dlc, you get to add trams to your company too, which is a nice incentive to build up to for options.

I've played ATS and ETS2 casually for a long time. It's nice to just get behind the wheel and watch the road go by. Bus Sim 21 is not that kind of game. For a long time, I didn't think I needed or wanted a bus sim in my life. After all, what is the difference? Driving a semi, or driving a bus? It's just another game about driving big vehicles. That is not the case. If Truck Simulators are all about the freedom of the open road, Bus Sim 21 is all about being immersed in the vibe of the city. You can get out of your bus and stroll the city in first person or third person view. You can get out of your seat and walk around your bus, or even take a passenger seat and just watch the city go by while one of your drivers takes the wheel. This is a big departure from the "stuck in the driver's seat" view of the countryside in ATS or ETS2 which, while more expansive, doesn't let you venture off the beaten path. In Bus Sim 21, you can really get out and feel the ambiance of the city you are serving. In ATS/ETS2, there really isn't much to do. Once you hit the open road, it's just like being on the freeway. Cruising alone, watching the world pass. And that's one of the things I love about those games. But in Bus Sim 21, you'll find yourself constantly fiddling with things. Kneeling your bus, opening doors, printing passenger tickets and giving change, signalling, getting up and walking around. In this way it feels slightly more like an RPG - but that aside, it's an active game that you may even want to play with your keyboard and mouse instead of a controller (though the controller works just fine.) This is a different kind of beast than truck sims, because it keeps you interacting with it moment by moment. And the feeling of seeing people getting on and off the bus makes your effort feel more meaningful, versus a truck game where the only reward you get is a well-delivered load at the end of a run. The city you drive in is more detailed, more alive than ATS/ETS2 - And that is just because it is ultimately a smaller, condensed space. It's just one city, instead of a game trying to represent an entire country worth of cities and open spaces. It's not the most detailed driving/city game ever, but it hits a vibe that is really cool. If you've ever just wanted to get lost in the city, surrounded by the gentle sound of rain or maybe enjoy a sunny day downtown, that's what this game is. It feels cheerful and optimistic, and it hits a unique mix between active and passive. It's super chill, and also highly interactive. It's a game I didn't have on my list to play until I suddenly got the itch to try it - and ten hours into the game, I have to say it has been a memorable experience. This may not be the game you're going to sink years of your time into. It's more just a place to visit and chill in. If you're looking for something more serious, that will be at the top of your sim driving playlist for years, ATS/ETS2 still are probably the place to go. But if you're looking to get off the highway and spend some time in town, Bus Simulator 21 is a perfect way to round out your collection of chill driving games.

glitchy mess with a wheel feedback is non existent sometimes, wheel randomly and violently jerks to one side. AI is stupid, visual bugs everywhere en the menus look like they're made by a five year old. refunded

I did not expect spending so mauch time on this game. But I 100%ed it and I think I have a solid understanding of the games mechanics. And my opinion is… well, I would say that I’m very torn between saing it’s a good game and bad game. It has a bunch of mechanics that are interesting but don’t work for me. Distric leveling up system – this is something that really pushed my buttons in this game. It kills the pace of the game. As much as I don’t want to compare this game to Bus Simulator 18 I don’t think I have another choice. Bus Simulator 18 had way better progression system. It was based around creating a advanced set of routes with nearly no limitation. The stop level in BS18 was talking about how many drivers can bring earnings. Which was fine considering that you level up a stop with every route. However in BS21 the stop level tells you how much routes can be attached to that stop. But it’s Stop level + 1. So level 1 stop can have 2 routes, level 2 can have 3 and so on. Point is that it takes at least 3-4 uses of the stop to level up. When I got done with Anger Shores campaign I was fed up with this system and when I noticed that in my beloved Seaside vally campaign that I would go deeper into further, also have this system I was speedrunning that thing like I never before. I think that if you could level up a stop with every ride it could be interesting. The maintnance of the stops is also interesting and good. The overall map – Anger Shores is quite big. But it’s very same. In Highlander Park, you have buildings and crossings, in Oakwood you have skyscrapers and crossings, in Sunkiss you has buildings and crossings. And belive me or not Greenwood is the same case. The map lack the veraity like Seaside vally had. This is why the best areas for me were the Gold Island, Timber Ridge, Coyote Bush and the map extension. It was a break form nearly identical map Bus Veraity – This is one of the good things I have to say. BS21 has a high selection of buses. From Disel, to CNG to new modern electric buses. The double decker is so fun to ride in as a passenger. But here is where this complements ends. Becuase at some point the game asks you to have 30% of your bus fleet to be e-buses. Which I had around 30 or 40 buses so I had to buy a lot. Which yeah with 10s of milions of dollars in the bank I could afford it. But worse is when the game tells you to drive a route with them. It feels forced. Negative satisfaction – this is something that broke me in game as well. You can randomly get a notification that you are driving against the one way. And I could clearly see that I was in my line. It had zero sense. Speaking of things with zero sense. Why can I get a notification about speeding when there is nothing to prove that I was speeding. The road camres that take you picture exists but then you shoudl get a note and the fee. But it doesn’t make seanse why I’m limited to around 80 km/h on highway. (I have a europian debuff so convert it to mhp yourself). The road cameras that take your picture while you’re speeding nearly costed me a heart attack. It’s so sudden and loud. I jumped few times in my seat when that happen Traffic lights – Now this one is juicy. One one hand we have more saturated colors on the traffic lights. Massive improvment over BS18 traffic lights. But I know that is US the lights are on the opposite side of the road. But here this is inconsistant. Most notibly the trafic light somewhere west of China town. Why this one is specific have it on the correct (for europe) placement of these lights? Perhanbs becuase it has 5 roads and it could be phisicly impossiable to place them? I don’t know. Pedestrians – now, something that made me rage quit the game multiple times. Pedestrian AI. It can be as smart as Einstein but sometimes so dumb that they could walk off the bridge. They know how to things. They even start running when you honk at them. But „sometimes” if you honk at them they’ll run into the bus, giving you a notification that you hit them. I don’t hit them, they run into me. Which can be very annoying. On some stops (Hillside top and one of the stops in Gold island) these shits would walk right in fornt of the bus despite there being no pedestrians crossings anywhere nerby. And if you perhabd forget to honk you will hit them before hitting 1 km/h. Which… why? Ambient assignments – Thing that I figured out 16h after plaing the game. Either I missed it or I have zero idea. But you can do ambient assigments to unlock extra decals colors etc. I had nearly zero explanation of that mechanic. Input notifications – Some of them are werid. For good chunk of them game I was plaing in 3rd person because I couldn’t see shit while sitting in the driver seat. I was spamming the keys that are mapped to moving the seat but no response. 20H after plaing while testing VOLVO 7900 electric I got a notification that you use „O” to move the driver seat. Great 20h spending outside of the bus now they game gives me note how to do it. Also you can randomly get „Press C to leave the driver seat” pop up. Like why I wasn’t even tring to. Physics – The physics are absolutly broken in this game. They feel unreal. No like litearly the game is made in Unreal engine. But… I was doing my own space program with IVECO 12m CNG. I hit a truck somewhere in the Oakwood with around 110 km/h. It got lunched into space. Few minutes later and I find out where it landed. That truck landed in Greenwood. It across the entire map. No idea how. Also in Seaside vally, I couldn’t do it consistantly but when I was spamming tab and exc to enter and leave the map and then pressed C, I got lunched into low earth orbit and even met my buddys in ISS. Of course not litearly but it was so weird looking at entire seaside vally form so high up. I have nothing against it, it was so fun messing around with these physics. Seaside valley – now I’m very nostalgic about seaside vally. I have 225h on BS18 and it made my childhood. Seeing it with updated graphics was so hype. I felt so happy seeing Astra Park with nice shaders and smooth faremrate. However the campaign killed that exitment. For some rason you need twice the ammout of experiace to level up a stop for some rason. Either it was a bug but it killed it for me. The fact that Seaside vally also have Tram extension is insane to me. But after some time into the main campaign on seaside vally I decided to just change route 11 that I have to meet the requirements and once it did change it to check of a diffrent one. That was so sad. Also why can’t you acces the underground area of Central Bus Station I don’t understand it. Conclusion – I think the game is still worth buying. If you enjoyed Bus Simulator 18 you will propably enjoy this one as well. At least in the begining untill pedestraians and destric leveling up systems won’t break you.