Bus Bound review – A streamlined simulator

It’s been over ten years since I’ve been on a bus, and I don’t miss it. I imagine some places have nice bus services, but where I live they’re horrid. The buses themselves are run-down and tired. Even worse, they’re rarely on time. The fact that they’re not cheap to use just rubs salt into the wound. Thankfully, you don’t need to worry about all that in Bus Bound from stillalive studios and Saber Interactive. Instead, you’ll be being judged by how good a service you can run.

Set in a fictional American city, Bus Bound puts you behind the wheels of a range of officially licensed buses. And while you can just drive around via free roam if you wish, if you really want to make your mark you need to do some serious work. Perhaps the best thing about Bus Bound is that it straddles the line quite well between soul-crushing realism and accessibility, so while you need to be serious about how you approach your work here, you’re never too bogged down with the menial stuff.

As you can imagine, every working day in Bus Bound begins in the office, where you can choose one of the preset routes available to you, or create your own by selecting the bus stops you want to service. Then, after choosing your route, it’s time to select the bus you want to drive. After that, you’re on the road with passengers to pick up and a timetable to keep. And if you want to expand your options when it comes to routes and buses, you need to impress.

Being a sim, this is the type of game where you need to adhere to the rules of the road. You can’t just speed around everywhere and ignore things like red lights, otherwise your passengers won’t be impressed at all. And that’s important, because your progress is determined by how many likes you receive from your passengers upon them finishing their journeys. Crucially, you’ll also be judged by how well you pull up to bus stops, with your closeness to the kerb and the front line of the box both under scrutiny.

It all makes for a surprisingly engaging experience that’s reasonably relaxing, although there are some issues. While two views are available, inside and outside of your vehicle, you’ll likely find that neither of them quite meets your needs regarding visibility and awareness of your surroundings. The AI of other road users is pretty questionable at times, too. And then there’s the fact that doing your job does eventually just start to feel like work.

You’ll be repeating the same routes here a lot, as you need to visit bus stops time and time again in order to fulfil your goals and open up new stops around the city. Eventually you’ll open up more areas of the city to service, too. If you’re happy just driving around the same old streets, you’ll be golden. Otherwise, Bus Bound might quickly begin to lose its shine.

There are modifiers you can unlock and enable here to make things a little more rewarding and interesting, however, and there are also more buses to unlock, all of which you can customise. When you also consider that this is a somewhat budget-priced release, it’s hard to not see plenty of merit in it. So, while Bus Bound might not be the deepest bus simulator out there, it looks rather nice, handles very well, and is welcoming to all. Just don’t expect to be doing much more than driving from one bus stop to another until you lose interest.