Bus Simulator 21: Subsequent Cease Evaluate (PS5)

Bus Simulator 21: Subsequent Cease will not be the refined PS5 showcase you’re going to indicate to all your pals. Regardless of benefitting from a pair years of additional iteration, this expanded new-gen port continues to be scrappy, with buggy AI behaviour and an underlying sense that the sport code is sort of falling aside behind-the-scenes. That mentioned, few sequence strike a zen-like attraction fairly like this, the place it’s straightforward to only zone out and drive your routes. It’s a brilliant and breezy expertise all through.

For many who’ve by no means touched this franchise, it straddles the road between tycoon and straight-up simulator. That you must construct transportation routes within the fictional – and expanded – metropolis of Angel Shores, which gives a really European flavour of Americana. The unique German-inspired Seaside Valley can be accessible, though we’d argue this has so much much less identification than the US map, which is crammed with memorable districts and landmarks.

There’s a guided story mode which assigns you particular quests as you construct up your empire, however a newly added profession choice means that you can skip all of the guff and simply dig proper into the good things. Constructing balanced routes that serve the wants of commuters after which driving them is the core loop right here. As you carry out higher – stopping in the best spot, indicating accurately, and so forth – you’ll accrue stars which can affect how successfully your AI drivers fulfil the routes whilst you’re busy elsewhere.

It’s a sensible gameplay construction as a result of it encourages you to drive completely to be able to maximise your earnings whilst you setup and full different routes. It’s additionally surprisingly dynamic: you’ll must take care of all kinds of obstacles, like clients asking to get off the bus earlier than the following cease, ticket dodgers, and serial litterers. All of this pairs with a powerful sense of humour, as you take heed to the inane babble of the patrons sitting on the seats behind you.

Whereas the sport doesn’t look significantly fairly, it does run at 60 frames-per-second on PS5, and the developer has carried out haptic suggestions and the adaptive triggers, which assist talk the texture of driving a huge double-decker. Submit-release help is en-route, too, promising new faculty bus-inspired gameplay and trams, so there’s a whole lot of life left on this one even when you’ve mastered the in depth content material accessible on day one.