Recent reviews by patrickov

There's a serious error in the depiction of an area. Game should not bend to potential political pressure.

If counting the original game OpenTTD is derived from, I have been continuously playing this game for more than two decades. 'Nuff said.

For this game, graphics are ok and there are little if any significant bugs, but the gameplay gets repetitive and boring fairly quickly. There are also places which shows the game being hastily put together.


1. It deals with one kind of building, namely make a concrete base, build a 1 or 2-storey house using building bricks, place doors and windows, roofing, plastering the exterior, interior walling and then interior plastering and / or painting.

2. The area to dig is generally very rectangular, although this can be a point of advantage if some players don't like ambiguous guidance (like in Construction Simulator).

3. Few choices of doors and windows, especially that every window seems to require windowsill on both sides.

4. Not too intuitive for tasks like internal plastering. I often find myself wasting a good 15 minutes finding the last piece of unplastered "wall" (which is often at a corner of window happening to be behind my eyesight).

5. The expansion seems hastily put together. I only played 1 contract beyond the original 10, and it does not feature recording of Bill at all, which kind of scared me when the completion clip suddenly played (Same issue in other (relative) indies like Bus Simulator 18, but at least the BS 18 hired someone to record the dialog of its only expansion)


To sum it up, it seems to be between Construction Simulator 15, House Flipper and The Sims (the furniture part), but kind of fall short in all three directions.

This is not a strong negative. After all it is free to play. I merely find something in the game not too agreeable.

Pros: The logic for having a row white is fairly accurate and intelligent.

Cons:
1. All official puzzles after the starter pack needs money.
2. I kind of feel autosave not always working...
3. The last puzzle of the starter pack is a bit disturbing.

Disclaimer 1: I give a positive review mainly due to my experience in the game. Jump to point 10 if you concern your money.

Disclaimer 2: I have read some negative reviews and I spent some time in the game before writing my own.

Disclaimer 3: Many compare this to ETS2 / ATS. I own both for some time before getting Bus Sim 18. I will also make comparisons to earlier SCS games and OMSI 2.


I think I will summarise my review in a few points.

1. While the control of Bus Sim 18 is inferior to ETS2 / ATS it's certainly better than earlier SCS games as well as OMSI 2, at least when in keyboard control.

2. Haven't got serious bugs so far, but I can feel the game a bit demanding on hardware as my Graphic card keeps whirring, something I don't always get in ETS 2.

3. Both Bus Sim 18 and OMSI 2 simulate German bus operations (It's a bit painful to return 18 Euro with coins!). Bus Sim 18 seems to be the more casual one, without all those tedious heating and destination controls as I found in OMSI 2 (and I actually thought in OMSI 2 even the tutorial was a bit harsh).

4. What I really like in Bus Sim 18 is the route planning feature, which I don't find in OMSI 2. I don't have Bus Sim 16 but I will say Bus Sim 18 asks you to do some serious planning in mid-to-late stage of mission mode, especially when you wish to keep at least one bus per route. I found it 90% satisfying and contributes to at least 60% of my motivation to give the game a positive review (the other 40% goes to buses). Unfortunately it's slightly annoying for the planning having to be one-way, with loop and round-trip modes being done by switches, something not very intuitive in descriptions. In addition, I heard that the bus stop service related achievements need to have every stop served *in both directions* with planned routes. That means every stop must be served by at least two routes. I expect it to be super annoying in the old town, where streets and bus stops are littered around.

5. Some mechanics can be annoying or even troublesome. I agree with some reviewers that the steering goes too far sometimes. I also find myself rather easy to crash into pedestrians (a whooping 20K fine!), especially when I make a right turn. Roundabouts need special care as well, which I think shouldn't (most roundabouts are autobahn interchanges For God's Sake). Oh, and level rail crossings -- when I first encountered it, it literally rings and closes for every car in front of me. Thankfully I got it through without it ringing again, which means I'm spared from being crashed by a train.

6. The timing is tricky at first, but once you get the hang of, say, how often to check your customers' tickets and plan sparsely-stopped routes (and remember to have "too-early" switched off!), it is easier to keep the entire trip "late free".

7. Contrary to some who think the game map being too small, I think it is OK in size since I don't want to immerse in hour-long drives, but the placement of important locations is certainly not perfect. For example, I think the developers made a mistake by putting the "Central Bus Station" near the western edge of the map. It would do if they, say, swap that bus station with the main train station. The map expansion looks promising although I surely wish the developers could have done more, no less by introducing some entirely different maps or even real-life towns.

8. Some find multiplayer a plus but a bit buggy. I haven't tried it out yet, because the mission mode is already enough to keep me going for at least a while.

9. While I am a big fan of MAN, the DLC pack featuring its buses is IMHO not too good. All three models cost more (in-game) money for (often) less capacity. One small tip on assigning buses to employees: Capacity of a bus seems not affecting a route's expected revenue.

10. The base game charges some 40 USD and another 25 or 30 for all DLCs. Wait for a sale -- I got it at some 60% off and I feel that discounted price "about OK".

The obvious replacement for SimCity. Period.

This game is arguably much more challenging than Human Resources Machine. As seen in the game, they now allow some failures but still pass your solution. Just remember: Multi-tasking is very different from simple sequential programming.

The extensive work of the studio should be appreciated, but there are two major issues:

1. Learning curve is a bit steep, and it's not very easy to control the thing using mouse. Should include hot-keys in the tutorials, as well as highlighting where to click.

2. I found there are quite a lot of inaccuracies, especially that they seem deliberately eradicating the visual evidence of the Metropolitan main line (no trains, and even Baker Street Junction is missing). The curve seems not correct along the north side of the circle as well.

Sadly the BVE simulator route (free, made about 10 years prior to this game, and probably out of reach) was very much the better make.

I think this is a better utilization of the concept than Train Valley 1. I recommend this game as long as I don't find any game breaking bugs.

Realistic trucks, vast area of game map, ever-improving scenery... what else to ask for?