Developed by Simteract and published by astragon Entertainment, Bus Simulator 27 is the newest game in astragon’s long-running Bus Simulator franchise. The franchise has had its ups and downs in the past, with some titles instantly hitting off with the fans and some titles not delivering up to par. I was first introduced to this franchise with Bus Simulator 18, and have been lucky enough to try out the subsequent titles in the series, like Bus Simulator 21, and the previously released Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop. I am a long-term fan of this series, so naturally, I jumped on the first opportunity I received to try out Bus Simulator 27’s demo. This is our preview of the Steam Next Fest demo of Bus Simulator 27, in which we drive some beautiful rural routes and drop off some passengers.
The Steam Next Fest demo currently offers a small slice of Bus Simulator 27, which includes a tutorial mission and three subsequent missions, each offering a different look at the game. I jumped into the tutorial, which allowed me to get comfortable with the controls and learn how to operate the bus. It was refreshing seeing the bus had analog controls that I could switch on and off. Different features like lights, doors, a wheelchair ramp, cruise control, and others have their own buttons on the dashboard that can be pressed manually to activate or deactivate. There are also controller or keyboard shortcuts for each of these actions, but the game gives you the freedom of choosing whatever you want between the two.
After completing the tutorial, I jumped into the three levels available in the demo, each offering a different route, location, and bus to drive. The demo featured both electric and diesel-powered buses, offering a unique experience. At no point did I feel the buses to be a slouch as they had responsive acceleration, control, and brakes. Each bus also feels unique, especially based on its engine. Electric buses offer instant torque, while the diesel one felt a little slow at the beginning, but once it started rolling, it offered higher top speeds on longer routes.
There was no custom route creation or company management at this point in the demo, and each level offered a pre-built route, the bus, and everything else already selected as well. I just booted up a level and enjoyed the drive. The first level gave me a look at what intercity driving in the game felt like, as I drove an electric bus by Solaris. The level began with a short cutscene that gave me a little history of the town in which I was about to drive a bus. Apparently, in Mequina, the public bus routes are just starting as the government shut down all previous contracts due to corruption and bad practices.
This level was a short introductory run through the city in which I picked up a city counsellor who accompanied us in order to see how the new contractors run the service, which is starting after many years of no public buses. During the run, I was introduced to the beautifully designed city streets, with sensible AI traffic driving around me. Bus Simulator 27 has a cleverly designed AI that responds actively to our bus. As I navigated the tight streets, the traffic stopped to give me space to turn, did not honk horns at bus stops, and also respected my indicators. You rarely see this in video games.
The intercity level was what blew me away. During this level, I picked up some passengers in a coach and took them around the rural setting of Felicia Bay in a beautiful Mercedes-Benz Tourismo. This route took me through the winding roads of the countryside, to the main city as I went through rest area bus stops, a motorway with a 150 KMPH speed limit, and then back into the familiar cityscape of the main area. While the demo offered a small taste of the full game, I loved how the game managed to make me feel the frustrations of real-life. During one of the runs, I got stuck behind a truck going uphill in the rural area, with a double-yellow line. This meant that I had to slowly drive behind it for quite some time before I finally managed to overtake it and speed up.
It was a satisfying run because it tested my patience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The passengers in the bus also keep you entertained with their constant chatter. There was one instance where the passengers kept complaining about turning on the AC in the bus, but I couldn’t figure out whether it was a genuine feature or just a random dialogue. So far, Bus Simulator 27 feels like a promising return of the franchise. The world design is one of the best ones that I have seen in the series so far, and the driving mechanics are also satisfying. I am keen to see what the full game will be like because the demo was a good one. From just three small levels, I am already starting to like the new setting because it just feels like a proper city with beautiful locations, monuments to explore, and much more.
Coming to the technical aspect of the demo, it does have its fair share of bugs and performance issues. It needs more optimization at this point, considering the fact that its frames drop a lot even on a powerful PC. It is utilizing way more resources than it should be. Running on a 5070 with 12 GB memory, it should be running flawlessly, but during my playthrough, the game dropped frames to as low as 20 frames in certain cases. Apart from frame dips, the vehicles sometimes bumped into invisible potholes on the road as well. This happened for my own buses and the AI traffic as well. While going over these invisible bumps, the vehicle would either jump high or tilt to one side before going back to its normal side. There were some instances where the AI would suddenly stop in the middle of the road, and I would barely avoid hitting it. Apart from these hiccups, the game did not have any other sorts of problems or bugs and was a smooth experience mostly.
Bus Simulator 27 is definitely shaping up to be astragon Entertainment’s most ambitious project in the Bus Simulator franchise. The new locations are amazing and very highly detailed. The gameplay mechanics are also easy and not too complex to push players into deep simulator territory. I liked how the game actually feels like a true bus simulation game by allowing players to pick up people from one city and drive them all the way to another one through high-speed motorways in the middle. I will definitely look forward to its full release later this year to see how the developers cook up the final version of the game. It is definitely an enjoyable demo with a good look at the game in its current form, and if you enjoy low-stress simulators and driving games, you should give it a shot.
Disclaimer: A PC Steam demo code for Bus Simulator 27 was provided by HomeRun PR on behalf of astragon Entertainment. For a detailed breakdown of our scoring and review process, please refer to our Review Policy.
