''Bus Simulator 16'' is a bus simulator game developed by stillalive studios and published by Astragon Entertainment for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. It is powered by

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

and was available on 3 March 2016 worldwide. It is the fourth game in the ''

Bus Simulator ''Bus Simulator'' is a vehicle-simulation video game series developed by Icebytes, Contendo Media, TML Studios and Stillalive Studios, and published by Astragon Entertainment. The franchise was introduced in 2007 by Astragon Entertainment. The ...

'' series. A sequel titled '' Bus Simulator 18'' was released in 2018.

Gameplay

''Bus Simulator 16'' has licensed the vehicles of

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

. In addition to the buses of the German bus maker, the game features a total of six buses that allow players to drive across five districts. The game also provides a route manager for players to create their own bus lines. A

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

mode is available in the game as well.

Development and release

''Bus Simulator 16'' was announced July 2015. It is the first game in the series developed by Austrian

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

stillalive Studios. The game was scheduled to release on 20 January 2016 for Microsoft Windows and macOS, but it was postponed to 3 March 2016 due to technical issues. A bus

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...

featuring three licensed

Mercedes-Benz buses Mercedes-Benz has been producing buses since 1895 in Mannheim in Germany. Since 1995 Mercedes-Benz buses and coaches is a brand of EvoBus GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler Truck. Heritage The world's first motorised bus was built in Ger ...

, including an 18-meter long Citaro G

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usua ...

, were available on 25 January 2017.

Reception

''Bus Simulator 16'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Richard Allen of ''

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'' rated a seven to the game. He wrote that the handlings of the game were quite similar with the ''

American Truck Simulator ''American Truck Simulator'' is a truck simulator game developed and published by SCS Software. It was announced as being in development in September 2013 and unveiled at the E3 2015. It was released on 2 February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, Linu ...

'' of

SCS Software SCS Software s.r.o. is a Czech video game development company based in Prague, Czech Republic. It primarily produces simulation games for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux, including the '' 18 Wheels of Steel'' and ''Truck Simulator'' series. ...

, which was published in the same period. James Graham of ''Dark Station'' gave it three stars out of five. He praised the game's interesting ideas, but criticised its tiny in-game map and a lack of in-depth content. ''Brash Games'' only rated the game a poor three points out of ten. The writer commented, "''Bus Simulator 16'' is a lifeless, soulless lie of a simulator; and I use the term ‘simulator’ in the loosest possible way."

References

External links

* {{in lang, en, de 2016 video games Bus simulation video games Bus Simulator MacOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Austria Windows games