Beyond the silliness of it all, repetition, precision and ogling at so many sets of twins while they pine about cats somehow makes Bus Simulator a joyous ride; a fareing good time. At least, something worth the ticket price.

From just looking at the title of the game you will know whether you’re going to love Bus Simulator on Xbox One or not. The gameplay is a slog at times, but the repetitive nature is also sort of soothing to the soul, with the missions bringing a bit of reason to why you are there and allowing you to continue playing in order to unlock things.

Despite the UI downers, I still found myself rather charmed with Bus Simulator. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and for that I admire it. The act of driving about the city is relaxing, planning routes and getting to know them is oddly fun, and managing the back end of the business can get quite deep. Even if you may not think it’s up your street, hop aboard one day and you might just be surprised.

Bus Simulator is a nice change of pace on consoles usually filled with 200mph racing games, providing a more sedate and relaxing experience for casual players and an in-depth simulation for enthusiasts.

Bus Simulator aims to be just that, the defacto simulation experience for not only driving a bus, but all of the other work that goes into running a transportation company for a large city. Yes, many will find the gameplay quite repetitive and dull, but there’s a certain calmness to it that I enjoyed and found relaxing. Yes, it’s a seriously niche game that will cater to a very specific audience, but if you’re in that demographic, there’s no better options out there, even if it’s not very pretty to look at.

A highly flawed simulator game loaded technical problems, buggy A.I., and a lack of fun. The driving itself and its sense of immersion are both big positives, but they're never quite enough to overcome the flaws. Still, for super fans of the series who desperately need their fix of bus simulation, it might be enough for them to overlook the bad. For everyone else, this is a ride that's simply not worth the ticket price.