Recent reviews by Lex

kill bugs
get killed by bots

i cried so hard i started nosebleeding
play it

Please note that my recommendation is based on the current playability of the game, NOT the current direction the game is taking.

With that out of the way, here's the real review:

This game has promise to be a contender to Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator in its beauty and immersion. The world (Berlin) is beautiful, and the buses you drive truly do feel as though they have weight to them. The force feedback is great, and what I especially love is the cabin ambience. It truly does feel like there are people on the bus, and you can hear things such as coughs, phone sound effects, and then some. In my opinion, the actual driving aspect is one of the best I've seen, and has a lot of promise.

The customer interaction aspect also has caught my attention in a good way. Bus riders will sometimes walk up to you and pay for their ticket fares either by cash (in which you also give back change if they pay more) and by card (in which you ensure the correct amount is charged on the card). It is really nice, and I enjoyed working with it.

That being said, it is important to state that this game is still in extremely SERIOUS early access development. Optimization leaves a lot to be desired, and after nearly 2 years of release, it is still unfortunate that The Bus is this poorly optimized. The reviews here on Steam, if you have not read them already, show that across all high-end gaming rigs, there are still massive lag spikes as you navigate the world.

During driving, I am looking at an average of 30-40 FPS, but the lag spikes can easily cause you to plummet down to 5-10 FPS. The framerate is more stable when you walk around or remain stationary though. I have been able to get up to 60 FPS when I am simply walking around with my character and in a medium to low-density area.

Though my setup (32GB DDR4 RAM, GTX 1650, i7-9750H, gaming laptop) is decent, being able to play the game in a stable fashion is currently impossible, even with graphics on low. This is the primary reason for why I do not recommend this game as it stands.

Moving onto other, more minor critiques:

The rider models tend to be usually the same 5 to 6 character models. While it's not a big deal, it can break immersion when the same three models enter the bus. The voice recording of the bus riders as they greet you or talk to you for fare transaction is really, really bad.

Going back to the ticketing computer that you use to process transactions, it can be daunting to know where to start. A tutorial is currently unavailable for the game, and most of the instructions you receive playing on free roam mode is relegated to small text on the bottom left of your screen that simply tells you to drive to the next bus stop or to make sure to turn on the air conditioning unit.

There are still many more bugs and issues as the developers continue to convey that you will encounter in your experience. While currently I don't suggest playing this, please do keep an eye out on it. If the developers persevere through and manage to fix the major lag spikes, I think that this will absolutely be worth a buy, and my review will be adjusted accordingly.

- Named myself Canada Dry
- Gets killed by Canada Wet
- Canada Wet gets killed by Mountain Dew
- Mountain Dew gets killed by Dr. Pepper
- Dr. Pepper gets killed by a Serial Killer

soda/10

would soda slaughter again.

I'm telling you this. (No **** sherlock.)

Superpower 2 is unique. It has deep geographical technology which makes you zoom into the planet Earth to the point of seeing pixelated highways. While that may not be as cool as it sounds, look at the geography around it. Cool huh? But I am going to focus on the more 'economic' side of this game.

SP2 goes in deep with the economic system of the country you picked, and the free will to change your country's market from state controlled, to mixed, to free market, which is pretty awesome considering you can almost take control of 6 sectors and either import or export the amount of the resource you have. Most games don't have such in-depth-ness-ness. You can adjust the spending of specific areas such as health care, education, infrastracture, environment, propaganda (If you plan to be a very, very evil country with a brainwashed populace.), and et cetera. You can adjust your interest levels and see how inflation is going in your country, and adjust the personal tax income to whatever you wish to get the most dough out of it, but it will always result in the cold shoulder of your populace, so be careful when you want to go over 60%.

If you like to focus on the political aspects of this game, there isn't really much for you other than either legalizing/illegalizing a few dilemmas such as freedom of demonstration, freedom of speech, same-sex marriage, woman suffrage, polygamy, etc. But there are also the religions and languages, which you can either allow (Meh reaction from the populace in this religion/language), outlaw (I DON'T WANT THIS LEADER ANYMORE! reaction), or officialize (LEADER 4 LIFE! reaction). You can also participate and make various treaties, where it is also possible for you to play as Turkey and join the European Union with the approval of the countries inside the treaty.

You don't like economic or political but the more military aspects of this game? Well then. NUKES! Yes. Who does not like nukes? I do like nukes. And so do you, probably. You can research military technology to make more military designs such as fighter aircraft, attack aircraft, tanks, bombers, infantry vehicles, artillery guns, and so on and so forth. There is also a ranking system that determines how strong you are compared to other nations, which is influenced by your technological prowess, which ranges from 1 to 10. If you plan to dominate the world with the US, best to start with a lvl. 10 technological level.

And the most important thing?: There is multiplayer. FRIKKIN MULTIPLAYER!

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone with a taste for taking control of a country and changing it around completely. The sky and the autarky bug are the limits! Maybe.

10/10

This game, while having been released with alot of bugs on it's side, still manages to make a name for itself. The battle is good, but the only problem is the AI, who really just charges at you with no strategy in normal mode for me. I also enjoy the two-player campaign, about time they released something this good for a great series like this.

If you are looking to be one helluva strategic imperator/pharoah/etc, you may or may not like this game if you depend on the weak challenge the AI shows. I still enjoy this game regardless and I would gladly recommend it, the only cons being heavily bugged, but still playable.

And if you really think the game is unbearable to play, you should download some mods to make it atleast 'enjoyable and playable'

Have fun, everyone.