Emberville’s Finest
When Saber Interactive puts you behind the wheel of a vehicle, you know you are in for a good time. Games like MudRunner, SnowRunner, and Roadcraft are great experiences due to the fact they focus on gameplay first and allow the other elements around them to shine, especially alongside a friend.
Bus Bound, developed by Stillalive studios, the same team being the Bus Simulator games is back, but this time published by Saber Interactive as a whole new sub-series within the bus simulator genre. However, what sets Bus Bound apart from Bus Simulator is the lack of being a true simulator and a larger focus on the immediate and simple gameplay elements.
Bus Simulator 21 offered the choice of deep simulation or removing it entirely. You concentrated on your earnings, and various accidents would swallow up those profits. You would accept tickets, payment, and even stop passengers from making a scene. It was built to be a simulation, Bus Bound is not, and it's far better for it.
Bus Bound greatly simplifies its gameplay without compromising the feel of a bus simulator’s driving elements. You have a bus, you ensure passengers get on and off, and attempt to make it to your stops on time, all while making them happy. While there is certainly more here to talk about, that is the basic gameplay loop, and this simplicity really excels as making Bus Bound the ultimate chill experience.
You'll start out with a few basic tutorials and then start driving various routes, and eventually making your own as more stops open up. The better you do, the more likes you get, and the multiplier for those likes grant you even more. Eventually, those likes allow you to upgrade your district, which cleans up new neighborhoods and maybe even adds a new statue or something else to reinvent the space. As you reach a certain status with certain stops, new areas around the city will unlock, giving you more options with a ton of new stops.
This is the general loop of progression as you unlock new districts and the various stops within them. Your bus also has its own set of challenges that not only unlock new buses, but new paint jobs, designs, and more. It lacks the deeper customization of Bus Simulator 21, which could upset that game's fanbase, among the removal of the core simulation systems, but I am fine not changing the color of my seats or adjusting the lighting inside the bus.
Each route starts at your first stop, and you'll need to manage the distance from the curb and your alignment with your bus to said curb. You'll get a ranking from bad to perfect, and passengers will refuse to leave the bus if that ranking is bad. You'll then need to readjust, try the parking job again, and then unload your current group of passengers and see new ones get on for the next stop.
On each route, you'll have various obstacles, from parked trucks, police blockades, to construction, and speed bumps. How you handle these will thrill or frustrate your passengers, as will speeding, running red lights, or failing to make or pull off a stop at each stop sign. Passengers will react either positively or negatively, and that affects your likes, and the multiplier you have built. And, as some buses require a perfect route to level up, you'll want to ensure you are following all the rules of the road and making your passengers happy.
Bus Bound does have some elements of Bus Simulator’s simulation gameplay, but are far more streamlined. You do not need to look at any part of the bus’s interior to activate the parking brake, the doors, or the speed limiter, these are just button applicable actions now. You have both an internal and external view, with POV sliders to find what works for you. Personally, I only ever used the external view to ensure no one else was getting on the bus, as the internal view was far easier to control when driving and parking.
You do have elements to interact with on the bus, such as the side window or the sun-blocker, and each bus you drive looks and feels different, placing those elements in slightly different sight lines. Each bus will prompt the view behind you when you activate your turn signals, and some buses will have mirrors to keep track of your passengers as well. Bus Simulator 21 had an issue with low framerate in the rear view mirrors, and that same technical blemish is still here, exactly as it was. Why this wasn't addressed is ridiculous as it looks like a slide show running at maybe 5-10 frames per second.
As you continue on your route, you'll have green, red, and yellow markers on the ground, indicating your route path. Green means go, and well, I'm sure you understand what red and yellow mean. I did have a few moments where the markers wouldn't appear, causing me to miss a turn or move through a red light without a light even being present. This was rare, but it did ruin an otherwise perfect run from time to time.
Bus Bound features 17 different licensed buses, and as mentioned, they all feel completely different from one another, especially when it comes to maneuverability. From your standard fare to the accordion buses, to the ones decked out in the city's basketball colors, some buses require extremely wide turns to some that don't need that much room at all.
Each bus can see a variety of different color options, layouts, and layers, to complete wraps that change the look of the bus entirely. More options unlock as you complete missions for each bus, such as having a perfect run, obtaining a certain amount of likes, to several other approachable tasks.
Like Bus Simulator, you have a basic story element to start things off, but you are not trying to keep the business alive, but just have it thrive and gain the confidence of the city and its people to open up more stops and become a beacon of transportation. Emberville reminds me of a lot of certain elements of a few cities I've been to. From Calgary to Vancouver, to Seattle, the city is a mixture of various cultures and settings, and generally feels alive, with pedestrians, traffic, and people off to the side, talking away on their cell phone. There is a general feel that many locations feel meticulously hand-crafted.
While you will continue to unlock new routes, you can customize your own routes to min-max your experience to level up key locations. Most routes will require a minimum of five stops as some challenges for buses will have that as a minimum. This also allows you to have a lot more variety in the scenery as you're not seeing the same route every drive.
Each bus has a radio, and the music here is pretty good for the chill vibes the game is shooting for, complete with a few moments where the radio host will comment on some best practices for driving. Now, I don't know the total number of songs, but the repetition was something fierce. It felt like I was listening to the same three or four songs on repeat. It's a shame it didn't just link up to a Saber Interactive Spotify mix to keep it fresh. Again, the music is good, but I am very burnt out on a few songs that I was constantly listening to.
Bus Bound allows you to run routes with your friends, as the co-op in this game is pretty fun. As you tackle each stop, you'll use those likes to level up. In co-op, up to four players can contribute to that percentage as each are given different routes to drive. This helps boost the rating of each stop dramatically, allowing you to unlock the city considerably faster. It's fun to see your friends drive either alongside you on a similar route or pass by you while you're at a red light, it almost makes it look like the city has a truly functional transit system.
Bus Bound certainly shares a lot of its visual DNA with Stillalive’s previous efforts, and that's not necessarily a bad thing as even five years old, Bus Simulator 21 was a decent looking game. Emberville is packed with detail, and plenty of locations that really make it feel like a real city and not like some checklist of locations.
Bus Bound is such a relaxing and chill experience that is a fantastic way to unwind and rake in a few podcasts and continue to unlock new areas of the city, bus routes, and customization options for your bus. It may disappoint fans of Bus Simulator in its watered down simulator elements, but It's a choice I strongly believe was the right call, allowing Bus Bound to be something more digestible and casual. Bus Bound will continue to be a title I come back to week after week, building up Emberville’s transit system to that of absolute perfection..
..at least until I accidentally hit a pedestrian. Like, come on, he was standing off the curb.
Developer - Stillalive studios.
Publisher - Saber Interactive
Released - April 30th, 2026.
Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC.
Rated - (E) - Alcohol Reference, Mild Language.
Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X.
Review Access - A review code for Bus Bound was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.