《Thank You, Bus Driver》评测

In the six months since I reviewed Kiln, it’s probably an understatement to say that Double Fine have seen some upheaval. After their split with Xbox, the team have hit the ground running however, with a successful Kickstarter helping to decide their next mainline project as an independent studio. In the meantime, however, we have a little something else in the form of Thank You, Bus Driver. A monochrome morsel led by Will Koehler made in a matter of weeks! Is this the start of a promising new era for Double Fine? Let’s find out in the Day One review for Thank You, Bus Driver.

The Wheels On The Bus

Thank You, Bus Driver is ultimately, a simple riff on the classic Crazy Taxi formula. Your titular bus driver must ferry unruly passengers across various points on the small map to nab ‘thank you’ tokens to boost your timer and keep the shift going. Where things differ is in the passengers themselves, as each shift progresses, the bus company implements arbitrary new rules you need to enforce to keep the passengers happy and the tokens flowing in. This can range from no eating, no sleeping, no toe nailing clipping, to a simple ‘no stinky passengers allowed’.

Any rule breaks can be solved with a good slap, or for repeat offenders, a kick out of the back door! It’s a surprisingly fun take on this gameplay style, with your in game map also taking up screen space in real time as you try to navigate around the twists and turns to each destination in record time. Passenger management is unfortunately a bit finicky for a core mechanic, as selecting your intended target to discipline can be more than a little awkward on controller, although the game controls well overall with the driving mechanics feeling appropriately ‘bus-like’. Rounding out the gameplay is an expanding list of items that can help your driver, including speed boosts, token boosts, and special items to help deal with passenger trouble.

Its fair to say this is all…very simple, with most of the fun coming from the short and sweet shift times, chaotic driving as you try and spot shortcuts, and the various passengers with fun animations for their bad behaviour. There are plenty of rough edges, with both the random items and routes sometimes combining to make some shifts almost impossible to attain a good score on but this is still a fun way to while away a couple of hours if you can forgive some quirks.

A Short Drive

There is also an actual structure to the gameplay here, as your earned tokens slowly unlock new features on your way to becoming the ultimate bus driver. None of these are especially notable, consisting of new items, graphical filters and a few special events. The latter may involve rainy days and night shifts or days with trash filled streets or unique passengers, but they don’t come with any major gameplay changes.

Given the game’s evident small scale, it’s nice to have something to work towards, but don’t expect too much in the way of story or large-scale rewards.  Sadly, there is no ‘endless mode’ to unlock, as the game’s shifts will all end once you’ve finished round 15 and there is no high score leaderboard to speak of, so there isn’t much to keep you playing even if you wanted to.

Very Mini-Bus

With only a few weeks’ development time, and at the very low price of $4.99, it’s obvious that Thank You Bus Driver is a smaller affair all around. I spent around four hours to complete the entire game, and realistically after two hours I had gotten my fill of the gameplay loop.

Despite this, I find it hard to fault with some context. As part of the new Double Fine Action Labs label, this feels much closer to a playable insight into the studio’s yearly game jam experiment as opposed to a title intended to be to be viewed as a complete experience. As a big fan of the studio, seeing behind this curtain in some way was valuable all on its own, although your mileage will vary.

It certainly would be cool to see more of these mini titles packaged in an anthology setting at some point, but this is a good start! All of this is to say, go in with fair expectations. Thank You, Bus Driver doesn’t feel like a demo per se, but it does feel like a vertical slice of a larger game that never got made.

Under The Hood

I will confess to having some big concerns going in with regards to technical performance. Kiln had launched with a wildly inconsistent frame rate which ended up letting down an otherwise really nice-looking game. Thankfully, things are generally a bit smoother sailing here.

While the visuals are simple, they are plenty charming, with the monochrome style being equal parts school sketchbook goofiness and rubber hose animation. There’s also plenty of Double Fine humour in the limited dialogue from your boss, the passenger designs and all the wanton destruction your bus can cause. Most importantly, performance is largely stable, with only some choppiness when things get really busy on a few of the special events.

The soundtrack is…admittedly limited, with only one central gameplay track that gets remixed a little as your run continues, but it’s hardly offensive and fit the overall aesthetic well.

A Promising New Start

Ultimately, Thank You, Bus Driver is not a full-fledged game in any traditional sense or price. What it actually is may be more important for them right now; an assertion of the passion and creativity that Double Fine have as a developer, no matter what the budget or timeframe. A few hours of chaotic fun delivered with signature charm; it’s more of an entertaining curio than anything else. Even so, it is small, but worthy addition to the Double Fine catalogue for fans of the studio and hopefully – a good sign of things to come.

Review Code Provided by the Publisher.

Thank You, Bus Driver

Played on

PC

PROS

• A fun and silly twist on Crazy Taxi
• Signature Double Fine humour and charm
• A unique insight into a studio’s culture at a bargain price

CONS

• Not a full-fledged ‘game’ in any sense
• Gameplay is a little rough around the edges