City Bus Manager - PS5 Review

Key art for the game City Bus Manager. A blue city bus drives through a vibrant, modern cityscape with the text "YOUR HOMETOWN" on display at the front of the bus.

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Originally released on Steam in 2024, City Bus Manager has finally made its way to console! Available for PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, how will this version fare against its PC counterpart?

Developed by PeDePe GbR — a team that has a history with bus simulator titles — City Bus Manager has been very well received on Steam, with a Very Positive review rating. Today, I’ll be trying out the PlayStation 5 version, and as always with these sorts of games, I have a number of questions. First and foremost being: how well does the keyboard and mouse control scheme translate to a controller?

No Late Buses On My Watch!

Whilst maybe not the most exciting game on paper, I was still very much looking forward to playing City Bus Manager. Management sims can be a lot of fun! If you’ve got any thoughts on this title, or any other similar games you’d recommend, why not leave a comment? I’m always on the lookout for new simulators!

An articulated bus in a bus wash. — Squeaky clean!

Gameplay

You start out the game by choosing an area on the map to build your company. The way City Bus Manager uses real-world map data is genuinely pretty cool. Instead of setting up your routes on a fictionalised map, you can input a postcode or city name and start your business almost anywhere in the world! Seeing your buses journey across accurate maps is impressive, and made me care a little more when I was trying to improve my local town’s transport.

Creating your first depot is simple enough. You’ll need the basics, such as a reception area, break room, and toilets for your interior. For the exterior, areas such as parking spots, garages, and bus washers are available. There isn’t much customisation available aside from placing a few plants or lamps, which is disappointing, as each depot ends up looking identical to one another.

A map of a city with bus routes planned out on it. — Where we’re going… we’ll most definitely need roads!

Purchasing buses and hiring staff is the next step in getting the depot up and running. For buses, you’ll have options for new or used versions. Whilst the used ones are considerably cheaper, they’ll also come with certain conditions lowered, such as cleanliness or brake pads. Repairing them is simple enough; you’ll just need to purchase the parts in order to do so. Hiring staff works similarly, with a list of potential employees and their stats listed in a separate menu.

Finally, it’s time to plan your routes. I was surprised at how well this worked in relation to real-world roads. For example, I wasn’t able to place a bus stop outside my local KFC, as it’s in a retail park. Disappointing for my drivers, but a win for realism! The actual system itself works really well. You’ll pop down markers to indicate bus stops, or use the map data to select real-world ones.

Graphics & Audio

The overall user interface design is simplistic, but effective. Now, with this being a management game, there are, of course, plenty of menus for various stats, bus schedules, research and so on. Thankfully, it’s all pretty self-explanatory, and I never found myself lost or confused when browsing them. That said, they’re not too appealing to look at and could do with a bit more colour.

Two customers being served inside the depot. One is obtaining informaiton, the other is purchasing a weekly ticket. — A weekly ticket costs HOW much?

When you’re actually at the depot, City Bus Manager looks fine, if a tad bland. Not being able to fully decorate the rooms does harm this, as pre-set walls and floors aren’t exactly eye-catching. Characters, while charming in their own low-poly way, lack the animations or expression to make them seem more alive. They’ll just wander from room to room, sit in a chair, then go to their designated jobs in silence. Sort of how I act in my day job, though, to be fair.

One of the first things I mentioned in this review was how well the game would translate to a controller. Well, it turns out it does so very well, thankfully! Accessing the UI is as easy as pressing the Square button, and moving around is done either with the analogue stick or a cursor. It feels like a seamless transition from PC to console and plays perfectly well without the use of a mouse. In addition, I had no performance issues or bugs of any kind during my review. Which is very refreshing, as so many games nowadays always seem to have some issues from a technical aspect. Granted, this isn’t a game that had my PS5’s fan on overdrive, but it was still a stress (and lag!) free experience the entire time.

Longevity

Whilst you could play City Bus Manager indefinitely in theory, the reality is that there isn’t too much to do. Once you’ve got a fleet of buses on various routes and turning a sizeable profit, it feels like there isn’t much else to accomplish. The challenges, such as “complete x amount of routes” and the like, do add to the longevity, but they aren’t varied or numerous enough to keep you playing for a long time.

A fleet of double-decker buses parked in the depot. — This is my Roman Empire!

Final Thoughts

As it is, City Bus Manager is fun while it lasts; the problem is that it doesn’t last too long. Although I appreciated the relative simplicity of the mechanics, I wish that didn’t result in a lack of gameplay. It’s far from a bad game, and I enjoyed playing, but it felt like I’d seen and done everything far too quickly.

The use of real-world maps to plan bus routes all over the world, from New York City to the dingy little town I live in, is a great feature, though. For the relatively low price of £24.99, this may be one to pick up if the thought of this intrigues you, or at the very least wait for a sale.

That’s why I’ll be giving City Bus Manager a Thumb Culture Silver Award!