Fernbus Coach Simulator Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · March 7, 2023

For this Fernbus Coach Simulator Review, where the world of coach drivers awaits you! Drive along motorways and country roads to the bus stations in over 40 cities in Germany. Thanks to the cooperation with FlixBus and true-to-the-original MAN buses, you will experience the game world in a realistic way. Plan your own multi-stop routes from the Netherlands over Belgium to Austria and drive non-stop. In a modern coach, you will experience the everyday life of a coach bus driver. Navigate through a complex motorway and road network to bus stations in over 100 cities in Europe and stay in constant contact with the control center.

Fernbus Coach Simulator Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
24.3GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Set your name and hometown.
Game settings – time units (European/American), autosave intervals, language, tutorial pop-ups, subtitles, tooltips, passenger comments, show invisible walls, and notifications.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, and head bobbing strength slider.
Ai traffic density slider.
Bus simulation gameplay.
Colorblind support.
Two game modes – career, and free play.
In career mode, you can manually type I. The route number and if it’s express or just click on an unlocked bus stop on the map.
Visit towns and cities to unlock the bus stops.
Two control methods – Arcade and realistic.
Three character models – male, female, and classic (which is a male in different clothes).
Your bus can be customized from the number plate, mirrors, and paint scheme.
Three different buses/coaches to drive – MAN lions coach 2nd gen, Neoplan Skyliner, and BB40.
First and third-person views both when walking around in person and when driving.
The screen is totally Customisable and it only takes a few button presses in real-time.
Side mirrors are on the car but you can have seperate pop screens for both sides.
Adjust the ride height and angle of the driver seat.
Minimap which can be turned off.
When reversing you get to see the back camera view.
Radical-style mini menus for things like interacting with customers, hazard lights, etc.
The game is a living breathing thing where you need to obey the rules of the road.
You get to look side to side with the camera.
Points of interest are shown on the map like toll roads, petrol stations, car parks, parks, etc.
Save when you want.
Different weather types.
You have to manually check-in passengers before they can board.
Set a destination from your home city to start creating routes and picking up passengers.
Notifications pop up with infractions like speeding and the severity of accidents.
It is a relaxing game to chill with… Eventually.
Playing with simulation settings is the real experience as you need to do refueling, deal with annoying passengers, plan routes in more detail, and have greater control of all the in-coach options.

Fernbus Coach Simulator Review Cons:

Career mode doesn’t tell you how to even start the game! Eventually, I figured out you have to do free play within the career to find and unlock bus routes.
Six coaches/vehicles show but half of them are DLC!
The menus are clunky.
When changing vehicles it doesn’t keep your number plate text.
When selecting a vehicle and character the screen keeps doing this weird flashing, turns out it’s lightning despite the fact that the weather is currently sunny!
There is no damage model to you or the public.
Traffic lights take ages to change.
Asshole drivers everywhere.
The steering is atrocious even with arcade settings, it’s sluggish no matter what vehicle you are driving.
No penalties for smashing into cars, scenery, or running a red light.
The game suffers a lot of slowdowns even in areas that are quite empty.
Career mode has no tutorials and just dumps you in and expects you to figure it out.
Pop-up and pop-in are really bad.
The map doesn’t even show bus stops!
Had random things like walls just popping up, and glitches out cars driving upside down.
Crash animations are just a shake of the dash.
Any slight touch and you lose control of the vehicle.
No in-game music.
Clearly, a pc game that has shoehorned controller buttons in and it shows on the menus.
All cars are parked on the pavements.
No player model in your chair.
When it’s raining it rains in the vehicle.
I had to go out of the game to find out how to set routes, unlock routes, etc.
Driving a route and all of a sudden a building is on the road and I can’t continue! Just watching Ai drivers plowing into the building over and over.
Checking passengers in is just clicking a button and seeing if the destination matches yours.
Only a small amount of character models for the passengers.
Never sure how to start a route despite knowing.
Ending a route in the game is just as difficult.