BUS: Bro U Survived is one of those titles that come out of nowhere, knock on your door and ask if you’re coming out to play for a bit; they’ve got something to show you. Aware that this isn’t a beating or puppies and just an invite from Herbarium Games to try out the playtest for this upcoming co-op zombie apocalypse, I thought, yeah, I’m down. Customisation, you say?
Playtests can be pretty brief as they’re so work in progress that they’re neither ready as a demo nor Early Access. This, on the other hand, is now available for the masses to try. It’s a Prologue, so read that how you will. Nevertheless, I spent a good 20-25 minutes in the customisation screen alone. Besides an incredibly repetitive tune, the visuals are ace, and I was very much enjoying this as a standalone. By the time I’d finished creating a character, there were no servers available, so a nightcap and a potential wait at the bus stop in the morning.
Day two on BUS: Bro U Survived, and now the servers were there with a surprisingly high number of players. Alas, the majority had password-protected their games, so I couldn’t be bothered scrolling for an unlocked window to climb through, so I made my own game. This had its ups and downs. The ups were the obvious: learning the mechanics without some goon rushing you or trolling, but the downs were having to constantly adjust the key bindings on the Steam Deck, and ironically, playing solo.
Your initial goal is to get a school bus up and running that’s been left to rot. There’s a pandemic in effect, and zombies roam the landscape, so you’re going to be rustling up other survivors and making the most of the end of the world. The game is effectively Overcooked without the timers. Conceptually, that’s quite an interesting way of looking at it, as that element of urgency and stress is removed, but there’s a lot of going back and forth and having another pair of hands would be brilliant. Another way of looking at it is Moving Out.
Anyway, your job is to run through a scrapyard to find parts to get the bus moving, opening up previously locked paths and bashing zombies with a tyre iron or crowbar thing. Combat is simple and unexciting. And, whether this was a Steam Deck thing, the character will only ‘aim’ upwards. You can’t direct where you’re hitting, and it is therefore a little automated. Eventually, you’ll get all the parts you need and then will make a run for it in your new wheels, befriending a pirate DJ-type guy with a hideout that’s way out of reach of the zombies, but also the shady government.
What then ensues is a survival/rescue type thing as you will be searching the plains for fellow survivors to recruit and help with new developments, upgrades and customisation. Once again, the latter is excellent and ultimately one of BUS: Bro U Survived’s selling points. New locations will feature new dialogues with recruits who you’ll have to rescue from the undead, not long after triggering switches and new vantage points to reach your goal.
Ultimately, BUS: Bro U Survived is a hoarding experience with an absolute abundance of gear to take back on your bus. The basic storage is huge and will mostly feel unlimited when you’re carting it back and forth on your own. Eventually, the solitude takes a hit in your motivation, and you’ll either bail on scavenging EVERYTHING available or head back to the lobby. However, with all the passwords, surviving an apocalypse isn’t the end of the world. As long as you have your BUS, bro.
