My First Impressions of Bum Simulator

When I heard that Bum Simulator had come out of Early Access, I didn’t think much of it as I’d just played a game that tackled the topic of homelessness and didn’t want to go from a sincere depiction of living rough to a jovial display of it. However, when I saw Bum Simulator had a 10% discount on Steam, I picked it up.

The game begins with a talking shopping cart named Carl Cartman filling you in on the story’s premise. According to him, the Evilway corporation (a reference to publishers Playway) performed an operation on both of you — Carl having his consciousness put into a trash-filled shopping cart and yourself losing half of your brain. But that’s only half of it. The two homeless gangs that have warred over the streets of Bumsville, the Creeps (the gang you’re a part of)  and the Bugs, just boiled over as the Bugs systematically took over the turf of your gang. As a bum who knows the ways of ancestral powers — the ability to use a variety of pigeons to fight with — you must crush the Bugs, put Carl back into his body, and get the other half of your brain back in your skull.

But before you take your revenge, you’ll first have to survive the streets of Bumsville as Bum Simulator has a thirst/hunger system, as well as health, which all will gradually deplete while playing. Food and drink can be found by rummaging through trash, by farming using the seeds you can buy from the Pigeon Lady or collect from pigeon droppings, and purchasing from vendors and shops scattered around the map. Sleeping and painkillers will help regain your health; however, sleeping will deplete your other gauges. Consumables are not scarce to discover, from a full sandwich with the crust cut off to the crumbs, but finding a place to put it when trash and building materials line your cart.

The first hour of Bum Simulator is a comprehensive tutorial where you meet the game’s recurring characters: Bugzy, the street spy; Pigeon Lady, who sells seeds to you; and the circus-themed scrapyard owner with a hook for a hand Mr. Jello, who opens up the base-building mechanics. Base-building is an integral part of the game, with your beginning home consisting of a sleeping bag on top of thin cardboard sheets and a broken pigeon coop. Once developed, it soon becomes a back alley paradise as you build up to create a sustainable home. Like most open-world games with base-building, you start simple with workbenches and wood-based floors but construct more elaborate things with rarer items further into the game. However, to find scrap in Bum Simulator, players have to decide whether to buy scrap at exorbitant prices or search through trash and risk getting caught stealing things like trash can lids. You can also collect blueprints used to create unique structures and furniture.

When you have enough scrap, smelters and garden pots can be built to put the things you scavenge to use. Items smelt, like aluminium ingots, are used for larger projects, while the pots (depending on their size) will produce fresh food and seeds, so you won’t have to eat rotten foods in the end game. Once you have your base up and running — as well as the first pigeon coop fixed — the Bugs begin to attack your base regularly. Base defence can be summed up like this: the Bugs prepare to attack you, you can either fight them yourself with constructible bottle turrets and land mines, ask for help from members of the Creeps by helping them out when they’re outnumbered, or just paying the Bugs to buzz off. Building new and/or upgrading pigeon coops will increase the power of the pigeons you use in fights, but if the coops are damaged (as well as anything in your base), you’ll have to make makeshift repair kits via the work bench.

Combat is pretty simple (punch, kick, block, and watch your stamina gauge until your foes fall down) and becomes easier with the pigeons you use in battle. Beginning with the Shuriken pigeon, you throw the bird — with headshots dealing knockback — in ranged attacks. Shuriken challenges can be found on the map that are fun to do but gradually become harder if you do not upgrade the pigeon type. The challenges are a variety of shooting ranges, with each one testing your abilities and accuracy with moving targets.

Besides the main quest line, side quests litter the map, granting you considerable amounts of money to perform vulgar acts for the amusement of a green-suit-wearing man named Richman and helping Mr. Jello reward competitors in the scrap business with a ticking present that counts down from 90 seconds. Other ways to get money are to beg pedestrians for change — waving a customisable board that can say whatever you want on it — as well as selling things you find in pawn shops. Although money can help with buying much-needed materials and hearty meals, it doesn't really matter to me as I like grinding for my stuff.

If you’re looking for a game with pretty graphics then look somewhere else. As Bum Simulator is about homelessness, everything has a grimy look to it. Textures on buildings and surfaces are a little dirty, and the developer found a way to make garbage look even more filthy. The insides of trash cans are the worst to look at — like a kaleidoscope of rubbish. The sound design and music might be the cleanest part of the title. Composing a game where you can ragdoll pedestrians with a sentient shopping cart needs to have a silly soundtrack, and Bum Simulator definitely has one, including the main menu music being sung by the main character — grunts only.

Overall, my experiences with Bum Simulator were somewhat interesting. I didn’t expect to be thrust into a gang war or commit domestic terrorism in a game where you play as a vagabond. Nevertheless, I didn’t expect much from the game in general, so when I started to enjoy it for its lunacy I stopped caring about its storyline — spending most of the game fighting or micro-managing my home’s aesthetics.