BUS: Bro u Survived Preview

Demos are my favourite part of Steam Next Fest, as they let me try out the many upcoming titles without committing to them in terms of money or time. More often than not, I’ve found a title I get really excited about or learned that another wasn’t quite what I was looking for. This year, the amazing Gorz and I decided to try out a bunch of multiplayer demos to see if there were any amazing titles to look forward to, or if the crop was less than optimal. One of the only demos we ended up finishing during this session was BUS: Bro u Survived!

In this post-apocalyptic zombie title, you play as survivors in, you guessed it, a zombie-infested landscape. What sets the game apart, though, is the titular bus (yes, it’s more than an acronym!) with which you travel between your home base and missions in the field. The gameplay is as follows: You — and other players you’ve recruited — set off from your camp to one of the many missions available on the map. Once you arrive, you drive your trusty vehicle to the location, decide where to park, and then explore, fight, and complete the given objective, which usually includes fighting hordes of the undead and solving fun puzzles.

The demo we played featured a few levels, including a boss battle, which was possibly a bit on the short side, but did a great job at giving us the basics: while we explored the level and fought zombies, we could collect different items that gave us scraps. Some items were heavy, requiring us to carry them to the bus before they were considered “collected”, which added a bit of incentive to explore and take on enemies! It also made for some organic teamwork, as one player instinctively protected another lugging a heavy, but valuable, item. The levels themselves were fun and offered some interesting puzzles to figure out. For example, in one case we needed to use the bus as an extra platform to reach a switch.

The boss battle we fought was great as well, not being too challenging but still requiring us to be both nimble and smart, as a giant mechanical hand tried to smack us in between sudden bouts of Ro-sham-bo. Our only weapons during this fight were a few melee sticks we got at the beginning, so there was not much variety there, though the full game does promise a wide range of armaments to try!

The tone of the game is very humorous, with characters constantly spouting “funny” dialogue and multiple instances of physical humour. I add quotes to the word funny, as sometimes the dialogue and jokes can wear out their welcome, though this may be something that can be fixed before the release. Another thing I personally disliked a bit was the bus itself.

Having a mobile base of operations is an amazing idea for the game and it does deliver on that somewhat, with one player able to be the driver and open/close doors at will. However, the other players have little to do (at present) while on the bus and the driving itself is very simple: you can go forward or backwards with a bit of movement to either side. That’s it. I think having free movement with the bus would add to the humorous theme of the game, as players messing about and crashing into walls could make for great situational humour. The full game will offer upgrades to the bus, so these complaints may be addressed there.

Finally, the game does offer a base camp for the players to build and upgrade, but the demo did not contain this aspect, so I cannot say what it is like. BUS: Bro u Survived has the potential to be a very fun and charming co-op adventure and I have high hopes for it. I can imagine players fighting off a horde of zombies while the driver tries to desperately navigate a small space, for example. It’s definitely one to keep an eye out for!