Sometimes having home and handheld consoles spoil me and I forget about my old faithful friend, The PC. A game on my Steam Wishlist for a while was Bum Simulator developed by Ragged Games and published by PlayWay S.A. It seemed like a fun idea, a game where you spend life on the streets as a bum, I know, I know it is a bit in poor taste but it is all done tongue in cheek. I could not wait for the main release and the Early Access seemed to have a lot on offer so I decided to download it.
I'm finally coming out of the throes of Covid, which I can personally attest to sucking ass. I lost my appetite, my taste buds were working but at a massively diminished capacity. Two things that helped me through it apart from the greatest tea maker and partner in the land Nollsy was copious amounts of tea and St. Pierre Vanilla Brioche Tear and Share. It's sweet soft, and soothing on my throat, I enjoy it normally but with Covid felt as essential as water and medication. Playing Bum Simulator I found myself asking was this easy to digest sweet thing I needed?
Story
Waking up unaware of surroundings can be tough and a lot to take in, it is even tougher when half your brain is missing and your best friend Carl is a talking shopping trolley. It seems you have been a bum for a while which is already pretty bleak but when a company called Evil Way steals part of your brain and your friend's body the two of you must explore the town of Bumsville, find your brain and Carl's body, and take down Evil Way.
There are quite a few hours to the main story and there are a decent amount of side missions too. The story is fun andn silly. It reminded me of some of the early days of GTA and Saint's Row.
Overall, and especially for Early Access the story is pretty solid, and fun. Could it use more? Sure, but looking at the developer posts they are listening to player feedback and implementing changes and additions.
Visuals
Bumsville is a small town that visually is not as trashy as you would think, there are run down areas sure but there are also nice common areas too. The details of the town are what really stand out, the screenshot I took from above captures a small part of that. There is someone dressed up as a pigeon, and I'm holding a pigeon that looks like it could go toe-to-toe with Rambo. Te wall paper and décor of the setting give it the feel of an old school boutique. While it is true the game could use more of this the game looks remarkably well. The building options for the game are really cool, some are practical and some remind me of being a child and making castles out of cardboard boxes. Or the picture below you can see me attempting to urinate on a police officer, good times.
Overall the visuals are pretty cool for what they are and have no doubt that over the next six months there will be more improvements and by the time it is ready on home consoles it will look great.
Music
The music reminded me of broken dreams, and an alcohol infused haze. Some acoustic guitar with a little electrical guitar and a smattering of percussion and brass horns. There is something so fitting about it that it can be tough to put into words if you have not already played the game a little.
Overall the soundtrack is shy of fifteen minutes but helps capture the essence of what the game is all about.
Gameplay
Bum Simulator is a sandbox game, part of the gameplay is about survival; health, food, and drink. If any of these runs out completely you die and respawn outside of a hospital and a small amount of your money is seized. Making money is the name of the game (at least to start with), and there are a few ways to do it; complete missions, go throw rubbish, sell any quality goods you find, and beg. For me begging is the most simple. You will have a cardboard sign, write anything you want on it, you then graded and that will affect how much people may give you. Now I never got a grade above E, I saw some people online get A and even when I imitated still got an E or an F. It matters little as you can spam your shake cup button and walk around the streets. I found most people will give you something, but others give you the finger - those people get punched or urinated on (rules of the street, I didn't make them).
Well that gets you sorted moneywise, then you need to focus on your pigeon buddies. As master controller of pigeons you need to take care of them by upgrading their coops. Then you can build up production and utilities to make an impressive base, along with walls, windows and defensive structures. Most of this part is for fun and is not essential to the main story. Moving objects, and bodies, ahem, can be awkward whether you use a controller or a mouse and could certainly use a little refinement in upcoming updates but its not exactly game breaking either.
The combat is a bit of fun, while the AI is simple and most enemies will just come running at you with no care for their own safety I did laugh a lot. Basic combat like punches is great, throwing an exploding pigeon is a lot of fun and scares everyone. As a friend of pigeons myself seeing them explode on those who would attack other bums or myself was massively entertaining.
There is the inclusion of a basic leveling up system which if you want to improve health, fighting or plant production is helpful.
Overall the gameplay is fun, and could use some improvements but is far from broken especially as there are game released by larger companies that have many more issues.
Final Thoughts
So, after ten hours of playing how did I feel about Bum Simulator? Not bad at all. The story was fun and there was quite a bit to do in Bumsville. The visuals had variety, there were some details that really made it standout. The music was the perfect soundtrack for any bum walking the streets, it might not have been uplifting but definitely had something about it. The gameplay was pretty solid, and while it may be need some polishing the future seems bright for Ragged Games and Bum Simulator. This one gets a solid 3 out of 5
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