User:Aberlin2/OMSI – The bus simulator

OMSI – The Bus Simulator is a bus simulation game for Windows, released in February 2011 as a download version and in March 2011 on DVD-ROM by Aerosoft. It was developed between 2007 and 2011 by Marcel Kuhnt and Rüdiger Hülsmann under the company name MR Software. The simulation is set in 1989; it simulates the then omnibus line 92 in Berlin-Spandau. For this purpose, the route was faithfully recreated and integrated into the game.

Game principle
The player is the driver of a bus of the Berlin public transport company. He has double-decker buses of the MAN SD 200 and MAN SD 202 series as well as buses of the type MAN NL 202 and MAN NG 272 with the original logos of the manufacturer at his disposal. Vehicles of different years of construction were reproduced with different vehicle advertising. The 92/137 line and the 92E section between Falkensee/Freudstraße and Heerstraße Stadtgrenze/Hahneberg, the 5/5E/5N/130/N30 between Spandau Nervenklinik and U-Bahn-stationRuhleben and part of the 13N/N33 between Heerstraße Stadtgrenze/Hahneberg and U-Bahn-stationRathaus Spandau can be operated. In addition to driving itself, ticket sales are also simulated. Furthermore, the player can ride in omnibuses of the AI traffic.

Development
Since the end of 2011, work has been done on an articulated physics for the simulator. With the MAN NG 272, an articulated bus has found its way into OMSI for the first time. Since this differs little from the low-floor bus MAN NL 202 apart from the articulation, this was also released with the next OMSI version. On February 23, 2012, the developers announced the official continuation of the included Spandau map. This includes the former line 5 from the Spandau mental hospital to the Ruhleben subway station. Furthermore, the Berlin-Spandau map is playable in different eras (from 1986 to 1994). In addition to these fundamental changes, further variants of the existing SD 200 and 202 models have been added; furthermore, there is now a chronology function that simulates events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. The further development was officially released on December 12, 2013 under the name OMSI 2.

Critical reception
The Internet magazine 4Players gave OMSI a predominantly positive rating.

PC Action magazine, on the other hand, gave the simulation a poor rating. In addition to outdated graphics, technical errors and poor performance were criticized.

Other tests also criticized a low scope of the game and a lack of long-term motivation, but this is compensated for by extensive community-created expansions like mods, maps or buses. The model-oriented implementation of the simulation, on the other hand, was praised.

Jan Böhmermann presented the Bremen-Nord add-on in a Let's Play in December 2017.

Weblinks

 * Website of the simulator with forum
 * OMSI-Wiki
 * Additional content for OMSI 2: Steam Edition
 * OMSI webdisk with forum and additional downloads