Serve up tasty meals with a side of heart in the life sim Fruitbus.
In this article, we’ll be giving a full review of the game and ranking it from decaf to fully caffeinated.
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Story
Fruitbus sees you take up your Grandma’s legacy, rescuing her beloved Fruitbus from being scrapped.
Your Grandma has recently passed, and you’ll take up her mantle, driving the Fruitbus from location to location and inviting all of her favourite customers to a last goodbye for her.
Following a quest based story, you’ll be immersed in each different characters stories, with each having different problems for you to assist with. You’ll need to help them work through their issues before you can secure their RSVP, and this is essentially what makes up the story side of the game.
The story is wholesome, and touches on some emotional themes like belonging, following your heart, friendships and more. It’s the type of story that holds your hand along the way, and drives the meaning behind the gameplay, but isn’t really in your face.
It’s definitely a story that feels like a warm hug, so for story I’m rating Fruitbus as Fully Caffeinated.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of Fruitbus is made up of a couple of different elements.
You’ll get behind the wheel of the Fruitbus, and you’ll drive it from location to location. You’ll need to keep a careful eye on your fuel levels, ensuring you’ve got enough to make it to the next fuel station, and there’s some great upgrades you can add, and toppers you can put on your bus too, to give that extra pizazz. The driving side of the game does feel a little bit janky, with the steering and maneuvering not being great, especially when playing on a keyboard and mouse. I did enjoy the touch of realism with the handbrake and ignition, but just found driving in general to be quite a tedious process, which isn’t great when it makes up a decent chunk of the gameplay.
You’ll be able to explore the island on foot, as well as behind the wheel, and this is how you forage for ingredients. You’ll need to explore the world to find all the different ingredients for the meals you serve, with some only showing up in one location. Some of these can be tricky to locate, or access, and some need special tools like a shovel to be able to collect them.
Once you’ve got your ingredients it’s time to serve them up as tasty meals for your customers. You’ll operate your Fruitbus, opening your serving window to show you’re ready to take orders, and will need to prepare what each customer wants. Each ingredient will need to be chopped, before it can be combined, blended, or cooked, to create each meal. You’ll progressively unlock different meal types, starting with salads, and working your way up to more complex meals, with each requiring you to first purchase the appropriate machinery.
Serve up your creations to your customers, and be rewarded with some coins, with the amount varying depending on the different combinations in the meal. You’ll discover some of your Grandma’s recipes as you play, which are rewarded with extra combos, and will find there’s ingredients that go well together and will give you a boost too.
You can spend your coins on upgrades, but you’ll need to reserve some for the necessities like fuel, and serving dishes or cups for your meals. Upgrades can include extra crates for storage, tools, workbenches, decorative items, and more, but each come with their own price tag.
Outside of the Fruitbus gameplay elements, you’ll talk with different characters to invite them to your Grandma’s farewell celebration, but many of them will need some extra assistance to make that RSVP, so you’ll find yourself completing different quests for each person. These quests can range from creating a specific salad, to finding a missing coin, and each encourage you to explore the world around you.
I will say that the gameplay in Fruitbus is a little bit difficult to navigate. There isn’t a whole lot of direction as to what you’re supposed to do, which can leave you floundering a bit until you talk to the right person. I found that the quests themselves were interesting and engaging, but that was often lost by the long drives to each location, and at times it felt like I was driving back and forth between different places just for the sake of it.
I really enjoyed the foraging part of the game, but the cooking side was a bit difficult to get a handle on due to the controls. I think the controls were designed with a controller in mind, so playing on keyboard and mouse isn’t the greatest experience. There’s no way to salvage ingredients if you accidentally put them in the wrong bowl, and there’s no way to scrap anything either, which would have been handy to have at times. I also would have loved to see a mini-map added, as navigating to the map in the journal was quite tedious.
Overall Fruitbus has some solid bones, and most of the gameplay is really enjoyable. There’s a few quirks, and it did become tedious for me to play, so for gameplay I’m rating Fruitbus as Kinda Kicks.
DESIGN
The design of Fruitbus is a quirky 3d style, that brings a sense of humour to the game. The animal characters are all adorable, and the mannerisms and reactions were fantastic. The world itself is vibrant and has a lot to explore, and I loved exploring all the nooks and crannies in the game.
The soundtrack is a vibe, and I loved being able to change the radio in the bus. The sound effects definitely added some atmosphere to the game, and I loved being able to play the bus’s jingle, and hear how much the customers loved the food I made them.
The design is done really well, and creates a fun, but relaxing game environment, so for design, I’m rating Fruitbus as Fully Caffeinated.
ORIGINALITY
I don’t think I’ve played many other food truck style games, and the one’s I have played have all been more in the management sim category, so Fruitbus was a nice refreshing spin on a food truck game.
The combination of driving, with exploration, with a cooking sim, feels really interesting, and is not something I’ve seen done before. I also enjoyed that the food preparation side didn’t feel like a mini game, it’s just part of the process, and really made the cooking side feel more immersive.
This is a game that feels cozy and unique, so for originality, I’m rating Fruitbus as Fully Caffeinated.
THE FINAL BREW
Fruitbus is a charming game busting with wholesome and heartfelt stories. It’s definitely got it’s quirks, but is still a game that feels relaxing to play, and incorporates some really great cooking sim mechanics.
We’ve ground the beans, we’ve carefully weighed and pressed the grinds, and brewed this game down. Now it’s time for a taste test… Fruitbus is Buzzed.
Europa is available on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox now! You can find more info here
Until next time, stay caffeinated!
