Analysis of Taxi Life: A city driving simulator

If you want to know what it means to be a taxi driver in Barcelona, ​​don’t miss our analysis of Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator. A risky sport.

I’ll be honest with you, simulators are not my favorite genre. But unfortunately there are few occasions where we can organize a game in the city where we live. And it happened to me with Life in a taxi: a city driving simulatorr of the study Simteract and with the close collaboration of NACON. A taxi driver simulator set in the city of Barcelona.

Aside from Wheelman, a GTA attempt starring Vin Diesel, Barcelona appeared in Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery and in a Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 setting. But this is the first time that we have attempted to represent its streets on a 1:1 scale.

A beginner behind the wheel.

Our adventure begins when we arrive the taxi driver’s license through tests which serve as a tutorial. At first, the number of parts of the car that we can manipulate can be overwhelming: lights, wipers, windows, indicators, air conditioning, radio,… but when we start driving, we note that The controls are well mapped to the controller and don’t become cumbersome.

The first thing to be clear about is that This is a simulator and as such we must respect the highway code. If we run traffic lights, exceed the speed limit or cause an accident, we will receive a fine.

We lower the flag

Our shift begins and we pick up our first customer. Passengers have a patience bar that will lower if we commit violations or if we do not respond to their requests such as turning down the music, turning up the air conditioning, etc. At the end of the race we will receive experience and money. We will use experience points to level up and unlock a skill tree that will make our work easier. The money, for its part, will be invested to fill the gas tank, keep the car clean or repair it in the various workshops on the card.

As we progress, we can improve certain aspects of our taxi or even buy a new one with different features. This is where the management section appears, where we can hire other drivers to drive our cars and expand our fleet.

Crossing a Barcelona that knows few things.

Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator, as a simulator, falls somewhat short. After a few hours you have seen all its possibilities and all that remains is to continue taking people from point A to point B. On the other hand, we have the Barcelona plan, where we can explore its streets and even unlock emblematic places. in the city. In terms of cultural interest, they could have gone further and had a menu where they could have more information about these places.

and not just have your name appear on the screen.

I said we have the map of Barcelona but unfortunately the whole city is not there. We will only be able to travel in the most touristy area of ​​the city (the Gothic Quarter, the Barceloneta, Las Ramblas,…) leaving aside places like La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera or the Camp Nou.

Like life itself

On a technical level, the game is compliant if we take into account that Simteract is a studio of 60 people. If the big studios already have difficulty programming traffic and pedestrians in big budget games, in Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator we can’t wait any longer. People behave… Let’s say, unpredictable.

And vehicles, well, we find everything. If you think about it, this can be done on purpose and recreates real big city traffic: cars stopping in the middle of a street, crazy people hitting you at traffic lights, vehicles jumping signs ,… . But for a big city like Barcelona it seems very empty. If you use your imagination, you can think that a Champions League final is being played between Barça and Madrid and everyone is watching the match.

To conclude, even though the voices are in English, it is appreciated that The texts, in addition to being in Spanish, are also available in Catalan.

Conclusion of Taxi Life: a city driving simulator

Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator is a game with good intentions but it remained just an attempt. The only claim he can have is the grace to circulate in the streets of Barcelona taking into account the limited nature of his card. A curious way to learn more about Barcelona without having to leave our living room. Of course, pay attention to the rearview mirror and the requirements of your customers.