Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 & PC)

Having spent the last decade or so commuting to London from the outer boroughs of the capital, I’ve probably had more than enough small talks with local cabbies to last me a lifetime. What’s more, if I had earned a penny for every time I asked said cabbies whether or not I was the final client of the day, or if they had the gift of foresight and the ability to predict the following morning’s weather report, I’d no doubt have enough to lay the foundations for my own transport side hustle. But that hasn’t quite come to pass yet, and so, unfortunately, I’m left to settle for second best; specifically, Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator.

For the record, I can drive. Having said that, with two of my kids having an annoying habit of leaving wrappers and lollipop sticks sprawled out across the backseat every other day, I can’t say I’ve ever had the luxury of enjoying being able to drive, much less the funds to fashion a Peugeot 5008 into a sleek mode of transport for a high caliber clientele. But in the world of Taxi Life, such simple pleasures are often easy to come by; there are no wrappers, and there are no chewed up and spat out lollipop fragments. In this world, it’s my car, and I have full access to each and every one of its mechanical components. What’s more, I control the aux lead; Baby Shark is but a mere speck of dust, and the sizzling hops of a Spanish quartet are in full swing. Finally.

Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator is out, and it brings with it a hearty portion of Barcelona to take a huge bite out of. The question is, is it worth scooting around in? Let’s talk.

Welcome to Barcelona

It doesn’t take a genius to grasp the concept behind Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator, much less an automotive technician to realize that, when it comes to driving a cab around the bustling streets of Barcelona, squeezing the pedal is far better than shoving it to the metal. This is not a racing game, nor is it an excuse to let loose and trolly around a booming metropolis whilst blaring your thumping beats and bashing your opponents into nearby curbsides. This is, for lack of a better word, simple, lighthearted bliss on a silver platter, and not to mention a gateway for those looking to spend a few quality hours building up a network of clients, and finding any excuse to follow the highway code.

The goal of the game is as clear as day: build a transport empire from the asphalt up, and boost your reputation by securing new parts for your ride, and locating new routes to cut down on fuel consumption. With a huge chunk of Barcelona in the palm of your hands, you, the fledging driver, will have the chance to get behind the wheel and, well, make things happen. It’s a simple setup, and one that’ll no doubt keep idle hands fairly busy, and those with a soft spot for anything even remotely cozy reclining in their seats for a handful of hours.

Starting out in Taxi Life isn’t all that different from what you would expect in another world of its kind. In a very rags-to-riches sense, the game begins with only the bare essentials: a husk of a car, and a pocketful of small change that can be poured into one of several components, be it a new set of wheels or a fresh paint job. It’s simple, to-the-point, and oh-so formulaic.

From Asphalt to the Apex

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper business simulation game if it didn’t find some way to wax your inner financial aficionado. Turns out, the game does have its admirable share of additional features to juggle, such as prime real-estate to purchase, part-time drivers to keep in check, and an entire host of personal upgrades to balance on top of your existing ones. Bottom line is, Taxi Life isn’t just your run-of-the-mill driving game; there’s a lot more to it than that, and it doesn’t take long to realize that, in order to actually succeed on the transport monopoly, you’ll first need to come to grips with several real-world problems.

When all’s said and done, the vast majority of the game is all rather straightforward and perfectly digestible, as it is more or less the case of finding your clients, and unlocking new portions of the city to plant roots and broaden your business’s growth. The only major drawback to all of this, being a driver in a densely populated city, of course, is that rules do, in fact, apply. And when I say that, I mean, you must stop at traffic lights, and you must refrain from parking in a cordoned off area on the street. Like in real life, if you fail to adhere to any of these strict regulations, then you’ll ultimately wind up with a parking ticket, a scratch on your car, or, in worst case scenarios, an unsatisfied passenger.

There is a silver lining to all of this, though: additional drivers can, and often will pick up a lot of the slack and carry out your duties for you. In other words, if you do begin to grow weary of dealing with the same old guidelines, then you can, weirdly, abandon ship. Can’t complain there.

Workin’ Nine Till Five

I have to say, the amount of detail that has been added to the actual driving experience is nothing short of exceptional. From the blinkers to the fuel tank, the headlights to the window, and just about everything else that makes up an everyday vehicle — each and every aspect somehow plays a role in your journey, and it’s your responsibility to keep each component in check and the gadgets and gizmos forever ticking forward.

Aside from the comprehensive collection of buttons and functions, Taxi Life is also in receipt of a very, very beautiful locale. It’s so aesthetically appealing, even, that it’s easy to sideline the monotonous nature of being behind a wheel during rush hour traffic and actually bathe in the sheer beauty of it all. Sure, it’s awfully dull at times — more so when your client is hell-bent on reaching the other side of the city and there’s a few hundreds cars lodged between your anchor point and the final destination, but hey — that’s what car radios are for, right? Right.

I won’t lie to you, Taxi Life can begin to grate on your last nerve every once in a while, and it’s mainly due to the fact that the AI, or the NPC drivers in this case, are about as clued up on the rules of the road as a toad is about the functionality of a spark plug. And that’s a real bummer, as the game ironically makes every effort to throw the book at you to avoid any potential accidents, yet it also happens to fail when it comes to serving the same spiel to the citizens of Barcelona. As a result of this, you have to anticipate your fair share of bumps and grazes — even when you’re playing by the rules.

Verdict

I’m not about to throw my hands into the air and say that Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator is the most exhilarating simulation game out there, because it isn’t. To put it bluntly, the game is, as the title suggests, boring — and that’s something you’ll have to come to expect when volunteering to get behind the wheel and begin your ascension as a Spanish cabbie. It has its moments, sure, and the attention to detail both inside the cab and outside of it are real boons in themselves. But at the end of the day, there are really only so many times you can pull the leather from your steering wheel whilst waiting for a slew of aggressive drivers to cross the threshold between the lights and the adjacent street.

Of course, you don’t really need the gift of foresight to be able to figure out what Simteract’s newest driving simulator entails, as it’s pretty much painted between the margins of the title in black and white. With that said, if you did have high hopes of plunging into something a little more fast-paced than the average lookalike, then you might want to consider rolling your wheel down an alternate path. Don’t get me wrong, Barcelona can be a whole lot of fun, though it all depends on whether or not you’re able to play by the rules. If you’d much rather whizz through each and every stop sign in a burning blaze of glory, however, then you’d be far better off with something like The Crew or Forza Horizon 5.