Barcelona is the protagonist of Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator, a new taxi driving simulator that arrives today on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. It is literally this: a simulator in which the player is a taxi driver in Barcelona. The goal is to pick up customers and take them to their destination while meeting their needs and engaging them in conversation.
Watching the trailers, it is surprising the level of detail with which the Polish studio Simteract has recreated every street and corner of the city. You always like to see your city represented in video games and movies. It feels like a special tingle to come across the same traffic signs that you see in your daily life or to read the names of the streets and take the taxi to those places where you usually walk.
The new Simteract recreates a total of 460 kilometers of roads in the Barcelona area on a 1:1 scale. In addition, they have also added 200 of the city's most important monuments and it is possible to drive along the Rambla, around the Parc de la Ciutadella or Avinguda Diagonal.
But Taxi Life is not about walking around Barcelona. You have a job: you are a taxi driver. And Simteract takes simulation very seriously. In fact, this Polish studio was founded in 2015 and, since its inception, it specialized in developing simulators for professionals. It was in 2018 when they started video games. So Taxi Life aims to offer the definitive experience of being a taxi driver in Barcelona.
That means players will have to learn to deal with annoying tourists, changes in weather, and rush hours. As it is a simulator, it is important to respect traffic rules, signs and traffic lights. This is not a Grand Theft Auto for Barcelona.
In addition, Taxi Life also offers a more business aspect. There is a management part where the player controls his own fleet of taxis with employees. So, apart from driving, you can also sit at your desk for a while and watch the numbers go up.
The most questionable element of Taxi Life is the translation. Despite being set in Barcelona, the only language available for the voices is English and there is no dubbing in either Spanish or Catalan, which are only available as interface and subtitle languages. This can break the experience quite a bit, especially if you are someone who lives or regularly visits Barcelona.
Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator arrives this March 7 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
