If there’s one thing I’ve come to understand from my time with Fruitbus, it’s that the thought of a food truck I chartered prowling my neighborhood fills me with unease. I’ve (playfully) bumped into cutesy anthropomorphic animals with my vehicle, startled locals by accidentally honking the horn beside them, and there might or might not be human remnants in the passenger seat. But you know what? I make a delicious carrot smoothie.

Unwinding in an Irradiated World

After spending a week in a post-apocalyptic setting for my Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review, Fruitbus has emerged as the ideal way to relax. The concept of an adorable food truck simulator seems obvious in retrospect, yet the added road trip element and customizable van make for a smooth journey to flavor town.

Apples and Oranges

Despite the simplicity of Fruitbus’ cartoonish visuals, running the named Fruitbus requires juggling multiple tasks. Your main goal is to reunite your late grandmother’s friends (and ex-friends) for one final grand feast using her former van to bring culinary joy to the Gustum archipelago’s residents. However, keeping the mobile kitchen going means ensuring it has enough fuel, an ample supply of dinnerware, and a good stock of ingredients.The importance of having enough ingredients is particularly significant. During the game’s first stage, driving from a beautiful coastal resort to a less touristy inland town, you’re mainly focused on making fruit salad. I spent more time strolling along the seafront, plucking apples from bushes and leaping from cliffs to reach lofty bananas than actually serving the food from the truck. Venturing further afield led to the discovery of zesty lemons to add to my salad, and I eventually saved enough money from selling diced fruit to purchase a shovel for digging up carrots.When it comes to cooking, you can pull the Fruitbus up to any place with people around and announce your business with a lever that rolls up the shutters and plays a catchy tune. As locals form a queue, each will approach the window and state their order – some will stick to the menu on the van’s exterior, while others have more specific cravings. Customers can also ask for a general meal like a salad but specify the required ingredients. It’s not as straightforward as just mixing ingredients together; the taste of each meal determines your payment, and finding the right combinations leads to very satisfying moments when the ‘score’ of someone’s snack adds up and turns into a good amount of money.

Shelling Out

I’m having a great time just driving around as a wandering caterer. It’s a strange economy in Gustum, and the harsher business realities mean some of your hard-earned money needs to be reinvested in the Fruitbus. Driving between towns requires stopping at gas stations for fuel, and it’s always a good idea to have a full jerry can for longer trips. Meals consume disposable dinnerware, which need to be replaced at stores where you can buy a variety of essentials and… well, not essentials. The latter includes plants and decorative mods for your van, and I couldn’t resist buying googley-eye headlights before getting any practical upgrades.I did make up for it by immediately buying a blender (just to make a carrot smoothie for a veggie-loving botanist), but the real highlight will be an extension to the interior’s tabletop that I’m currently saving up for. Cooking on the cramped one-square counter at the start is both awkward and all too familiar – I don’t know when it happened, but the desire to expand my cramped kitchen in the real world has become a major fantasy in my late-20s. Living out that dream in Fruitbus is probably the closest I’ll get to cooking in a spacious and peaceful environment, but I’ve spent all my profit on houseplants, a hammer, and those googley-eye headlights.Even if I’m not being particularly frugal with my money or organizing grandma’s final feast as diligently as I should, I’m having a blast just driving around as a nomad caterer. There’s something incredibly satisfying about cruising through Gustum and setting up shop wherever catches your eye or pulling over to explore the jungle and hunt for new ingredients on foot. I’m savoring every bite of Fruitbus – which is a fancy way of saying I haven’t finished it yet – but I’m loving every second and look forward to discovering more elaborate recipes as my adventures in Gustum continue. Bon appétit!Fruitbus is available now on PC. To discover more of what we’ve been enjoying this year, head over to our Indie Spotlight series.