Trials Evolution Review: the Truth Behind the Title
In August of 2009 RedLynx released Trials HD; a physics-based motocross racing game in which the player treks across a straight track ridden with numerous obstacles including hill, jumps, loops, and even dynamite. Based less on realism and more on puzzle solving, Trials gives you the ability to reload at multiple checkpoints throughout each track. The player is also given the ability to create and customize their own track, using any and all obstacles available in the game.
Trials Evolution: The Awesome Evolution of Trials
Last month RedLynx debuted the sequel, entitled Trials Evolution. Trials Evolution maintained all the popular aspects of the original that made it such a success, but RedLynx didn’t stop there. Evolution is not just a name; the simplicity of the original received a serious overhaul in every facet of its awesomeness. In the time I’ve spent racing across the epic quantity of premade career mode tracks, I’ve been introduced to more new features than I could shake a stick at!
Evolution of Trials… On Your Own Terms
The most impressive piece of the trials evolution experience is the, more than expanded, track editor. The original track editor in Trials HD is completely overshadowed next to the behemoth capabilities of the new editor. It wouldn’t be extreme to compare it to the editor packaged with Little Big Planet! The new editor feels more like a streamlined modding kit, giving any player the ability to create brand new game modes; Red Lynx has already posted several creations online. The expansive editor allows anyone to create an immersive experience of their own in Trials Evolution, and I think that’s just swell.
Dressing Room Trials
Trials Evolution also expands on the customizability of its predecessor by going a step farther than multiple bikes, but you can now customize the cosmetic parts of the bike and also its rider. It would have been nice to see the ability to alter the performance of each bike, but with the large catalogue of superficial parts, it’s hard to call it a disappointment.
Riding Off Into the Sunset
The visuals in Trials Evolution are a hefty step up from the original, escaping the confines of warehouses and cave-like atmospheres and exchanging them for open-air dirt courses and woodland areas, but the environments don’t stop there, not even the slightest. The linearity of Trials is given a facelift; it’s still linear but the courses themselves take many twists and turns that at times were almost dizzying.
Trials MP
The newest improvement to the Trials gameplay is the multiplayer. The ability to compare faults and times with friends is still there, keeping friends competing and harassing one another, but the possibilities of time trial harassment have expanded tenfold. Trials Evolution has introduced multiplayer game modes that will keep fans of the series enthralled in it long after they have finished the single player. Different modes include Trials; the classic trials experience, now in real time, giving people the ability to now watch themselves pass their friends, and Supercross; pitting up to four friends on special side-by-side tracks, racing for the finish. Both these modes are very fun and entertaining. For people who enjoy taunting people as they pass them up, they may now do so in the comfort of their own homes with 4-player “couch” co-op, bringing all possible multiplayer game modes into the living room.
The Bad
The only characteristic of Trials Evolution that I found myself frowning at is the music. Trials has always been aimed at a high-octane, white-knuckle, racing experience. While Trials Evolution has more than succeeded in this, the music behind it seems a bit too generic, giving it a gimmicky, metal feel. Although this is, by no stretch of the imagination, game-breaking; so I will let it slide. But don’t you dare let me catch you using boring radio butt rock ever again RedLynx!
The Evolutionary Conclusion
The Trials experience hasn’t just changed with this sequel it has evolved, giving Trials Evolution the feeling of a new Intellectual Property, with countless new features and visuals, while still maintaining the same core gameplay and physics to invite droves of others into the ever evolving world of Trials.
