Trials Evolution Reviews

  • iAmTheTotiAmTheTot104,713
    26 Dec 2012 10 Apr 2013
    17 3 2
    Redlynx's Theory of Evolution

    This review considers both Origin of Pain and Riders of Doom DLCs in its final score.

    Trials Evolution (“Trials Evo”) is a physics-based platformer game involving two things: motorcycles, and plenty of obstacles. Redlynx had a pretty good hand a few years back with this title's predecessor Trials HD, and this time around they've upped the ante. Trials Evo proudly takes the same core mechanics and gameplay of the Trials franchise and throws it back at consumers with wonderful new features.

    Gameplay is deceivingly simple: drive your motorcycle to the end of a track. The catch? The finish line may very well be on the other side of a few ramps, a lake, or mountain and you'll find yourself leaning forward, back, accelerating, and braking to overcome various obstacles in your way. Tracks are broken down into beginner, easy, medium, hard, and extreme difficulties and the game insists you begin at the beginning as you'll have to pass easier tracks before you can unlock and play harder ones. Each track has a bronze, silver, gold, and platinum medal requirement – the better you do, the better medal you get, the faster you unlock stuff.

    What kind of stuff? Trials Evo offers various motorcycles to ride with varying stats (acceleration, top speed, etc) and limited character customization. Customizing the colour of your bike parts and rider's clothes is a fun way to distinguish your character from others, as you may be seeing others while watching other players' track replays or participating in multiplayer.

    New to Trials Evo is a multiplayer aspect, pitting you directly against real life players, not just a time. This can happen on special new track types called Supercross where two to four players will race to the finish like never before, or on more traditional Trials tracks where you're racing solo, but against the other players' live ghosts as they are doing the same. For these multiplayer features, you will need Xbox Live Gold but the good news is that the rest of the online features require only Silver. This includes global leaderboards, access to player replays, and all of track central (detailed below) with a Silver account!

    A big plus in Redlynx's Trials incarnation this time around is the improved and emphasized support for user-created content. From “track central” you can access the “lite” and “pro” level editor giving you full access to the game world and mechanics to create anything from a simple to mind-boggling complex custom track. You can also access any and all tracks (and custom skill games) uploaded by others around the world for free, each one of them with their own global leaderboard and ratable (as long as you complete it once).

    Not even considering the nearly endless assortment of custom user-made tracks available, Redlynx has provided a wide selection of tracks and challenges, each of varying difficulty for beginners and experts alike to enjoy. The learning curve, however, is ruthlessly unforgiving. While the prospect of many hours of practice in order to master some levels may encourage some players to try their hardest, it may turn away many other players as they begin to encounter the staggeringly technical hard and expert difficulties.

    If you've ever played Redlynx's previous Trials titles, you'll probably immediately realize the improved environment while playing. Indeed, Redlynx has taken the game out of the dull, monotonous warehouse from previous entries of the franchise and given players a gorgeous outdoor backdrop. Additionally, while the tracks you play on are still two dimensional (forward, backwards, up, and down), for the first time Trials Evo introduces tracks that “turn,” making the experience seem more interactive. These two small changes to the game make a wild world of difference, making the game immediately a million times more enjoyable that previous installments.

    As of this review, Redlynx have released two expansions: Origin of Pain and Riders of Doom, both for 400 MSP ($5.00 USD). Each one adds an additional outdoor environment (an island and desert, respectively), additional tracks, skill games, rider customization, one new bike, and new content for creating custom levels. While they're both top notch and highly recommended if you enjoy the game, casual players may want to avoid buying Riders of Doom as it is without doubt more difficult than Origin of Pain.

    I'm hard pressed to find any reason why someone shouldn't purchase this quality XBLA game, unless you've played a previous Trials game and didn't enjoy it. The core concept is unchanged, and you wouldn't like this one either. But I highly urge new players and definitely recommend players who even remotely enjoyed prior titles to try out Redlynx's Trials Evolution.

    Summary
    Graphics: Top notch for an XBLA game with high definition outdoor environments to ride.

    Sound: Get the job done just fine, but forgettable music leads to a less than perfect score. Players who play a lot may want to consider their own music or background noise, as the same old songs and engine whine can get old fast when practicing a track over and over.

    Plot: Not a game for plot; tracks are straightforward and presented to you in “events” that you unlock by getting a certain amount of medals.

    Gameplay: Wide range of gameplay available from relaxing beginner tracks, very technical and complex expert tracks, and everything in between. “Skill games” (both retail and user-made available) offer a very wide variety of challenges, for example: backflipping as much as possible within a time limit, or guiding a marble through a maze. Seriously!

    Length/Replay Value: With each track offering bronze, silver, gold, and platinum medals, along with skills games and tournaments (several tracks in a row), a determined player can find plenty of length out of just the core game. But when considering the free access to the very intricate level editor and thousands of user-made tracks, just about any player can easily find lots of stuff to do.

    Yea or Nay? Unless you have experienced a previous Trials game and did not enjoy it, pick up this game. For 1200 MSP ($15.00 USD), it's not easy to find a better value.

    Final score: 9.0/10
    4.5
    Showing both comments.
    iAmTheTotIf you've made it this far down the page, I hope you read the review. In which case, thank you! I do not mind down-votes, but I take my reviews very seriously as I have a deep passion for both writing and gaming. So while pressing a down thumb is very easy, I beg of you to take a few moments to also comment on why you voted it down. I do not mind criticisms and you will not hurt my feelings.

    Thank you again for reading.
    Posted by iAmTheTot on 26 Dec 12 at 03:46
    WeisGuy9Extremely well written and concise. Just about right in length, and covers just about everything I'd want to know. The only thing I'd like to see added is maybe some information about the achievements available in the game. Thumbs way up.
    Posted by WeisGuy9 on 26 Dec 12 at 06:54
  • SamWich1986SamWich1986158,320
    22 Apr 2012
    20 10 2
    In terms of nuts and bolts, nothing's changed from the last game in the single-player mode. The controls and level formats follow the same basic formula of the last game. The difficulty curve and thinking behind the design has been adjusted, however. HD really was aimed at the more technical gamer who goes for really challenging, fiddly fayre.

    Evolution certainly still gets seriously challenging, but RedLynx takes a bit more time about getting there. Earlier stages focus more on faster, smoother play. You'll get through these by getting a feel for their rhythm and play feels relatively comfortable. The License Tests (tutorials) that pop up between Events (collections of races) might instruct you to do something more difficult, but things don't get too awkward until later on.

    You're also given a bit of flexibility in how you approach the game in that you need to collect a certain number of medals in order to progress and unlock later levels, but you're free to pick and choose where you acquire those medals. If you come across a particular obstacle that's seriously vexing you (and you will) there's always the option to skip the race it's in and come back to it later.

    As you progress the game changes slightly. It becomes choppier, more technical and, in places, fiendishly difficult. Here Evolution becomes more like a tough platformer than a fast racer. Difficult, near-vertical climbs and tricky bunny hops onto narrow platforms
    5.0
  • P eter van DamP eter van Dam54,615
    22 Apr 2012 22 Apr 2012
    18 12 4
    Trials Evolution is a must have game if you enjoyed the previous game, Trials HD. With much better graphics, multiplayer functionality and a sharing function to not only share self-made tracks with friends, but also any other xbox live user.

    Introduction
    Like Trials HD, you drive a motocycle with a sidescrolling view. Your task is to drive through obstacles to finish the track. The faster you go, with fewer faults, the more medals you'll earn. More medals unlock more diffecult tracks and finally finish up the game.

    Difficulty
    What made Trials HD so great is the difficulty in the game. With many checkpoints it's very addicting to play the game. However, for many players the diffeculty level was to high in HD, wich is adjusted in evolutions. In my opinion Trials Evolution is way to easy to finish. While I needed weeks of practise in the previous game, I now completed the game within three days.

    Graphics
    But the game really shines with it's new graphics. The game simply looks awesome. No longer is your view limited to just a wharehouse, it's now a beautiful outdoor scenery with unlimited amount of different styles, making every track unique and nice to only look at. Some tracks are a bit too dark, making the game diffecult to play during the afternoon. But overall it's just amazing.

    With that being said, I did need some time to get used to the turning camera what is new in this game. But once you get used to it, you'll only notice how much nicer it looks while trying to get the fastest time.


    Sound
    The soundtrack in this game is a little bit dissapointing to me. Trials HD had a few songs that really stuck in my head for days, but with evolutions just got one, saw-movie-like song that I really like. I hoped for more.

    Localisation
    One thing that really bugs me with the game is that the game is translated to my local language. I don't know how the translation is for other countries, but the Dutch translation of the game is just really bad. There is no option available to set the language to Enligsh making it diffecult to do some achievement hunting since the tracknames are badly translated.

    Multiplayer
    One great addition to the game is (local &online) multiplayer. It's great to take your skills to the test with others and see who really is the best.

    It's loads of fun, but for online multiplayer, it sometimes annoys me why my bike is shown in the back of the screen making it sometimes impossible to see what your supposed to do. Not because your bike gets smaller, its the bike in front of you that hides your bike.

    Matchmaking also could see alot of improvement. Once you finally found a group to game with, after the race that group is just gone and you have to do matchmaking all over again. Not only is this annoying, but matchmaking sometimes can take minutes or longer to complete, while the races are done within a minute or two.

    Sharing
    Another shining new function is the track sharing and downloading features. In Trials HD you were limited to just your friends tracks, allowing you to play like 4 user-made trakcs. But now, anyone can download anyones track wich brings unlimited gameplay.

    You can search on most downloaded, best voted and redlynx chosen tracks, the amount of good tracks is still hard to find. But I guess if you give the game a few weeks the tracks will become much better.

    Achievements
    Trials Evolution is the first arcade game with 400 gamerscore. If you are, like me a Trials HD gamer, the first 160 points shouldn't be a problem. The others require some practise. I'm sure that if you use TA you will be able to unlock all achievements in a few days or weeks.

    Final verdict
    Trials Evolution is Trials HD with amazing new graphics and new tracks. If you liked the previous game, even if it was a little to hard, this game is a must have. 1200MSPoints look like much, but it's really worth it for this game. I almost finished the game, in like 20-25 hours but the replay value is great if you have friends that play this game or like to improve your own score.

    I don't give it five stars because I would have liked more options like a language option and the ability to make the game brighter at some points but other then that its perfect.
    4.0
  • dancrozierdancrozier727,223
    11 May 2012 15 Nov 2022
    7 2 4
    Trials Evolution is the eagerly awaited sequel to Redlynx's smash XBLA hit Trials HD and once again it nails it. Enhancing the game without destroying the core gameplay that defined Trials HD and made it a game that you just found too hard to put down.

    Evolution smashed the XBLA record for most downloads in the opening week (quickly broken by Minecraft in the following weeks) and of those who did purchase, few where left disappointed. There is good reason for this, addictiveness is Trials playground and the gameplay is it's candy

    The same core mechanics are there, starting off with light easy to pass tracks before easing on to the moderately difficult medium tracks before harding you up with the harder but passable hard tracks before the envitable frustrating, potentially joy pad smashing extreme tracks. The gradient is a little less steep and the adding of the licenses mean you have a bit more tutorial to tackle the harder beasts. The new layout is based on medals, win so many to unlock more tracks. All in all not too diffiucult to get all tracks avaliable as you can do them out of order and include skill games and tournaments.You don't have to get stuck on one annyoing track and can come back to takle it more at your leisure.

    Some of the skill games are mighty fun and varying from trials on ski's (that judge you on flips in all) to UFO trials and even Icarus, in which see's your biker strapped with a pair of wings and you have to fly as far as you can from a bailout.

    New to trials evolution is the online multiplayer which I was looking forward to. I wouldn't say it disappointed but it got old fairly quickly and matchmaking is a bit of a pain and interrupts the smoothness. You have a choice of supercross which is 4 player side by side racing. Great fun and pushes people to make mistakes as they ride that much harder to stay ahead of you. They are on fast tracks but the intensity makes mistakes easier. I enjoyed playing with friends who often posted faster one off track times but I managed to beat them most of the time showing I was the consistant master :-). It also offers ghost racing for harder more obstacle orientated tracks and this is where I was often undone. I am prone to get stuck on an obstacle and those with better technique prevail here. All in all a good add on and enhancement to trials without detriment to the single player but it is still the single player game that brings me back for more.

    Also back are the tags of your friends, so you can see their best effort in line with your current race. This extends playability as even though you may have grabbed the gold, coming back and being top of your friends list for the track is a great incentive and a carrot on a stick.

    The achievements are a good mix, some easy, some hard and I am still a fair way off obtaining them all. However the ability of trials players varies and good players will probably rap these up fairly quickliy. I personally think they are a bit easy then Trials HD as no marathon achievement but I have more confidence of completing this one one day.Some have stayed the same such as repeat a certain track while never letting the throttle go and complete a certain tournement with no faults but they have been a bit kinder and not made it a tournemant like marathon.

    I have to also mention the different environments that Evolution offeres.Most of it's predecessor was in a dark warehouse environment, Evolution with a bigger budget has enhanced the graphics and now offers woodland settings or dirt tracks or even a take off the game lymbo which demonstrates it's 2d design. I am glad they didn't try and make this game 3d, it will lose it's core gameplay element but redlynx has stuck to the winning formulae without dropping the ball. The background and overall graphics are better and I personally found the tracks more fun and innotive with a touch of crazy thrown in.

    The track editor is also improved, I even had a go myself but still a work in process *cough* I need to make it atleast passable but it is a joy to play around with. Also at Track Central you have endless new user designed tracks, some are themed very well and very well designed. My favourite so far has been the terminator 2 track that has been designed to fit in to the scene on the motor bike down the LA river, with a pursuing crashing track thrown in so you keep your speed up. Someone did a great job recreating that scene but there are plenty more to choose from and the latest update ensure the best find the way to the top for you to try.

    If you loved trials, you'll adore evolution. If you haven't played trials hd you could still buy this and quickly get to grips with the gameplay. Again that is the beauty, everyone can play to their level and there is enough difficulty for the hard core players.

    Overall, one of the best games on XBLA if not thee best. Throughly recommended and deserving of the 5/5 rating.....

    It's trials time
    4.5
  • DTI Klr ClaudeDTI Klr Claude69,049
    17 Apr 2012 17 Apr 2012
    5 17 4
    Won the early code from Facebook! The tracks and bikes are quite forgiving so doesnt have the uber challenge feel Trials HD has but still great fun! Standout Tracks: There is a an Inception Style level which is amazing but way to short and one massive track which takes 10mins to get round (no I did have 100's of restarts)
    I think that the multiplayer and the user created tracks is where the new Trials will shine! So if you loved the first Trials this just adds more of the same with great new twisty tracks and great visuals!
    Cant wait to get the rest of the DTI crew onboard and kicking up dirt Trials style!
    5.0
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